Photo courtesy of the Office of Communications

Photo by Dino Palomares

Clergyman Norman Thomas ’1905 was the Socialist candidate for president in six successive campaigns from 1928 to 1948.  He was also valedictorian of his class and had excelled in competitive debate at Whig Hall.  Throughout his life, Thomas kept close ties with his classmates, rarely missing a Princeton reunion, though his fervent pacifism prompted University President John Hibben to bar him from the campus between 1917 and 1924.  However, at Hibben’s last commencement as president in 1932, he awarded Thomas an honorary degree, as “a fearless and upright advocate of change in the social order.”  Despite his contempt for some University policies, such as the exclusion of African-American students in the 1940s, Thomas later in life declared himself comforted by “satisfaction that Princeton and the things it stands for have endured.”

• To learn more about Norman Thomas, see Café Vivian picture #119.
  
  
• To learn more about Princetonians in national service, see quotation #3, 8, 11, 17, 19, 20, 21, 33, and 41, and Café Vivian picture #5, 15, 35, 41, 42, 74, 107, 110, and 119.
  
  
• To learn more about recipients of Princeton honorary degrees, see quotation #2, 3, 8, 12, and 35, and Café Vivian picture #14, 21, 65, and 86.
  
  
• To learn more about notable Princeton undergraduate alumni, see icon #4, 5, and 10, quotation #3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 29, 33, 36, 37, and 41, and Café Vivian picture #1, 5, 7, 15, 17, 39, 41, 55, 57, 59, 74, 76, 84, 88, 99, 101, 102, 107, 110, and 123.
  
  
• For more quotations about Princeton, see quotation #19, 20, 33, 35, and 38.

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