Abstract In this interview, Lorraine Estelle Adler, Brown University class of 1945, discusses her experience as a student during the war years and also touches upon the events of September 11, 2001, and the COVID-19 global pandemic. Adler begins by talking about her family background and early childhood. She describes growing up in Woonsocket, Rhode […]
1940s
Elizabeth Branch Jackson, class of 1945
Abstract Elizabeth “Betty” Branch Jackson is one of Pembroke’s early students of color. During her time on campus, she was the only Black student for over two years, but this did not stop her from being extremely active during her time there and in the years following. Jackson worked for the American Friends Service and […]
Jean Ellen Miller, class of 1949
Abstract Jean Ellen Miller tells the story of her life in this interview, which was recorded on three occasions in 2014 and 2015. In Part 1, Miller describes being a young child raised during the Depression in the home of her Scottish grandparents, following the death of her mother. She discusses how she received a […]
Elizabeth Hortense Leduc, class of 1948
Abstract In this interview, Elizabeth Hortense Leduc recounts her educational background from undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Vermont, to obtaining her master’s degree from Wellesley College, getting her Ph.D. at Brown University, and completing a fellowship at Brown through the National Institute of Health. She frequently mentions the assistance she received during […]
Constance Andrews, class of 1948
Abstract Constance Andrews begins her interview by describing her father’s Harvard Law education and her mother’s boarding school education. She explains that her father and brother both graduated from Brown University, and that her mother would keep her and her brother out of school to watch commencement in May. She remarks that it was assumed […]
Joyce Wetherald, class of 1947
Abstract Joyce Wetherald was born in 1926 and grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1943 she received the Rhode Island Regional Scholarship to Pembroke College, where she studied English. Her father was an importer of jewelry, and his business had been impacted dramatically by the stock market crash of 1929. Her gratitude for the […]
Jane E. Walsh, class of 1947
Abstract Jane E. Walsh begins Part 1 of her interview by summarizing her background including her mother’s career as Director of Standards and Planning for the Department of Employment Security in Rhode Island, and her father’s real estate business. She explains that she always knew she would go to college and Pembroke College’s close geographic […]
Elsie B. Anderson, class of 1947
Abstract In this interview, Elsie B. Anderson discusses her parents’ Swedish origins, their sixth grade-level educations, and their paths to learning English. She goes on to recall having three career options – nurse, teacher, or secretary – and choosing to become a nurse. Being only seventeen when she graduated high school, Anderson explains why she […]
Anna C. Renzi, class of 1947
Abstract In her interview, Anna C. Renzi, Pembroke College class of 1947, discusses her path to becoming the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Civil Engineering from Brown University, her career in Washington, DC, highway planning, and her personal family life. She begins her interview by recounting how her […]
Judith Vivienne Korey, class of 1946
Abstract Judith Vivienne Korey begins Part 1 of her interview by describing her family background, her and her father’s negative attitude toward her mother’s advertising job, and Providence during her early years. She goes on to explain her reasons for deciding to attend Pembroke College and the career aspirations she went in with. Korey remembers […]
Gloria E. Del Papa, class of 1946
Abstract In Part 1 of this interview, Gloria E. Del Papa begins by describing her relationship to her father, an immigrant cement business owner, her role as a “typical Italian daughter,” and how her father insisted she go to Pembroke College. When discussing her life at Pembroke, she speaks about her academic record, the discovery […]
Alice Mary Clark, class of 1946
Abstract Alice Mary Clark begins her interview by briefly describing her childhood on Charlesfield Street in Providence, Rhode Island. There is some trouble with the recording and Clark picks up with an anecdote of a post-graduation opportunity in the speech department with Sock and Buskin director, Janice Vanderwater. She explains her love of speech and […]
Jean McKaye Tanner, class of 1945
Abstract In this interview, Jean McKaye Tanner discusses life on campus during World War II. Tanner was engaged to be married while at Pembroke and she recalls her urgency to marry her fiancé, Knight Edwards, because of time constraints put upon them by the war effort. Knight Edwards, who was in the Reserve Officers’ Training […]
Hilda Antoinette Calabro, class of 1945
Abstract In this interview, Hilda Antoinette Calabro begins by sharing some family background and explaining her reasons for attending Pembroke College. She recalls being supported by her family and having the freedom to choose what she wanted to do with her college education. She describes the difficult of being a city girl – a female […]
Dorothy Myrtle Kay, class of 1945
Abstract In this interview, Dorothy Myrtle Kay begins Part 1 by describing how she started her first job at her parents’ business while she was an undergraduate student at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. She then recalls transferring to Pembroke College and the difficulty of working and taking courses in the new trimester program that […]
Beverly Adele Moss, class of 1945
Abstract In this 2018 interview, Beverly Adele Moss, Pembroke College class of 1945, discusses her family upbringing, time at Pembroke College during World War II, and subsequent career. A trailblazing woman for her time, Moss discusses her experience serving on planning and preservation commissions in New York City, and thusly how Pembroke was an influential […]
Marcella F. Fagan, class of 1944
Abstract In Part 1 of this interview, Marcella F. Fagan recounts her acceptance to Pembroke College in 1940 and her experience as a “day hop” or “city girl.” She describes the effects of World War II, including rations on food and gas, a social life that included few men, the Pratt & Whitney aircraft company’s […]
Judith Weiss, class of 1944
Abstract In this interview, Judith Weiss, undergraduate class of 1944, discusses her decision to attend Pembroke College and describes her roles as assistant editor on the Pembroke Record and Brun Mael, and her participation at the Brown News Bureau. She also mentions her involvement in the National Youth Organization, the Neighborhood Youth Corps, and her […]
Hope Ballinger, class of 1944
Abstract Hope Ballinger begins her interview by explaining that her aunt’s graduation from Pembroke College in 1902, and her desire to become a nurse, influenced her decision to also attend Pembroke. She says that as a city girl – a female day student who attended Pembroke but did not live on campus, she missed out […]
Elizabeth J. Pretzer, class of 1944
Abstract At the start of this interview, Elizabeth J. Pretzer describes what it was like to attend Pembroke College while living at home with her family in Providence. She explains her decision to major in Geology and remembers some of the geology field trips she took as an undergraduate. Later, she discusses earning her Ph.D., […]
Ruth Ellen Bains, class of 1943
Abstract Ruth Ellen Bains begins Part 1 of her interview by highlighting her family background and her early education in the Lincoln, Rhode Island, public school system. She explains that she only had two colleges to choose from and decided to attend Pembroke College. She briefly describes living in a dormitory and her first impressions […]
Marjorie Marianne Roffee, class of 1943
Abstract In this interview, Marjorie Marianne Roffee explains that while she grew up in Providence, she desired to pursue journalism at Syracuse University in New York, which she did for two years, until she spent her junior year at Pembroke College where she finished out her college education. Approximately one third of the interview is […]
Justine Tyrrell, class of 1943
Abstract In Part 1, speaking fifty five years after her graduation, Justine Tyrrell begins her interview by noting that she is one of seventeen family members to graduate from Brown University. She states that she always knew she would attend Pembroke College and recalls asking Dean Margaret Shove Morriss for a scholarship. She briefly discusses […]
Enid Wilson, class of 1943
Abstract In this interview, Enid Wilson begins by describing her family background, her father’s professorships at Massachusetts School of Technology and Harvard University, and her childhood in Brookline, Massachusetts. She explains why she chose to attend Pembroke College and shares pieces of her interview process with Dean Margaret Shove Morriss. She recalls the buildings that […]
Arlene Burnice Rome, class of 1943
Abstract In this interview, Arlene Burnice Rome discusses being a City Girl and the difficulties that posed for her. She remembers the inability to form deep relationships and the detached experience she had at Pembroke because she lived off campus. She laments passing the French proficiency test because she was eager to learn more about […]
Elizabeth Susan Weatherhead, class of 1942
Abstract Elizabeth Susan Weatherhead begins her interview with a brief family background, noting that her father attended a boy’s school in Barbados while her mother attended a girl’s school in Canada. She explains that having grown up in Barrington, Rhode Island, she was familiar with Pembroke College and was given the same opportunities as her […]
Sophie Pearl Schaffer, class of 1941
Abstract In this interview, Sophie Pearl Schaffer begins with a description of Pembroke Hall including the history of its development and the support of President Elisha Andrews, the layout during the late 1930s, and the administrators who worked there. She provides similar descriptions of East House, East Hall, Alumnae Hall, and the John Hay Library. […]
Penelope Claire Hartland, class of 1940
Abstract Penelope Claire Hartland begins this interview by focusing on her education. She describes her academic achievements at Pembroke College, as well as the significance of being the only Pembroke student to concentrate in economics. She details her educational and social experiences at both Pembroke and Radcliffe, where she received her Ph.D. The interview then […]