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Pioneer Profiles Archive
Where we started…. We were indeed pioneers at Princeton. For better, and sometimes for worse, our unique experiences as Princeton "co-eds" shaped us, and just maybe helped shaped the trajectory of coeducation in future years. We wonder how much the filter of 45 years has tempered, clarified, maybe altered recollections of those years. We all recall searching for scarce women's rest rooms in academic buildings. Being the sole woman in many a class, not to mention being put on the spot by even well-intentioned professors to represent the "women's perspective." Chris Loomis' eloquent Reunions Reflections blog post mentions admissions of surprise and dismay expressed by women classmates, even among those who overall had a wonderful experience. She also recalls sitting next to an elderly alum at her eating club, who promptly got up and moved to a different table. Humorous notes abound as well. Daryl English recalls being sent on a Student Odd Jobs agency gig serving cocktails at a nearby tennis club, expressly to act as an ambassador to diehard coeducation opponents among alumni in attendance. Nothing a few shared scotch-and-sodas couldn't resolve with surprising ease. Press Spotlight on Lizz Plater-Zyberk Daryl English - 11/13/2020
Lizz and partner/ husband Andrés Duany ('71) are featured in the 9/14/20 edition of the Washington Post Magazine for their influential thinking and work in climate-adaptive architectural design. The article is titled "A New Gold Standard for Green Architecture," and you can read it here. As the author notes, Lizz and Andrés have repositioned themselves as a think tank "pondering the biggest architectural questions of the day." In a recent phone conversation, Lizz also graciously shared more details about the team's journey over the past ten years toward integrating climate realities into pragmatic design.
Vera Marcus – Portrait in Activism and the Arts Daryl L. English - 9/9/2020 Vera is one of our classmates featured in the Lewis Center's theater project, currently on hold due to COVID and likely to be completed as a film this fall (details to follow when we have them). Our previous brief post focused on the "Black Fire Theater" program Vera founded in Birmingham, Alabama, following graduation. Broadening the focus now reveals a story deeply rooted in her family history in the segregated South of the early 1960s. Vera's lifelong activism brings very personal witness to the recent months of "Black Lives Matter" protests for racial justice and hopes for sustained momentum. Asked her advice for all of us in these turbulent but hopeful days, she paraphrases John Lewis in saying, "When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just…. speak up, say something, do something." Jerri Donovan – Expat's Journey from North Quincy to Japan Daryl L. English - 9/9/2020 Fueled by a passion for Japanese art rooted in childhood, Jerri's journey by way of Princeton and 25 years in NYC brought her to Japan as a big-pharma attorney in 2004. Recently "retired" by virtue of her most recent employer's age policies, she now runs her own company, affording her new flexibility and cherished time to pursue her passions, including those still to come! The first part of her profile tracks the particulars of Jerri's journey, drawing on a lively hour-long WhatsApp chat in August. Even better is the Q&A second part that provides Jerri's own colorful commentary about the professional and personal communities she has carved out for herself in Japan – along with her insights into the Japanese COVID experience, and Japanese views on the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. and its own struggles with racial injustice.
Helena Novakova - Her Story September 2018
Helena in 2023 on her most recent ’72 Grand Tour of her homeland While we are all pioneers in the eyes of the university and the legions of women who followed us, one of our members surely deserves special accolades for pushing boundaries and overcoming challenges most of us could scarcely imagine. Yielding to entreaties from fellow '72 travelers on the Czech Republic trip she led in May, Helena Novakova has written the nucleus of the amazing story of her personal odyssey from Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia to the West and beyond, which she shared in fascinating bits-and-pieces during the two-week Grand Tour of her home country. [Editor’s Note: and again with ’72 “Czech-Mates” in 2023.] Here's the brief snapshot Helena shared in the email she sent along with her story. I realize that the part that makes the weaving of the story additionally interesting has to do with the fact that my father and mother were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire but matured in the first Republic of Czechoslovakia; I was born in post-war Czechoslovakia and grew up in communist Czechoslovakia, one of my children was born in Peru, and the other in Kenya and we live in the United States – I have crossed the continents as well as the equator numerous times and at this point I am sorting out the impressions I have accumulated.
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