Harvard '26

What are Harvardmen really like once they get out into the world? This week, in one of the most comprehensive class reports ever published--Harvard 1926, the Life and Opinions of a College Class, by Cornelius DuBois and Charles J. V. Murphy (Harvard University Press; $2.50)--readers could find out just what happens to Harvard's old grads in 25 years of worldly endeavor.

The Class of 1926 went through college during the Coolidge boom, when the Yard was also booming with such great names as Charles Townsend Copeland, George Lyman Kittredge, Bliss Perry and Irving Babbitt. But only a handful of the 745 have become headliners (among them: Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, This Week Editor William Ichabod Nichols), and far more have made the Social Register (23%) than Who's Who in America (8%). After 25 years, the average Harvardman, '26, has become a happy, prosperous gentleman with a goodly share of virtues and some surprising vices.

Falling Hair & Psychiatry. Time has treated him fairly well; at an average age of 46, he admits to being grey-haired (43% of the class), to worrying a bit about falling hair (27% are bald), but generally, he has his teeth (16% have some false teeth). He may have had a nervous breakdown (5%), undergone psychiatric treatment (12%), and been divorced (13%). A few of his classmates (1%) admit to having cheated on their income tax. Another 1% have fathered illegitimate children, 5% have kept mistresses. One old grad hinted that he was an embezzler. Another served a sentence for planting a stink bomb in the ventilating system of the New York Stock Exchange.

Chances are that the average member of '26 is married (91%), has two children, and owns his own home (75%). He owns twice as many cars as the average American, and makes almost four times as much money (median income: $11,900). After 25 years, the favorite profession is the law (14%); the next is teaching (8%). Teachers make the least money; admen and manufacturers (2% and 9% respectively) make the most. There are men in the class who can do almost anything, says the class report, except "dig ditches, run an elevator, operate a lathe . . . repair a television set, press clothes, cobble a worn pair of shoes, or hoe the corn."

Church & Canasta. In college, more than half the class was of Republican background. Today, the ratio runs about the same--Republicans 56%, Independents 26%, and Democrats 16%. But 33% of the erstwhile Republicans have become Democrats, and 30% of the Democrats have become Republicans. One out of 20 men still votes Socialist.

In their well-appointed homes (seven out of ten have radio-phonographs and washing machines), Harvardmen play canasta and bridge, and worry about war with Russia and atomic bombing. Only three out of ten go to church with any regularity, but six out of ten believe in God. One out of five has written a book, and one out of ten has run for some sort of public office--from justice of the peace to President (Eugene Daniell, who ran in 1932 on the Commoners ticket--a shortlived organization of Bostonians, dedicated to the promise of a living wage for everyone).

All in all, they are a busy group who make more than their share of radio speeches (25% have done so in the last two years) and give their share of press interviews (38%). They are happy (83%), and nine out of ten are very glad they went to Harvard.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.