QC celebrates 70th - hosts ‘pioneer’ alums

Steel-gray skies and the threat of rain did not dampen the spirits of the 14 members of Queens College’s first graduating class and other ‘pioneer’ alumni of the borough’s first public college, as they gathered to celebrate the school’s 70th birthday recently.
The group gathered in a tent not far from the memorial to the nearly two-thirds of the school’s student body who went off to fight World War II, and the 59 who never came back.
They were welcomed by the college’s current President, James L. Muyskens, who reminded them that the college opened on October 11, 1937, exactly 70 years before, and that the opening was delayed by a month because of a painters’ strike.
He was somewhat taken aback when he began to quote former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s advice to their class, and the grads joined in a chorus: “Keep your buildings low and your ideals high.”
Muyskens admitted that although his offices were now on the 12th floor, the ideals and standards would please LaGuardia. He reminded them of the school’s motto, only to be again joined by the audience in reciting the English translation: “We learn in order to serve.”
The lesson was apparently well learned. In the audience or at the rostrum were, among others, Max Kupferberg (class of ’42) noted philanthropist and benefactor to both Queens College and Queensborough Community College, Arnold Franco (class of ’43) a World War II vet who helped break the Nazi military code and funded the on-campus monument to his fellows, and Helen Marshall (class of ‘74) who taught school before entering public service as a City Council and State Assembly member and current Queens Borough President.
There was a lot of reminiscing. Dinah Foglia (’45) remembered meeting future husband Guido (’43) on the campus. “I was from Queens Village and he was from Forest Hills - if it wasn’t for school, we never would have met.” Things apparently worked out; the couple will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary this coming Christmas day.
Though the senior Foglia was too ill to attend, his sweetheart added her recollections. “We were watching the ceremonies for that first class” Foglia said. “It was a gray day like this one and Mayor LaGuardia and (then-College President Paul Klapper) were waiting to go in and the skies opened.”
Foglia recalled how the pair, though getting thoroughly soaked, would not use umbrellas. For years, no public figure would carry one, after British Prime Minister Chamberlain toted an umbrella when proclaiming “peace in our time” after a negotiation with Hitler in 1938. The German invasion of Poland triggered all-out war in Europe eleven months later, eventually drawing the U.S. and students from the college directly into its vortex.
Other “pioneer” grads were “nearly bowled over” by all the changes from the “people’s college on the hill” that they remembered. John W. Marshall (’41), no relation to the Borough President, said it felt “strange” to be back, as he surveyed the modern structures which dominated the red-tile-roofed stucco buildings of the original campus.
After the welcoming remarks and praise from speakers including Assemblymember Ellen Young and current students, nearly all the alumni spent time at the World War II monument before being escorted to a “champagne breakfast,” compliments of their Alma Mater.