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WITHIN THE FAMILYColumbia250: A Time for CelebrationBY ALEX SACHARE '71Next month, Columbia begins a year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of its founding as King’s College in 1754. There will be special events, symposia, books and a film to mark this special occasion, and it’s a great chance for Columbians to reconnect with their school, learn more about its history and become involved in shaping its future.
To mark the launch of Columbia250, we bring you this special issue of Columbia College Today, which we call King’s College Today. We hope you like the wraparound cover, depicting the King’s College campus as it appeared in 1754, and that you will find the news story and Columbia250 calendar (pages 6–7) to be useful. Keep in mind that all events are subject to change and that others will be added as the year goes along, so for the most current information, please log onto www.c250.columbia.edu. In keeping with the historical theme, we present a special word search on page 87 built around the names of Columbia’s presidents. We hope you enjoy this puzzle; we will present others, in various formats, during the next year. Highlighting King’s College Today is a special excerpt from Barnard Professor Robert McCaughey’s new book, Stand, Columbia, a scholarly history of the University. This excerpt, which appears as a 12-page special section beginning on page 39, traces the contentious history of Columbia’s founding from a glimmer of an idea to its realization more than a half-century later. The twists and turns of this story and the portraits of the people involved are fascinating, and I suspect the tale is not widely known, even within the Columbia family. We plan to present additional Columbia250 special sections during the next year, and all will be found in the center of the magazine. Future sections will include essays on Columbia’s signature Core Curriculum by professors J.W. Smit and Wm. Theodore de Bary ’41 and an illustrated timeline tracing major events in University history. Together, we hope these sections will add a dimension to your understanding and appreciation of alma mater. One of the buzz phrases around Columbia250, which
you will see in much of the advertising designed
to raise awareness of the celebration, is “Another
Columbian Ahead of His/Her Time.” Sadly, two
such Columbians passed away as we were preparing
this issue. When we included news of Shenton’s death in the July issue of our electronic newsletter, we asked alumni to submit recollections for upcoming issues of CCT. Some replies were brief, some were expansive, but all were testaments to an extraordinary man. We are pleased to present some of them in this issue (see pages 20–23) and invite all alumni to share their thoughts with us: 475 Riverside Dr., Ste 917, New York, NY 10115-0998 or cct@columbia.edu. We will publish more remembrances in upcoming issues. Shenton was the subject of a cover profile by Eric Wakin ’84 in the Summer 1996 issue of CCT. It was a fascinating portrait that we are pleased to reprint. Another Columbian ahead of his time was Leonard Koppett ’44, who passed away on June 23 at 79. Koppett, who was honored by both the baseball and basketball Halls of Fame, was perceptive, analytical, erudite and thought-provoking, whether he was writing for a daily paper or authoring seminal books on the histories of the sports he loved most. He was the professor of the pressbox, his trademark briefcase by his side containing just the right data to support his insightful analyses. One of my cherished childhood memories is of my father coming home from work to our Brooklyn apartment every evening and handing me an armful of newspapers so I could eagerly turn to the sports sections, knowing he was nurturing my love for sports and my appreciation for the craft of writing. I grew up reading Koppett and colleagues like Leonard Schecter and Milton Gross, and I had the good fortune to get to know Koppett through the years when I worked at AP, the NBA and now here at Columbia. Koppett’s work was “old school” in the very best sense of the word: thoroughly researched, thoughtful, well-reasoned and presented clearly and logically in a style that was clean and unfettered. Koppett was substance, not sizzle. An editorial about Koppett that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 24 said, “Few ever graced their profession with the insight and elegance of the 79-year-old sportswriter … In a world filled with pampered players and unchecked egos, Koppett was that sports rarity: a scholar and a gentleman.”
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