Princeton Class of '72 Is Little Changed From '62
By Henry Allen
L. A. Times/Weshingles Port Service PRINCETON. N.J. They started coming back last Thursday with the beer and the Dixieland bands and the boaters that fleck the lawns of Princeton University every June from grand old time travelers, class of ought-something, caning down Nassau Street, to a different little pack from "71, not quite sure if they rate the status of alumni.
In the middle of the depredations of the 1960s Midwestern ROTC buildings aflame, black Panther rallies, hair, drugs, college kids trashing local store windows Princeton has kept relatively cool and unruffled..
And so have the gradu ates of 1962, convening for their 10th reunion, a lot of them carrying copies of a 10-years-after yearbook
called "62 in 72" that contains statistics on how and what 400 of them, their wives and, for comparison, 150 members of the class of 72 are thinking, earning, having sex with, getting high on and voting for.
“MODERATION IS PERHAPS the most noteworthy feature of a Princeton man 10 years out," says the introduction. "He has changed, to be sure, but not too much. The Princeton man has gravitated to an Eastern or Midwestern city or suburb. There he lives in a house he can't quite afford; and, like the man himself, the house will prob-
ably have a colonial facade with a contemporary interi-
or.
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It's no surprise that 67% of the class of '62 works in the whitest of white collar jobs law, education, banking, finance, medicine or science, with very few soiling their hands in commerce or manufacturing; that John V. Lindsay is their leading political "hero," although a plurality wants to vote for Nixon this fall; that tennis and swimming are their favorite sports; that they prefer to drive Porsches, Volkswagens, Volvos and Mercedes-
+
es, and smoke Marlboro or Camels; that 45% read Time, with Newsweek second at 17%
What's surprising is that the 150 polled members of the 10-years-younger class of '72 reported nearly identical preferences in the same areas except the leading plurality wants to vote for McGovern, and 91% want to be doctors, lawyers or educators.
THE BIG DIFFERENCES are in drugs and politics. The class of '72 was more active in both pro-and anti-administration politics
than '62, which graduated in an age in which the major political posture among educated young men was apathy, tinged with disdain for such rabid radicalisms and integration marches. Only 27% of '72 has never used drugs, compared with 60%
of '62.
Maybe the surprise about '62 is average incomes. All these years, America has taken for granted the existence of a cabal of Ivy League gentlemen who have a direct line to the U.S. mint. But about a third of '62 earns salaries and bonuses of less than $15,000
a year. Even combined with have a net worth greater investments, inheritances than $200,000, with most of and the salaries of their edthose over $300,000 ucated wives, those incomes are less than $30,000 in 75% of the replies.
About half the class has a net worth of less than $50,000. Maybe their best years are ahead, though. The class of '47, in its 25threunion book, reports 50%
Only 2% of 'f, has been divorced; 80% is married, for an average of seven years, apparently unscathed by a 24% extramar ital sex rate with a 4% reporting experience in group sex and 4% in homosexual sex.