1 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign ...

Q: You might explain what the Garfield Club was.
MILLER: The Garfield Club was intended for those who were not taken into fraternities.
Some few went to the Garfield Club because they were opposed to fraternities on
principle. It was a social center that had some of the amenities of the fraternity houses for
those that weren’t in fraternities. There were a few who, on principle, didn’t want to
belong to them, but not many. In the 50’s, most Garfield Club members were either Jews
or outsiders or misfits in the terms of Williams society. Nonetheless, the fraternity system
as it existed then was seen by most Williams men as an injustice, unnecessary. Then a
significant social change took place when I was at Williams – complete rushing.
Actually, I was one of the leaders of the group appointed by the student council to
consider doing away with fraternities. I was an author of the report summarizing a study
that had surveyed other colleges and universities on this question of the place of
fraternities in a modern liberal arts college, particularly in eastern colleges and
universities. As it happened I later married – this is getting ahead of the game – a niece of
President Jack Sawyer who carried out the abolition of all fraternities.
Q: Oh, yes, he was president of Williams. I am thinking of what I heard, today Williams is
considered one of two or the top three elite liberal arts schools. Something like 75%
graduate with honors. The Gentleman’s C has long has left, but in your time how did you
find the attitude towards people who were coming in? Were they exceptionally bright or
was it a good mix, or how did you find this?
MILLER: I think my classmates were exceptional, and very bright. The Gentleman’s C,
however, was the norm. Many could have done much much better but it was an
acceptable norm mostly for those on the way to Wall Street as a broker or a banker.
Q: Or advertising, in my time.
MILLER: Yes, advertising, the next largest group in my class were lawyers. Government
service or teaching were the professions of only 5% of my class.
Q: Way down.
MILLER: 5%, so I was in that small group. I would say my classmates were as good as
the students are now. There were a number of legacies, so-called, but there still are, and
the legacies on the whole were as good as anybody else.
Q: Legacies being the children of previous graduates.
MILLER: And the relations of graduates and many of whom were donors loyal to the
college because of what it gave them, their experience of learning at one of the best
provincial New England colleges.
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