Sam Gelfman: Rhee Elected First President of Princeton Club of Korea

I'm a Princeton alumnus, class of '53. Shortly after I finished school in south Jersey, I was drafted, somewhat trained, and sent to South Korea. Within minutes of being ordered to 8th Army Hq. in Yongsan, I ran into a fellow Princetonian (Dick Murphy '52, I think) who explained that a Princeton reunion was to be held to establish a Korean Alumni Association branch and honor Dr. Synghman Rhee, P.U. Graduate School, I believe class of 1905, (he was elected president of the Korean branch by voice vote, there and then and presumably for life) and every Princeton graduate to be found on the Korean penninsula was dragooned to the occasion. I attended. In a dinning [sic] room in Mrs. Rhee's Yongsan Hotel we stood, sang "Bid every voice...", and solemnly waved our hands over our hearts. Fifty years ago and still one of the most surreal events of a fairly eventful life. Certainly one of a kind.

Sam Gelfman '53