Title Information
Title
Meryl Smith, class of 1966
Title Information: Alternative (displayLabel="Pembroke title")
Title
Meryl Smith Raskin, class of 1966
Name: Personal
Name Part
Smith, Meryl
Role
Role Term: Text (marcauthority)
interviewee
Name: Personal
Name Part
Pape, Whitney
Role
Role Term: Text (marcauthority)
interviewer
Type of Resource
mixed material
Origin Information
Date Created (keyDate="yes", encoding="w3cdtf")
2016-09-08
Language
Language Term: Code (ISO639-2B)
eng
Abstract
In this interview, Meryl Smith Raskin '66, remembers life as an Orthodox Jewish Pembroker. She recounts how, even before she attended Pembroke, her mother would welcome to dinner any Pembroke or Brown students who were trying to keep kosher. She fondly remembers the friendships formed around playing bridge and smoking cigarettes, and participating in Question Club, Answer Club, and acting as Class Marshal. Raskin specifically mentions interactions with Dean Rosemary Pierrel, Dean of Students Anne Dewart, Assistant Dean Gretchen Tonks, Chaplain Charlie Baldwin, Director of Physical Education Arlene Gorton, Director of Residence Sally McPherson, and Professors Henry Kučera and John Rowe Workman. She shares some general memories of the JFK assassination and the blackout of 1965. She also explains how her linguistics education at Pembroke allowed her to become a computer programmer after graduation.
Note: biographical/historical (displayLabel="Class year")
1966
Note: biographical/historical (displayLabel="Biographical note")
Meryl Smith Raskin was born and raised Orthodox Jewish in Providence, Rhode Island with her three brothers. Many of her family members attended Brown University and Pembroke College so when she graduated from Classical High School she attended Pembroke. She graduated from Pembroke in 1966 with an A.B in linguistics. She moved to Philadelphia to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania but dropped out after one semester in favor of a job as a computer programmer trainee. Raskin worked as a computer programmer until she retired in 2007.
Subject (Local)
Topic
1960s
Subject (Local)
Topic
Professors
Subject (Local)
Topic
Religion
Subject (Local)
Topic
Student activities
Genre (aat) (authorityURI="http://vocab.getty.edy/aat/", valueURI="http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300202595")
oral histories (literary works)