ISP Winter 1965 Taft School

In my second Independent Studies Program session, over the Winter of 1965, I worked on a paper that came to be titled, “The Rise to Power of Stalin and Khrushchev: the role of the party”. My faculty sponsor was Walter A. Foley. I honestly cannot imagine why he supported me since I was a very run of the mill achiever in the grades department. The paper reads well if not obviously the naive work of a 17 yr old. Prof. Frederick L.  Schuman of Williams College, Torrey’s alma mater, read it and described it as comparable to a Senior thesis at Williams. Seems a bit of a stretch.

I do remember the miracle of asking for books and articles at the Taft School library and have them show up several weeks later, gathered from Yale and elsewhere. Then, the arduous task of converting my handwritten drafts into a type written document including a carbon copy. Even back then I regretted never having had the opportunity to learn to type properly. My hunt and pecking technique, still very much in use, was perfected then.

Taft has published a puff piece for the 50th anniversary of ISP “50 Years of ISP” – download it here.

Download the paper (13.5 MB)