The 1,2,3’s of Understanding the Importance of the Classmate Fund

1.The fund will live and work for you after you have gone. It has been managed with such skill that there will be sufficient money in the fund to aid your heirs admitted to Princeton for a very long time. Classmates should advise their heirs that the Class of 1957 Classmate Fund will be there for them in the form of grants, administered by Princeton to any heir who attends the university! A trustee has just been added, who is young enough to survive all members of the class and work with Princeton to see that this happens. Shep Davis, Trustee

2. The Classmates Fund is one of our most important assets. It was created in 1986 and attained 501C3 status in 1987 with considerable legal assistance from Bill Goldstein. It has assisted many classmates and their spouses to overcome financial hurdles, not of their own doing. Its' corpus is about $2,250,000 and is presently helping five classmates and widows. Shep Davis has been President and Treasurer since inception providing investment management and financial counsel over these many years. He and the other trustees are noted on this stationery.  We owe them all a debt of gratitude.

A plan of disposition has been created for the time when the last Classmate has passed. It is detailed on our website, Princeton57.org, under the Classmates tab. The corpus remaining at that time will be available as outright grants for our lineal descendants. It will provide significant tuition assistance for the worthy recipients. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT EACH OF US FURNISH THIS INFORMATION TO OUR HEIRS, SO THAT THEY, THEIR HEIRS AND SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS ARE AWARE OF THIS POTENTIAL BENEFIT. John Wert, Class President

3. The Class of 1957 is one of great compassion, I will take this opportunity to give an example of this attribute. In 2008, my late-husband, Bob began visiting and assisting a classmate, Bob Alford, who was receiving aid from The Classmate Fund. These regular visits and communications went on until my husband died in December 2014. At that time, I decided to continue the connection with Bob. Other classmates, Fred Deming and his wife Lynne, and more recently Ken MacKenzie, shared these visits with me. Sadly, Bob died February 25^th. I like to believe the connection with the class made life a lot easier for Bob.

Truly, support for Bob of several hundred thousand dollars over two decades came from the fund AND special attention from the class individuals mentioned above illustrate the compassion noted at the beginning of this letter.

Yours Truly,

Valerie Kent w. ‘57

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Shep Davis, Trustee, wishes to  deeply thank Val Kent, the leader of the personal visits for her extraordinary commitment to Bob, above and beyond the call.

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The CF was founded in 1988 by Shep Davis and Fred Reynolds to provide for classmates and their families with dire  financial needs in their old age.  Currently we support half a dozen individuals, of which two are in Retirement Homes and two others are widows.

     To accomplish our goal we had to incorporate in the State of New Jersey and apply for tax-exempt status with the IRS.  Then raising funds is always a challenge, but strong support from Nate Bachman, Dick Fisher, Bob Kent, Murray Peyton,  and many many other classmates on an annual basis put the CF on a sound financial footing.

     In a unanimous vote of the Trustees, it was decided that when the last of the Class of '57 passes, the balance will be put in a fund administered by Princeton to provide grants for the progeny of all members of the Class of '57.  This was recorded with the State of New Jersey and the Internal Revenue Service.

The Classmate Fund has been a very popular project of our class since its creation in 1987 and has served its purpose well over the years since.  It was established for the purpose of "extending financial assistance to destitute, disabled, ill or needy members of the Class of 1957 of Princeton University, their widows and children.”