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BARNARD COLLEGE
It Takes Magic To Put
Barnard
Over The Top
Story
By Nina Boxer
Photos
By
Tim Boxer
NNA QUINDLEN Class of ’74
was excited to be back at her alma mater for Barnard College’s 13th
annual awards dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. “They made
me what I am today,” said Quindlen, a former New York Times columnist
who now writes for Newsweek.
She credits her success as an
opinion columnist to her teachers at Barnard who, she said, taught her
that “reasoned and well-informed opinions are not only welcome but
necessary.”
Barnard, she said, taught her
to be unafraid to meet the challenges of life, “I have a degree in
unafraid,” she chuckled.
Another graduate, Gayle F.
Robinson, was effusive in praise of the school. Now chair of the board of
trustees, Robinson said Barnard, located at 3009 Broadway on the Columbia
University campus, is the longest running show on Broadway.
“We were on Broadway long
before Cats. And it’s harder and harder to get seats. For every
one seat available there are eight applicants. We can choose the best and
the brightest,” said Robinson, who today is executive director of Global
Cash Management and Trade Finance Sales in North America for Citibank.
President Judith Shapiro, who
affirmed that Barnard is the most sought after women’s college in the
country, presented the Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger Award to Karen Katen,
president of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals U.S.
Shapiro praised Katen: “You are
Pfizer’s pep pill.”
That reminded us about the story
that went around when Pfizer’s miracle drug impacted on a weary
population. John and Harry came to their respective homes after a hard
day’s work. One wife said, “John, buy Viagra.” The other said,
“Hurry Harry, buy Pfizer.”
Shapiro presented Sumner
Redstone with the Frederick A.P. Barnard Award, named for the person who
helped found the institution, which opened in 1889.
“I’ve always believed,”
Redstone said, “that education is not a privilege but a necessity.
School taught me to live creatively. Nothing counts but excellence and
achievement.”
Redstone is a living example of
such credo, having succeeded as chairman and CEO of Viacom, which includes
Paramount Pictures and Paramount Television, Blockbuster, MTV, Showtime,
Simon & Schuster among other properties.
Dinner chairman John L. Furth,
vice chairman of Klingenstein, Fields & Co., investment management,
announced that the evening raised $1,050,000 for scholarship support,
slightly short of last year’s total.
“Alan Greenberg is an amateur
magician,” Quindlen said. “At dinner I am going to ask him to show me
how to turn a quarter into a dollar, which should help our endowment
fund.”
“Ace” Greenberg, head of Bear
Stearns, may be a magician, but in the end it was Redstone who summoned
his own magical qualities to conjure up coinage that put the grand total
over the top and made this event a record breaker.
Sumner turned to the college
president and said, “This can’t be the second best dinner. I’m
pledging an additional $60,000.”
The
final sum of $1,112,150 raised from the 549 guests still did not satisfy
Furth. After all, he is treasurer of the Barnard board of trustees. “I
want to remind you,” he said, “that records can be broken, even this
one.”
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