Tuesday's Tip ~ Daily Princetonian Now Online

Dick Eastman recently shared that Princeton University's The Daily Princetonian, is placing its pages online, from its creation in 1876 through 2002. If you have any family who may have been involved at Princeton University during this time period, check out this link.

I couldn't resist looking for McAlpins and Pyles and found thousands of results. I then used the advanced search, narrowing the dates to 1942-1943, and found a few results for "Pyle" which refer to my dad, who attended Princeton for only one year before entering the Air Force for WWII.

I first find Dad listed as an incoming student (in the class of 1946) in the Friday, July 3, 1942, issue. The article starts on page one, and continues on page three. I have edited it for length:

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The class of 1946 was the first for which Princeton started this accelerated program, to allow students to graduate early to join the armed forces.

It looks like Dad got involved in Princeton athletics pretty quickly. At the bottom of page one of the August 20, 1942, issue, I find that the Senior golf squad outshot a team from the (freshman) class of 1946, which appears to have included "Pyle."

We know Dad played golf his entire life and I have previously written about Dad and Golf.

He also skated and played ice hockey for several decades, the last time when he was sixty years old: he played in an alumni-student hockey game at Brooks School in the winter of 1985 with one son, a fellow alumnus, against two other sons, students on the Varsity Hockey team that year.

On page two of the December 11, 1942, issue, I find that Pyle is on the "Third Varsity Hockey" squad list until after Christmas:

On page two of the January 9, 1943 issue, I find that Pyle is still part of "Third Varsity Hockey" and needs to "get copies of practice schedule during exams at Rink."

Additional results for "Pyle" from the 1942-1943 time frame include reading recommendations:  Here Is Your War and Brave Men by Ernie Pyle.

I have yet to search for additional family members, but there are only so many hours in a day.

Not only does this university newspaper tell you about your ancestors or family members if they were part of Princeton University, but it gives you the perspective of the Princeton University student newspaper on what was going on on campus, in the community and in the world. Give it a search!