Vassar Quarterly - Fall/Winter 2019 - 44

REFLECTIONS ON COEDUCATION

William A. Plapinger | '74
My life would be very different if I had never come to
Vassar as a member of the first coeducational
freshmen class.
I come from a family of strong, independent
women, and I knew of Vassar through alumnae who
were family friends-also strong, independent women!
I would not have had to answer, at every job
interview and almost every other meeting at which
my education has come up for almost 50 years,
"Why did you go to Vassar?" The simplest answer
has always been the best-I came to Vassar to be
educated by its accomplished faculty, alongside a
group of bright and adventuresome fellow students,
on one of the most beautiful campuses, at one of the

nation's premier liberal arts colleges. And I wanted
to be a member of the "first," rather than the onehundredth-and-whatever, class!
Vassar also changed my life when, on the first day
of my junior year abroad in London, I met a fellow
student in my medieval history class. That student,
on her junior year abroad from Georgetown, and I
were married 10 years later at the Lotos Club-at the
time the Vassar Club of New York-and eventually
we spent 25 years back in London, where we raised
our three children.
And Vassar struck again in 2006, when our
daughter Lizzy, a member of the class of 2010 and
now a music industry entrepreneur and rock
musician, was accepted to Vassar. She has written to
me that, without Vassar, "I can't imagine having the
level of personal confidence and ability to express
myself ... Vassar was ... a place that allowed, even
encouraged, me to be who I wanted and understood
myself to be."
In 1988, my close friend Carol Ostrow '77
encouraged me to join the Vassar Club of London,
which eventually led to my being elected to the
Vassar Board of Trustees in 1996, where I spent the
next 22 years, the last 12 as Chair of the Board.
During those years of service to Vassar, I was
repeatedly reminded of just how wonderful this
college is, what a great education I and others received
here, how well it prepared me for my chosen profession of the law and for my life, and how many Vassar
graduates (over 7,000 received diplomas co-signed by
me as Chair), faculty members, administrators, and
fellow trustees (I served with over 100 of them) I have
met and admire and, better yet, call friends.
I know each Vassar graduate could point to as
many ways (or more) Matthew Vassar's Magnificent
Enterprise has changed their life. We are all lucky to
have gone here!
Bill Plapinger has practiced law for more than 40 years
(currently of counsel and, prior to that, as a partner) at
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, a New York-based international
law firm. He has devoted most of his time outside the
law to the nonprofit sector, focusing primarily on
education at all levels, as well as conservation.
Plapinger served three terms as Chair of the Vassar
Board of Trustees (from 2006 to 2018) after first
becoming a trustee in 1996.

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Vassar Quarterly - Fall/Winter 2019

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