In the fall of 1971, I was entering my junior year at Lehigh and was a member of the Gryphon Society. When I returned early with the other Gryphons for our annual weeklong training, I found that Dean of Residence Clarence "Bob" Campbell had, of course, selected six women to be Gryphons. These women, three of which were graduate students and three which were incoming junior transfers into my class, the Class of 1973, were to be Gryphons for the 169 first-year women of the Class of 1975 who would be arriving at Lehigh in about a week. (Eleven women transferred into the Class of 1973 as juniors in 1971. They were the first women to receive undergraduate degrees from Lehigh.) The next year, the number of women Gryphons doubled, and two additional members of the Class of 1973 were among the new Gryphons.
The Gryphons in those days were a living group. We had regular meetings and officers and an executive committee, selected new members, trained together, ate dinner together twice a week in the Asa Packer Dining Room, played intramural sports on the Gryphon team, and had Gryphon parties and other social events. The women Gryphons were important to me. As a man who had attended an all boys Catholic high school and then two years at an all men university, my experience with women was limited mostly to social settings such as dances and dates.
Working together with women in the Gryphon Society in pursuit of common goals, including becoming residence counselors and improving student life, was one of the most important benefits of my time at Lehigh. It enabled me to see women not just as possible romantic partners, but as colleagues and friends. This was a great gift to me and has served me well in my personal and professional life after Lehigh.
I will be forever grateful to the women who were my fellow Gryphons, three of whom remain very close friends to this day. My life has been enriched by their friendship.
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