The Round Robin bench in Marston Quad offers a place for current students to build connections much like the ones that bind the 1957 classmates. Photo by Jeremy Mitchell ’27
The first letters eight classmates wrote to each other after graduating from Pomona College cost only three cents to mail. Today, the stories they’ve exchanged by post for the past 60 years are priceless.
Pomona alumnae captured the evolution of their lives in letters, which became a kind of collective journal. “It was our way of saying: Here’s where I am, and here’s what matters to me,” Mary Furgerson Brubaker ’57 said.
The eight women—Edith “Edie” Grant Andrew, Judith “Judy” Tallman Bartels, Gabrielle “Gabie” Berliner, Kathryn “Kitty” Bownass, Mary Furgerson Brubaker, Carolyn “Kaki” Barker Conner, Martha Livingston Perritt and Barbara Pendleton Wimmer, all from the Class of 1957—became friends at Pomona.
After graduation, they created the “Round Robin Letter Club” as a way to stay connected—one friend writing her updates then sending to the next. “At one point, we were on four different continents and on both coasts of the U.S.,” Conner said. “But the letters always made their way around.”
The plaque beside the Marston Quad bench honors the eight members of the Round Robin Letter Club.
When two members of the group passed away, they made a collective gift to Pomona and dedicated a bench on Marston Quad as a lasting tribute.
“These alumnae turned their friendship into a lasting legacy,” says Director of Alumni and Family Engagement Monika Moore ’03, “and we’re so proud to celebrate the spirit of community that defines our Sagehen family.”
Handwritten letters kept members of Pomona’s Class of 1957 connected for more than 60 years. Pictured in their senior photos: Edith Grant, Judith Tallman, Gabrielle Berliner, Kathryn Bownass, Mary Furgerson, Carolyn Barker, Martha Livingston and Barbara Pendleton.