The Senior Alumni

Evelyn Richmond and Arsen Charles Photograph by Jim Harrison

Evelyn Richmond ’41, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Arsen Charles ’42, of Westwood, Massachusetts, were the oldest Radcliffe and Harvard alumni present on Commencement day. HAA president Margaret M. Wang ’09 publicly honored the pair at the association’s annual meeting.

For Richmond, who turned 98 in June, it was a distinction she also enjoyed last year (see July-August 2018, page 75). “There are so many people here,” she said, gesturing from her seat near the dais in Tercentenary Theatre, as crowds of alumni, graduates, guests, and others were funneling in to hear the Commencement address by German chancellor Angela Merkel, LL.D. ’19. “But I’m pleased to at least shake hands with the new president of Harvard.” She was again accompanied by her son, Clifford Richmond ’75, who explained, “Every time we come here, when we leave, Mom says, ‘Let’s do it again next year!’ It’s all the pageantry, the people, it’s wonderful—and she’s an honored guest, which she loves.”

Charles, 99, was flanked by his wife, Marie Charles, a Vassar graduate, who said that she and her husband both felt duly celebrated. “We just love coming here,” she added. “Everyone has just been so nice.”

You might also like

Studying ChatGPT Like a Psychologist

Cognitive science helps penetrate the AI “black box”

Reparations as Public Health

A Harvard forum on the racial health gap

Unionizing Harvard Academic Workers

Pay, child care, workplace protections at issue 

Most popular

Diagnosis by Fiction

The “Healing Quartet,” by “Samuel Shem,” probes medicine—and life.

AWOL from Academics

Behind students' increasing pull toward extracurriculars

Studying ChatGPT Like a Psychologist

Cognitive science helps penetrate the AI “black box”

More to explore

Darker Days

The current disquiets compared to Harvard’s Vietnam-era traumas

Making Space

The natural history of Junko Yamamoto’s art and architecture

Spellbound on Stage

Actor and young adult novelist Aislinn Brophy