The Philadelphia Society Turns Twenty

Keynote speaker John Silber, the president of Boston University, set a cheerful tone for the Philadelphia Society’s twentieth-anniversary meeting. “A man who would go to Philadelphia,” he announced, a la W. C. Fields, “is a man who would on principle strike a child.” Thus the mystery deepens why a group that calls itself the Philadelphia Society convenes every spring in Chicago.

Twenty years! I wonder how many of the 250-odd members and guests attending this year were at that first meeting, organized by Don Lipsett in the thick of Barry Goldwater’s year— I’ll guess thirty, or perhaps a few more. But the Philly Soc prospers in its impecunious fashion; the membership is now 321; and Don is still at the helm.

JW

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J. Wheeler

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Keynote speaker John Silber, the president of Boston University, set a cheerful tone for the Philadelphia Society’s twentieth-anniversary meeting. “A man who would go to Philadelphia,” he announced, a la W. C. Fields, “is a man who would on principle strike a child.” Thus the mystery deepens why a group that calls itself the Philadelphia Society convenes every spring in Chicago.

Twenty years! I wonder how many of the 250-odd members and guests attending this year were at that first meeting, organized by Don Lipsett in the thick of Barry Goldwater’s year— I’ll guess thirty, or perhaps a few more. But the Philly Soc prospers in its impecunious fashion; the membership is now 321; and Don is still at the helm.