Arnold Davis, '44 (BardCorps)
Files
Download Graduating with Jin Kinoshita (2.9 MB)
Download Working as a waiter and on the Bard switchboard (7.0 MB)
Download Social events and girls from Vassar (4.8 MB)
Download Meeting his future wife while picking strawberries (3.9 MB)
Download Working on the Board of Trustees and hiring Leon (3.4 MB)
Interviewee Role
Alumni/ae/x
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Class Year
1944
Academic Program
Music
Interviewer
Helene Tieger '85, Jane Brien '89
Description
One of two people in his graduating class of 1944, Arnold Davis decided to attend Bard on a music scholarship, for "playing fiddle." He describes his time in Bard's music department with Paul Schwartz and playing at the Astor's after dinner; working as a switchboard operator and a waiter at the dining hall in Preston; and his friendship with President Gray. He also recalls driving to Vassar to pick up girls and take them to Bard dances, despite the girls' midnight curfew. Arnold also remembers meeting his future wife Seena, a student at Hunter College, while picking strawberries in Tivoli. After graduating, he worked as a member of Bard's Board of Trustees for fifteen years, and was involved in hiring the current president, Leon Botstein. Of his time at the college, Arnold says, “it was a happy place and we worked! We were good students, I think. I didn’t know how to write an essay but that’s alright.”
Keywords
Jin Kinoshita '44; Charles Gray; Seena Davis; Tom Hayashi ‘43; United States; California; Metropolitan Opera; Peekskill, New York; New York City, New York; Guido Brandt; Peekskill High School; Oberlin College; The Juilliard School; Bard College; Clair Leonard; Paul Schwartz; Preston; Ludlow; Army; Felix Hirsch; South Hall; Columbia University; Nicholas Murray Butler; Vassar College; Hopson Cottage; Poughkeepsie; Zabriskie estate; Dick Siegal ‘43; Aspinwall; Episcopalians; Werner Wolff; Kate Wolff; Albee; Paul Schwartz; Stefan Hirsch; Bear Mountain; Tivoli; Hunter College; Leon Botstein; Army Specialized Training Program
Location
Home of Arnold Davis, Scarsdale, NY
Interview Date
3-28-2012
Interview Duration
57:39
Recommended Citation
Davis, Arnold, "Arnold Davis, '44 (BardCorps)" (1944). BardCorps -- All Oral Histories. 36.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/oral_hist/36
Rights Management
The use of any image or audio from the Bard College Archives without permission is prohibited.
Graduating with Jin Kinoshita
Coming to Bard and working as a waiter.mp3 (7124 kB)
Working as a waiter and on the Bard switchboard
Intercollegiate life and the social scene at Bard.mp3 (4956 kB)
Social events and girls from Vassar
Meeting his future wife in Tivoli.mp3 (4015 kB)
Meeting his future wife while picking strawberries
Hiring Leon Botstein.mp3 (3511 kB)
Working on the Board of Trustees and hiring Leon
Significant Quote
“... it was disappointing that I graduated and the next year they decided to go co-ed. They couldn’t wait another year? They could have done it a year earlier!”