Never Out of Style \
Jil Stark ’58 GP’11
Marshmallow Krispies, meringue, Peking duck, lobsters … the Ath has always delivered the right dishes for the right occasions. What dessert do you serve to a mountain climber?
All the homemade cookies you want and the best dinner you can get in Claremont.
Meringue, of course.
The Ath started as a dream of Donald McKenna’s (see photo, page 13) and the first project that Jack began after moving into the role of CMC president. The original President’s House, then located on the corner of Columbia and Ninth Street, became the Athenaeum because Jack and I already had a house in Claremont and three children with another one on the way.
One of the first speakers at CMC’s Athenaeum was Arlene Blum, a physics professor from Berkeley who led the first female team up the Annapurna area of the Himalayas. She sent us, in advance, enough T-shirts for all the gentlemen attending the dinner event, and the T-shirts announced “A women’s place is on top” with a picture of a big mountain displayed on the back. We loved to have meals then—just like now—that tied in with the topic of the evening. For the Blum event, the chef made the most delicious dessert of meringue shaped like a mountain. Chinese, British, Mexican, French cuisine… the Ath would have it all, the more exotic the better. Our philosophy has always been: 12
In those early days, everyone was expected to learn how to spell that word “Athenaeum” correctly. “Marian Miner Cook” was added when the Ath moved in the 1980s to its current location on campus and Mrs. Cook provided the College with the support to build the structure and endow the program (see photo, page 13). Our first director was faculty spouse Bonnie Lofgren, and she was a fabulous cook. As a
