History

Never Out of Style \

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?

Meringue, of course.

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: Jil Stark ’58 GP’11 All the homemade cookies you want and the best dinner you can get in Claremont.

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.

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

brand-new president’s spouse, I also loved to cook, and I had lots of parties to plan. So Bonnie and I both had food on our minds. We stole the best chef from Collins, and off we went.

Our first endeavor was to hold a tea every weekday afternoon with all the homemade cookies that the students wanted. I gave the chef my kids’ favorite cookie recipe for Marshmallow Krispies, and they’ve never gone out of style.

Bonnie and I pored over recipes, and we planned meals that we knew our students would love. We cooked all the meals out of a normal family kitchen, and the wine and cheese were served in the family living room. The actual meal took place in a dining room that had to be considerably enlarged. Once we moved to the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, the College had a professional chef, a great staff, AND our very own dessert chef, because aren’t desserts the best part of every meal?

I remember our early speakers as if they just visited us yesterday. They always brought excitement and news with them to our campus.

Along with Blum, another early Ath guest was British writer and politician Nigel Nicholson. His mother, poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, was known for having a brief affair with Virginia Woolf. I remember the night he arrived in Claremont and told everyone that he had discovered a box of his recently deceased mother’s letters to Woolf.

He looked at all of us, lowered his voice, and then said, quietly, “these letters are very sexual in tone”—quite a proper English way to describe that relationship indeed.

On another occasion, George H.W. Bush first announced his run for president against Ronald Reagan right there in the old Athenaeum (see photo, page 13). Then he gave an excellent speech about China, where he had served as U.S. Ambassador. You can bet that we served Peking duck for dinner that night.

George Bush was not the only politician to make special announcements in our Athenaeum. After speaking in Bridges Auditorium in the late 1980s, Rev. Jesse Jackson had lunch in our new Athenaeum and told us about his call for a new term for black Americans—“African-American.” We had all of his favorite dishes for the meal, and the First Baptist Church of Pomona even provided us with homemade pies for dessert.

A meal is also an opportunity to strengthen the ties between people—and make unexpected friends, too.

After the Ath moved to its current location, we welcomed a visit from Susan Butcher, the three-time Iditarod winner from Alaska. Alaskan king crab legs were served on that occasion, and when the evening was over, Susan’s lead dog Granite, who had been a part of her presentation, trotted around the dining room in search of leftover crab meat on the tables!

On another evening, the election night of George H.W. Bush—who did not win his earlier bid for office against Reagan, but did against Michael Dukakis—the Ath served lobsters to the dinner guests, and

a few of them managed to escape their boxes (the lobsters, not the guests) and crawl around on the floor in the kitchen!

In such circumstances, the unexpected usually happens, and it did on that evening. A county health inspector arrived unannounced, but we quickly explained the situation and everything was just fine. We even invited him to stay for dinner…it is a shame he couldn’t.

The unexpected is a part of every day at the Ath—just as it is in anyone’s home. In fact, this has always been the Ath ideal: to create the atmosphere of a real home. It is a reminder of what has always been important for Jack and all the members of our community—that at CMC our priority is “students first.”

Jil ‘58 and Jack Stark ’57 GP’11 served CMC as First Lady and President from 1970-1999.