Class Notes & Profiles

Chill Out

By Veronika Ruff '01

Last July, both the oldest and the youngest members of an Arctic expedition were Vassarites. Jane Plimpton Plakias ’42 met Sam Woodworth ’04 when the two disembarked from the Russian nuclear icebreaker, Yamal, to step foot on the North Pole. "We met, literally, on top of the world," said Plakias. "And we had a champagne toast to Vassar!" While the younger VCer took a "polar dip," the elder blew kisses to her ’42 classmates. "Merely because of our common experience of Vassar, an instantaneous bond was forged, and each of us was, for the remainder of the voyage, much in the company of the other," Woodworth said.