Beverly Anne Calderwood begins this interview by explaining her parents’ self-made careers—her father’s opening of an iron foundry and her mother’s self-education. Calderwood describes her two-year experience as a Pembroke College city girl– a female day student who attended Pembroke but did not live on campus, Pembroke’s regulations and “gracious living” practices, and organizing a dormitory for commuting students.

Initially intending on majoring in math, Calderwood recounts her mid-college switch to English literature and the following satisfaction with her bold decision. She reflects on the Pembroke-Brown merger, May Day, Ivy Day, graduation ceremonies, and the pressures and challenges of writing a graduation speech as the senior class president.

In Part 2, Calderwood discusses advising, the importance of Convocation and chapel, her involvement in volunteer and political work in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and her feelings about having attended Brown.