Reader Responses to Robert A. Reichley

There was an error in Anne Diffily’s very fine piece on Bob Reichley (“The Perfect PR Man,” Sept/Oct) and its description of “the University’s merger with its longtime women’s college, Pembroke.” The fact is Pembroke was already part of Brown; it merged not with the University, but with The [men’s] College, the undergraduate college for men. 

The background: Brown first admitted women in 1891, established the Women’s College a few years later, and renamed it Pembroke College in 1928. Pembroke and The [men’s] College were what were then called coordinate colleges, and these were the entities that merged in 1971. 

By the way, no one ever graduated from Pembroke. The Corporation vote allowing women at Brown permitted women to sit for Brown examinations and receive Brown degrees. So no one graduated from Pembroke College, just as no one graduated from The College.