Dropping the Watch

I read with great interest your coverage of the watch drop from the chapel tower (inside front cover, summer 2016).

I was Class of 1955, and my father, Edward L. Reed, Class of 1916, told me while I was there that he initiated that tradition by tossing an Ingersoll pocket watch, which men then carried on a chain across their chest. It was apparently hard to break them. I have two granddaughters who recently graduated from Williams—Kelsey Leonard ’15 and Molly Leonard ’16, on the 100th anniversary of her great-grandfather’s graduation. Incidentally, my daughter Story Reed Leonard is Class of 1984. That is a nice line of the Reed family at Williams.
—Alan L. Reed ’55, Villanova, PA.