Graduated In First Class, Granddaughter This Year

One Michigan family whose history has a particularly close link with the University’s 100 years in Ann Arbor will be well represented at the celebration this month. Miss Jeanne Pray, granddaughter of George Washington Pray, a member of the University’s first graduating class, will become an alumna at this year’s commencement, for she is a member of the class of 1937. The first Pray to graduate from the University entered in the year that the school opened its doors in Ann Arbor (1841) and finished in 1845. He is well known to Michigan alumni for numerous excerpts from his diary which have been published. In that diary he wrote vividly of life in Ann Arbor in the early ‘40s. He died in 1890 at Woodard lake in Ionia county. Three Children Students Two sons and a daughter of G. W. Pray attended the University, and those sons, Dr. Frank F. Pray, ’15, father of Jeanne, and Dr. George R. Pray, ’00, both of Jackson, will come here to participate in the celebration which begins June 14. Mary Katherine Pray, ’34, was the first granddaughter to enter and graduate from the University. She is the daughter of George Pray and now lives in Davenport, Ia. She was best known on campus for her work in Play Production performances. Her cousin, Jeanne, who takes her degree this year, has been with the Hampstead Players here and is a member of Omega Upsilon, dramatic sorority. She also has sung with the University Choral Union. Thus the very beginnings of the University are linked with the immediate present in the persons of its sons and daughters. IMAGE TEXT: SPAN UNIVERSITY’S HISTORY: Miss Jeanne Pray, a member of this year’s University graduating class, is the granddaughter of George Washington Pray, who entered in 1841 and graduated with the first Michigan class in 1845. Two sons of Mr. Pray will participate in the celebration this month of University’s 100 years in Ann Arbor.