Cornellians gathered in Stocking Hall to honor the late President Elizabeth Garrett by sharing the ice cream flavor that Garrett helped create. The Thursday event sponsored was by College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Kathryn Boor ’80, the dean of CALS, discussed Garrett’s key role in creating the ice cream flavor called 24 Garrett Swirl, describing how involved the president in sculpting the dessert.
“As we were working towards the President’s inauguration, she worked with a team here in the dairy processing plant in Stocking Hall to come up with her flavor of ice cream,” Boor said. “She, her sister and her niece sat together and tasted the different flavors that the processing plant had put together for them. President Garrett picked every single aspect of the different flavors so she could get just the one that she wanted and we arrived at this flavor.”
Garrett also included a “secret” message in the ice cream recipe, according to Boor.
“If you look at the chocolate pieces that are in the flavor, they are shaped in peace signs and hearts,” Boor said. “President Garrett picked these specifically to send a message about how she saw her role here at Cornell, to send that message of peace and love to the community.”
Boor said she believed this event was an appropriate way to celebrate President Garrett’s legacy, recounting that Garrett once told her that designing the ice cream flavor was one “the most fun times she had as President of Cornell University.”
Boor also credited many organizations within CALS for planning the event, saying the CALS Student Advisory Council decided that the gathering would be a good way to remember the president .
“We discussed this idea last week and then CALS communication team and alumni affairs and development were the ones who actually made it happen,” she said.
The event concluded with the creation of a remembrance tree, where attendees wrote their messages of support for President Garrett.
“The remembrance tree will be presented at Mann library so everyone can read the messages of support and hope and joy that we’re sharing with each other,” said Boor.