February 29, 2012

Leap Year Birthdays and Anniversaries Will Be Celebrated in Princeton Today

Leap Year Birthdays

THEY’RE REALLY JUST TEENAGERS: Princeton University colleagues David Dobkin and Kristina Miller were both leap year babies, which means that officially, he is turning 16 today, and she is turning 14. And at the Nassau Club, a special luncheon is being held for those celebrating February 29 milestones.

Most people of middle age and beyond tend to be coy about revealing the year they were born. But for Kristina Miller, Senior Systems Manager at Princeton University, and David Dobkin, the University’s Dean of the Faculty, their shared birthday today marks just another year of adolescence — officially.

These two colleagues were born on February 29, 1956 and 1948, respectively, during leap years. That means that though Ms. Miller has been on this earth for 56 years, she is really turning 14 today. Mr. Dobkin has been around for 64 years, but he’s only 16.

They are among several local residents celebrating leap year milestones today. At the Nassau Club, a special luncheon will mark the birthdays and anniversaries of those who came into the world or chose to marry on February 29.

It all has to do with the Gregorian Calendar, also known as the Western or Christian calendar, the internationally accepted civil calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. A reformation of the Julian calendar, it modified the cycle of leap years. Leap Year Days occur once every four years, adding an extra day at the end of February and bringing the solar year of 365-and-a-quarter days into line with the calendar year of 365 years.

“It was never a big deal,” says Ms. Miller, who grew up in Princeton and was featured in Town Topics on her official first birthday, when she was actually four. “It’s just sort of an oddity. My parents always made me feel special about it, though. My father was a mathematician and engineer at RCA, and for him, the whole statistical thing was fascinating.”

The unique circumstances don’t seem to have negatively affected Mr. Dobkin, either. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., but has lived almost half his life in Princeton. “It has amused me, mostly,” he says. “It’s particularly amusing now because a store sent me a coupon saying come in for a discount this month, because it’s your birthday. So I went in, and they asked me, ‘What day is your birthday?’ I love watching people try to figure it out when I say February 29. They want to know, ‘How old will you be?’”

The odds of two people working together and sharing this unique birthday are slim. “I was looking for statistics on line about how likely in a group of people you would find shared birthdays — for a ‘regular’ birthday, it’s apparently 50 percent in a group of 23 people and goes up to 97 percent in a group of 50 people,” Ms. Miller wrote in an email. “But I can’t find any probability statistics for people with a February 29 birthday. I have to imagine in an office of 16 people, it’s pretty darn low!”

But how about three? He isn’t in their department, but Steven Gill, the University’s Budget Director and Associate Provost for Finance, is another leap year birthday celebrant. He turns 60 — or 15 — today.

Around the corner from Nassau Hall at the Nassau Club, Princeton resident Herb Hobler has organized a luncheon today to mark several February 29 birthdays and anniversaries. Having arranged Wednesday lunch speakers at the club for the past 27 years, Mr. Hobler is always on the lookout for pertinent topics.

“When I saw that this was leap year, I jumped on it,” he said. “I have one woman who will be turning 12, and another turning 13. They all have older children. There is a lawyer who is turning 16. Then there is a couple who were married on February 29, under the Mercer Oak. And two new people who just moved to Stonebridge, also married February 29.”

Mr. Hobler said he will introduce the celebrants with some anecdotes about leap year. Each person marking a birthday or anniversary will be invited to speak for a few minutes, then blow out candles on five cakes that will be served to everyone for dessert. The party will end with recorded music — but only music performed by famous artists, like Dinah Shore, who were born on February 29.