University of Virginia Library

4. FOUR

The University
and World War II

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor caused an instant
revolution in the climate of opinion on the campuses of
America. A few faculty members and students at the university
were already involved on the side of the Allies, but the
great majority there and throughout the United States had
been strongly determined not to be drawn in. They had been
sympathetic to Great Britain and France, while remaining
resolutely opposed to "fighting Europe's battles." But when
the Japanese left our Pacific fleet a ravaged ruin with their
sneak attack, a "staggering" change, as College Topics put it,
occurred at once. "College students—long criticised for their
peacetime isolationist leanings—have immediately united and
are ready for the personal sacrifices war will demand," said the
paper.

The first university alumnus to die was 2d Lt. Harry H.
Gaver, U.S. Marines, who was killed in the Pearl Harbor
bombing and strafing. He had been graduated with a B.S. degree
in 1939, after serving as captain of the tennis team and
head cheerleader. More than three hundred other Virginia
men would give their lives in the conflict.

Maximum participation by all university students and personnel
in the war bond drives was urged by President Newcomb,
who was the first to buy a bond.

All but three departments had been operating on a twelvemonth
basis during 1941. The Law School offered an extra
term of classes in he summer of that year, and about a dozen

students expected to complete work for their degrees in
March. The Medical and Engineering schools were drawing
up plans for continuous operations. Arrangements for accelerated
study were again in effect for the summer of 1942. It
was announced in May that students in all departments would
be completing degree programs in June, September, December,
and March.

Carefully protected research in various laboratories had
been carried on since late 1941. From Christmas Eve of that
year through New Year's these operations were guarded
around the clock by armed members of the Virginia Protective
Force, later changed to men in less conspicuous civilian attire.
Such researches and experiments would continue, on an expanded
scale, throughout the conflict.

The Naval ROTC, established two sessions previously,
seemed to be the nearest approach to the ROTC and SATC of
World War I. The university was cooperating with the navy in
a long-range program of student training designed to turn
out men who would be ready to take positions as junior officers
on ships and planes as they came from the shipyard ways
and the factory assembly lines.

Bombing raids by the Germans on or near the East Coast
were felt by the authorities in Washington to be a possibility.
Airplane spotters were accordingly stationed on Lewis Mountain,
just west of the university, with each spotter doing a
three-hour stint. If a strange plane was sighted, pursuit planes
would be sent up by the Army Air Force. By Feb. 11, a total
of forty-four students had volunteered, but thirty-five more
were needed. Special difficulty was experienced in getting volunteers
for the hours from midnight to 6 A.M.

The university, in collaboration with the city of Charlottesville
and the county of Albemarle, was preparing for possible
service as a hospital evacuation center for Washington, Baltimore,
or Norfolk. Faculty and students were sharing quietly
in civilian defense preparations.

College Topics warned that it was important to obey all directives
of the civil defense wardens. "Turn out all lights when
you leave your rooms at any time," it counseled. "Familiarize
yourself with the instructions that will be given you in regard
to procedure in blacking out and taking general protective
measures." Charles H. Kauffmann headed the University Civil

Defense Organization. Under him were air raid wardens, auxiliary
fire wardens, and special police wardens.

Programs of physical training were announced by Capt.
Norton Pritchett. The Department of Physical Education prepared
a series of " `V' Tests" by which students could judge
their physical fitness. Included were sit-ups, pull-ups, floor
dips, the quarter-mile run, the one hundred-yard swim, wall
scaling, and so on. A more intensive program called for body
building, handball, boxing, squash, fencing, acrobatics, and
basketball. Large numbers of undergraduates enrolled.

All students between seventeen and twenty-six years of age
were called to meet in Cabell Hall in April 1942, at which time
they were told by President Newcomb how they could complete
their officer training in the army, navy, or marine corps
while finishing their college courses. Every able-bodied student
in the university would be in some branch of the armed
services within six months, it was stated.

Shortly after classes began the following fall, President
Newcomb announced that there would be compulsory physical
training for all students in the college and the School of
Education, with plans to be worked out later for the other
departments.

A volunteer unit, usually known as the Dawn Patrol but
sometimes called the Dusk Patrol, had 400 men enrolled.
"The boys really worked at it," said the Alumni News, "even
unto drilling at 7 o'clock in the morning." Close-order drill,
manual of arms, the marine marching manual, military and
naval discipline, and traditions and customs of the armed
forces were included.

Enrollment in the Engineering, Science, and Management
Program, begun two years previously by Engineering Prof.
Thomas H. Evans, was increasing rapidly. The number taking
the courses in twelve centers throughout the state had reached
approximately two thousand by early 1943.

A School of Military Government was established at the university
in 1942, with Prof. Hardy C. Dillard, a West Point
graduate, granted a leave of absence from the Law School to
join the staff with the rank of major. The school was under the
supervision of Maj. Gen. Allen W. Gullion, with Brig. Gen.
C. W. Wickersham as commandant. Purpose of the school was
to train high ranking army officers for future assignments in

43. Virginia's eastern intercollegiate championship boxing team of 1948, with six individual champions.
Left to right: Allen Hollingsworth, 125-pound champ; Grover Masterson, 130-pound champ; the
Marigliotta brothers—Jimmy, Basil, and Joe, 135, 145, and 155-pound champions, respectively; Bolling
Izard, 165; Ralph Shoaf, 175-pound champion; and Lapsley Hamblin, heavyweight; with Coach Al York.
Portrait in background is of the late coach Johnny LaRowe in his wheelchair.

military government and liaison work. An enrollment of
about sixty was expected at the outset. By early 1944 six
classes, totaling 750 men, had been graduated. The school
"has attracted attention throughout the world," said the
Alumni News, "and its `alumni' are administering governmental
affairs in hundreds of communities in numerous nations
now conquered." Seven foreign countries had sent officers to
the school. Brig. Gen. E. R. Warner McCabe, 1900, became
commandant in 1944.

Objectives for which the war was being fought were strikingly
portrayed by Randall Thompson, head of the Division
of Music, in his composition A Testament of Freedom, first rendered
on Jefferson's 200th birthday in 1943. Thompson was
asked to compose a symphony or a tone poem celebrating Jefferson
and his ideas. He accepted and happened to run into
Prof. Bernard Mayo, who was in the process of reading proof
on his book Jefferson Himself. These proofs were just what
Thompson needed. He went to the University Chapel and
worked steadily, soon turning out all four movements. The
premiere was given in Cabell Hall on Apr. 13 and received a
standing ovation. A Testament of Freedom has since been performed
all over the United States and in many countries.
While on the university faculty Thompson also received the
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Award for distinguished services
to chamber music. Soon thereafter he accepted a call to
Princeton.

The university had operated a hospital unit overseas in
World War I, but it seemed at first that this would not be possible
in World War II. Dean Harvey Jordan declined an invitation
in 1940 from the U.S. surgeon general to organize such
a unit. He and others felt that since the university's medical
faculty was one of the smallest in the country, its members
could not be spared without devastating effects upon the
school. But those who made this decision reckoned without
Dr. Staige D. Blackford, professor of internal medicine. He
was determined to organize a hospital unit, and he finally convinced
Dean Jordan that it could be done without irreparable
damage to the Medical School. So an evacuation unit was organized,
with emphasis on surgical cases, in contrast to the
general hospital operated by the university in 1917-18. Dr.
Blackford became chief of medicine and had overall supervision.

Dr. E. Cato Drash, associate professor of surgery, was
chief of surgery and recruited the surgical personnel. Recruitment
of nurses was under Miss Ruth Beery, who had been an
instructor and assistant superintendent of nursing in the university's
School of Nursing. She remained chief of nurses for
the unit throughout the war.

The 8th Evacuation Hospital sailed in November 1942 to
back up the North African invasion and landed at Casablanca.
After service in North Africa, it moved to Italy in September
1943, suffering a disaster en route when the ship carrying all
its equipment was sunk. The unit somehow scrounged more
equipment. For the rest of the war the 8th Evac was in Italy. It
moved northward with the American forces, living and operating
in tents, much of the time in cold, snow, sleet, rain, and
mud. Despite these handicaps and ordeals, it cared for over
48,000 cases in the hospital and another 45,000 in the outpatient
departments. High commendation came from Lt.
Gen. Mark W. Clark and other army brass, and the unit was
awarded the Fifth Army Plaque and Clasp and the Meritorious
Service Unit Plaque. The complete story is told in The
8th Evac, a highly readable and authoritative account by Dr.
Byrd S. Leavell, professor of internal medicine at the university,
who was with the unit throughout and was its chief of
medicine from April to September 1945. Dr. Leavell's delightfully
graphic diary is a highlight of the volume.

Students at the university did not forget those who were
serving in the 8th Evac. They bought 20,000 cigarettes in the
spring of 1943 and sent them to the unit. And the university's
Medical School and hospital, with their reduced staffs, made
the best of difficult circumstances. Dr. C. S. Lentz, administrator
of the hospital, wrote concerning his problems for the session
of 1943-44: "I have been administrator of a university
hospital constantly since January 1, 1922, and I can truthfully
say that even in the darkest days of the depression I have not
had to face the problems, many of them insoluble, nor have I
had nearly the amount of work and worry that I have had in
the past year."

An increased burden also fell on the School of Physics. Prof.
L. G. Hoxton reported that the school was able to handle the
added load because of the "efforts, competence and scientific
standing of Drs. Beams and Snoddy." He added that "in addition

to being in responsible charge of one of the war contracts,
Dr. Snoddy has been co-director with Dr. Beams of the
largest and most important contract we have. Without him
that contract would have had to be abandoned."

Dean F. D. G. Ribble of the Law School was called to the
Department of State in Washington. Prof. William H. White,
Jr., served as acting dean in his absence. Blind Prof. T. Munford
Boyd traveled alone by train each week to Washington
for three days' service on the War Production Board's legal
staff and taught the other three days in the Law School.

The Extension Division was providing special war-related
courses in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. Most
of the home study courses offered by a selected list of colleges
and universities were included. Studies in some twenty-one
fields were scheduled for persons in various parts of the state
who wished to concentrate on subjects having a direct bearing
on the military duties to which they might be assigned or
which they might wish to follow after the war. Courses in English,
economics, history, psychology, and sociology were
among those offered.

On another facet of the home front, the steel rails that had
carried the now defunct street cars to and from the university
and out to Fry's Spring were dug up and turned over to the
country's war machine for use as scrap for the manufacture of
weapons. Before the war many steel rails and other varieties
of scrap metal had been bought in the United States by the
Japanese.

The Naval ROTC moved from Thornton Hall to Maury
Hall, the newest building on the Grounds, where courses were
offered in such subjects as naval training and navigation, seamanship,
electricity, ordnance and gunnery, engineering,
naval history, administration, regulations and leadership,
communications, aviation, military and international law, and
infantry drill. The Raven Society and Omicron Delta Kappa
offered an award to the company amassing most points in
drill, communications, and rifle and pistol matches. The instructional
staff was composed of naval officers, with Capt.
E. M. Williams commanding. Members of the university faculty
provided courses in science and the liberal arts.

In January 1943 the U.S. Naval Flight Preparatory School

44. Fleet Adm. William M. (Bull) Halsey, 1900, one of the
heroes of the Pacific in World War II.

was added to the other units functioning at the university.
"The dorms now become barracks," said the Alumni News,

The naval program at the university underwent various
modifications during the war. It became the V-12 program in
early 1943, replacing the preflight school and incorporating
the NROTC training program. At least 10 percent of the
trainees assigned to V-12 had seen active service.

But the navy was not the only branch of the armed services
represented at the university. The U.S. Army Pre-Meteorology
School was established there in February 1943, attended
by 200 cadets of the Army Air Force. As with the naval units,
academic instruction was provided by the university faculty,
with Prof. Gordon T. Whyburn as executive head. Many officers
handled administrative routine and military indoctrination.
Mathematics, physics, geography, history, political science,
and English were taught. Purpose of the school was to
provide basic instruction for the study of meteorology. The
students were housed in the old Albemarle Hotel on Main
Street, and in the mornings they marched to the university
singing. They were mainly good students, but the end of the
war prevented them from actually pursuing the study of meteorology.

All these various military and naval units located at the university
during the war kept the institution alive and functioning
when so many of the regularly enrolled students had left
college to enlist. Much of the cost of instruction, as well as of
food and housing, was paid by the federal government. President
Newcomb and the faculty remained firmly in control as
teachers and researchers, and as referees over army-navy rivalries.

Athletics at Virginia from 1942 to 1945 were necessarily on an
abnormal basis. The fact that a number of star athletes from
other institutions were enrolled in the naval units at the university,
and were eligible to play for Virginia, made it possible
to carry on a fairly comprehensive program. The navy emphasized
competitive athletics as a part of its intensive training,
whereas the army made no provision for such activity. Eight
intercollegiate sports, including football, functioned at the
university to a greater or lesser degree from 1942 to 1945.
Long trips were out of the question, and nearby service teams
often were played. Among these were Woodrow Wilson Hospital,
Fort Belvoir, North Carolina Pre-Flight, and Cherry
Point Marines. Intramurals were continued during the war
but on a reduced scale.

The 480-yard shuttle hurdle race at the Penn Relays was
won in 1943 with comparative ease by the Virginia team—
Captain Thomas H. Todd, Bud Capers, Bill Mohler, and Bart
Todd. Captain Todd added other important laurels at that
and other meets. He retained his indoor I.C. 4-A hurdle
crown—then went on to carry off the outdoor 120-yard high
hurdle I.C. 4-A title and thus became the first Virginia track
man to win both indoor and outdoor I.C. 4-A championships.
He also won the Southern Conference 70-yard high hurdle
crown and the 120-yard high hurdle outdoor race at the Millrose
Games in New York.

The Honor System was subjected to special strains during the
war years owning to the large number of matriculates from
other parts of the country who had come to the university as
members of military or naval units. Many were unfamiliar
with the workings of the honor code.

The centennial of the Honor System's founding had been
observed May 16, 1942. A rather elaborate program had been
planned, but the outbreak of the war caused it to be drastically
revised. Virginius Dabney, '21, a member of the Honor Committee
in 1919-20, was the speaker at ceremonies in Cabell
Hall. All former members of the committee were invited, and
a good many came. A dinner was held at the Monticello Hotel.

Two years later an uproar arose over whether "false musters"
in the Naval Training Unit and the NROTC Battalion

were violations of the Honor System. The Honor Committee
had ruled during the previous session that false musters did
not constitute violations, but in June 1944 an open letter to
College Topics signed by thirty-nine prominent students requested
a reversal of this ruling. "A lie, with whatever it may
be concerned, is a violation of the code," said the letter. This
communication got prompt results, for the Honor Committee
of 1944 took the position that the committee of the previous
year had erred and that false musters could not be exempted.
Topics published an extra carrying the committee's pronouncement,
"creating fully as much excitement as the Allied invasion
of France, which was announced the same morning,"
Henry Wilson, the paper's editor, wrote. A mass meeting of
students in Cabell Hall was called for the following day by
President Newcomb at the request of the Honor Committee.
Many naval trainees in attendance asked that they be allowed
to hold a referendum on whether they should accept the
Honor System in its entirety, including the ruling against false
musters, or be excluded completely from it. The vote was
taken, and it was overwhelmingly in favor of remaining under
the system. A significant result was the decision by student
leaders to provide a more thorough orientation thereafter for
incoming first-year men with respect to the honor code. More
than three hundred entered in July and were divided into
small groups for the purpose. No further crises in the operation
of the code arose during the war, although the number
of violations increased, albeit not in connection with false musters.
In 1944 Topics began announcing expulsions under the
Honor System on the front page, giving the offense but not
the name of the offender. Between Feb. 1 and Sept. 1, 1944,
there were thirteen such announcements, with cheating on
tests or examinations the offense in twelve and stealing in the
other. Four of these dismissals took place within three weeks
in the late summer of 1944, and Topics editorialized on "the
almost unprecedented record." It attributed the situation
largely "to the influx of many transfer students."

Another aspect of the problem was addressed by Topics the
following year, when it expressed the view that there were not
enough counselors in the dormitories. Before the use of the
dorms as naval barracks, the student counselor system "was
far from satisfactory, even with twice the number of counselors

recommended," said the paper. "The counselors simply
did not have time to do justice to the job." "For instilling the
Virginia Honor System in students from the beginning, there
can be no substitute for personal associations," Topics declared,
and it went on to say that the system, from its inception, "has
depended for its continuous existence upon orientation programs
and the imparting of its spirit to new men by their associations
with older students."

The Alumni News reported in 1944 that in the preceding
fourteen years the great majority of students expelled under
the Honor System were from the Northeast. During that period
three students from "the former Confederate states"
south of Virginia were shipped, as compared with seventy-one
from New York and New Jersey. The ten Southern states had
2,914 registrations during the period in question, whereas
New York and New Jersey had 6,393. "We want more boys
from the South, and a higher proportion of good ones from
the North," said the Alumni News. "We don't draw from the
Southern states as we used to." C. Alphonso Smith, Jr., a former
chairman of the Honor Committee, wrote a letter to the
Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1936 in which he said he had studied
all Honor Committee cases for the preceding sixteen
years, and that in the preceding ten years twenty-six Virginians
had been expelled under the Honor System as against
sixty from New York and New Jersey.

The rigors of wartime did not adversely affect the sartorial
elegance of the dancing Cavaliers, for at Openings in the fall
of 1942 white ties and tails were still being worn. However, by
January the gasoline shortage caused forty-five girls to walk to
Madison Hall for a University Center dance. They met their
dates there. Mrs. A. E. Walker, the longtime hostess at such
affairs, expressed herself as pleased and said she anticipated
revival of the Gay Nineties custom of carrying dancing slippers
in slipper bags, to be put on upon arrival. Midwinters
were held as usual in the gym, but proceeds went to navy relief,
and a less expensive orchestra than was normally employed
played for the dancing.

The university coeds confounded the male contingent by
giving what was termed "one of the most successful dances
that Madison Hall has ever witnessed." It was primarily for the

naval preflight students, but many other undergraduates attended,
along with a group of Charlottesville girls. A fourthyear
man was quoted as saying, "This has perhaps been the
best Madison Hall dance that I have yet seen."

Not all coeds were appeased, however, by the favorable reception
given their gala affair. In a letter to Topics one of them
wrote denouncing the university's "snobs" in the following
harsh terms: "For years and years I have heard of the glorious
tradition of a `gentleman' at the University of Virginia. This is
no gentleman I have found here. This is a narrow-minded,
backward and utterly detestable egoist! This is assuredly a
snob—in its worst and most warped form."

A lounge and soda fountain called the Dry Dock was
opened in the Madison Hall basement in 1943 and was pronounced
a howling success. It was said to be the first thing
remotely describable as a student union that the university
had ever had. The installation was leased from the University
Center by W. B. Gibson, manager of the University Bookstore,
who also managed the Dry Dock. Cold drinks and sandwiches
were available, and there were a nickelodeon and pinball machines.
Topics commented enthusiastically that it could be a
gathering place for all students, and added: "The new lounge
makes another step in the many projects which the University
Center has sponsored this year. We speak of the excellent
dances, the organization of the Cavalier Ladies, and a great
part in the orientation of the first-year men, among others."

Mrs. A. E. Walker was observing the twenty-fifth anniversary
of her service as hostess at Madison Hall, in which capacity
she had made a lasting contribution to the well-being of
the students. "It was a brand new idea to have a woman at
Madison Hall," said the Alumni News. She "started right in as
though not scared at all with her tea dances. . . . She has
poured tea for generations of students . . . and makes them
like it. But Mrs. Walker does vastly more than pour tea. It is a
bit of a mystery what she does, but she has been doing it to
Virginia students for twenty-five years. . . . She's the Queen of
Madison Hall. Parson Powell started calling her the queen."

Two student hangouts that had almost become landmarks
at or near the Corner disappeared during the war years. The
Cavalier was torn down to make way for expansion of Jameson's
Bookstore, to include a soda fountain, sporting goods,
and other commodities. Johnson's emporium on the crest of

45. Dumas Malone, author of the definitive life of Thomas
Jefferson.

the rise beyond the C&O bridge went out of existence. The
Cavalier had been a beer-hoister's haven, but Jameson's was
unable to provide lager. "No beer at the Corner!" was the anguished
cry. Johnson's had not been a beer tavern but a place
for midnight snacks, "a malt and soda with your girl," said the
Alumni News. In years past "the boys dropped in at Johnson's
after seeing the Flora Dora Girls at Levy's Opera House. Perhaps
they took their best calic [date] there for a hot chocolate
after a chilly ride in a fashionable rig from Irving's Livery
Stable. They continued to resort to Johnson's with the coming
of Rudolph Valentino, prohibition and two cars in every garage."

Grief over these two closings was partly assuaged by news
that the Virginian was to open at the Corner, after a period
during which it had ceased to function. The Virginian, a student
watering place, had been a companion establishment to
the Cavalier, and its reemergence was hailed with fervent hosannahs.
Advertised as "Ye Olde Wahoo Heaven," it was under
the management of the Gianakos brothers. Nick Gianakos, a
star on the university's football team a short time before, had
made a stunning catch of a pass from Bill Dudley in the 1941
Yale game—lost to the Elis, 21-19.

Sports columns in College Topics from the pens of its two
sports editors were appearing in the fall of 1942. One who
wrote under the heading "Sideline Slants" was a young man
named Frank L. Hereford, Jr., and the other, whose column
was called "How about It?," was Henry Howell. The former
would be president of the university thirty-two years later, and
the latter would run unsuccessfully three times for governor
of Virginia.

Automobiles for first-year men were banned in 1942 in the
college, engineering, and education departments, with exceptions
for physical disability. Governor Darden suggested that
autos be prohibited to all students. Three months later College
Topics, edited by Gordon L. Crenshaw, recommended that all
autos be banned to students for the duration. The Board of
Visitors put this regulation into effect in July 1943, with a few
exceptions for hardship cases.

Two prominent alumni, Louis Johnson, '12, and Edward R.
Stettinius, '24, had leading roles just before and during World
War II.

Johnson, former national commander of the American Legion,
was appointed in 1937 as assistant secretary of war. He
worked intensively on getting U.S. industry to a state of maximum
readiness should the country be plunged into armed
conflict. As director of the War Department's Industrial Mobilization
Plan, he earmarked 10,000 civilian plants for war
production and said that "all are eager to cooperate." Johnson
resigned when Henry L. Stimson succeeded Harry W. Woodring
as secretary of war. He was then named chairman of an
advisory commission to assist our war effort in India.

Edward R. Stettinius, '24, chairman of the board of the
United States Steel Corporation, was appointed in 1939 head
of the new War Resources Board. John Lee Pratt, '05, was
named a member of the board. By 1941 Stettinius had been
elevated to the directorship of the Division of Priorities in the
Office of Production Management. Later in the same year he
was named to succeed Harry Hopkins as head of the important
lend-lease program, under which this country supplied
its allies with huge quantities of weapons and matériel. Walter
Lippmann, the famous columnist, wrote concerning his service
in that post: "Mr. Stettinius has done as much and perhaps
more than any man in Washington to show how to set up
an agency and how to conduct it without bureaucratic feuds
and without obscurity and confusion." By 1943 Stettinius was
under secretary of state, and when Cordell Hull resigned in
late 1944 as secretary of state, Stettinius was appointed to succeed
him. In that capacity he accompanied ailing President
Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference where Roosevelt met with
Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. Stettinius also headed
the American delegation to the conference at San Francisco in
1945 at which the United Nations was got into operation.
When President Harry S. Truman took office, he appointed
James F. Byrnes to head the State Department and named
Stettinius permanent American representative to the United
Nations General Assembly.

When news that Japan had surrendered hit the Grounds in
August 1945, there was wild jubilation. "The Corner was
jammed with everybody yelling and waving and waiting to see
what everybody else was going to do," Bill Lyle wrote in College
Topics. "There was a near-riot in the Virginian which required

one of the local gendarmes to dispel. Cars piled high with 18
or 20 students and girls and bristling with the dear old Confederate
flags, roared up and down the main drag all evening.
Blasting horns, banging fireworks, barking dogs, ear-splitting
yells. . . . Vinegar Hill and the `downtown' section of Charlottesville
defied accurate description."

But despite the exultation, bulletins continued to come in
from Europe and the Pacific concerning the missing and the
dead. These appeared for months in the Alumni News, which
during the war had carried thousands of items concerning the
men in the service, their experiences, heroism, and decorations.
It also published many photographs of alumni on the
far-flung battle lines of the world.

By the fall of 1945, 1,000 naval students had been trained
at the university, 213 army men in the specialized training
program, 2,820 in the School of Military Government, and
200 in the army's Pre-Meteorology School. At the same time it
was announced that the university's navy unit would get a
$110,000 armory for its continued use in peacetime. Work
had already begun on the structure, which would be located
eighty feet south of Maury Hall. The following year plans
were announced for a naval ordnance research laboratory
near the McCormick Observatory, with physics Professors
Beams and Snoddy to be in charge of the experimental work.
The laboratory was built at a cost of approximately $125,000,
and the navy furnished it with $250,000 worth of equipment,
as well as ample funds for operation.

Part of the research on the atomic bomb that devastated
Hiroshima and Nagasaki was done at the university. Jesse
Beams's ultracentrifuge, operated on the same principle as the
cream separator, played a significant role in separating the
uranium known as U-235 from U-238 and U-234. Dr. Beams
had been a member of the original five-man committee appointed
to study uranium fission under the National Research
Council. After the university's physicists concluded their wartime
work on uranium in the Rouss Laboratory, they turned
their attention to the development of guided missiles and
were equally successful. Distinguished service certificates were
awarded by the navy for this latter activity to Prof. L. G. Hoxton,
head of the School of Physics, Professors Beams and

46. Ivey F. Lewis, dean of the university and the college,
1934-53.

Snoddy, and two able younger scientists, Frank L. Hereford,
Jr., and Dexter Whitehead.

The alumni had two Medal of Honor winners. Gen. Alexander
Archer Vandegrift, '08, commander of the U.S. Marines
on Guadalcanal in one of the most desperate engagements of
the war in the Pacific, was decorated by President Roosevelt in
1943 for his leadership in that heroic and successful action.
General Vandegrift had already been awarded the Navy
Cross. He was the first full general to command the marine
corps and was decorated by Lord Halifax with the Most Honorable
Order of the Bath.

The other Medal of Honor winner was navy Lt. Arthur
Murray Preston, '38, a law graduate of the university who was
practicing in Washington, D.C., when the war broke out. He
joined the navy and on being commissioned was sent to the
Pacific. In September 1944 Preston volunteered to command
two PT boats into the mined harbor of Wasile Bay, Morotai
Island, to a point less than two hundred yards from a wellguarded
Japanese dock and supply area. He was attempting
to rescue a pilot who had been shot down and had parachuted
into the bay. Preston and his men were under fire for two and
a half hours, and he was given the medal for "conspicuous
gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life." He also was
awarded the Navy Cross and promoted to lieutenant commander.

The Medal of Freedom was awarded to two alumni for conspicuous
service during the war. Charles Wertenbaker, '25, author
and journalist, chief of the Paris Bureau of Time magazine,
was given the medal in Paris in late 1947 for "especially
meritorious actions" while a correspondent in Europe,
1944-45. Marc Peter, Jr., '23, received the same accolade at
the Pentagon for his work in London from 1942 to 1944,
where he created novel and highly effective methods of bombing
urban areas that "contributed materially to the success of
the air war against Germany and Japan."

With the end of hostilities in the late summer of 1945, the
university faced a series of problems. It had to do a fast turnaround
to take account of the new situation. A greatly accelerated
program of studies for the session of 1945-46 had to
be arranged in order that normal, unaccelerated programs

could be put into effect in September 1946. Three semesters
were crowded into the next 12 months. Housing for returning
veterans or veterans entering for the first time had to be provided,
and first-year men living in fraternity houses were
moved to the dormitories.

Although the war was over, 160 V-5 trainees were enrolled
in the university on November 1, 1945. These naval aviation
cadets matriculated in college courses for three terms, after
which they were transferred to bases for continued preflight
training. At the university they occupied quarters in the
dorms vacated by graduating V-12 and NROTC men. For
years after the war the university continued to enroll units of
the NROTC, and these were joined later by Army and Air
Force ROTC. Photographs of the various units appeared in
Corks and Curls over a ten-year period.

Demobilization of the men in the armed forces proceeded
steadily during the winter and spring, and by September 1946
the veterans were pouring back into the colleges and universities.
Enrollment at the University of Virginia was 40 percent
ahead of the largest previous figure, that of 1939-40. A total
of 4,204 had been registered by early fall.

Absent from the registration procedure for the first time
since 1919 was Miss Virginia Moran. She had been associated
with the university since 1899, having first become affiliated
with the institution as an employee in the bursar's office. Upon
the retirement of Howard Winston as registrar in 1919, Miss
Moran became assistant to his successor, Mrs. Anna Tuttle
Heck. When Mrs. Heck died in 1922, Miss Moran was appointed
registrar and remained in that position until her retirement
in 1946.

Two-thirds of the students registering at the university in
the fall of that year were returned veterans. These relatively
mature men were regarded by the faculty as a superior group,
more serious about their studies, and willing to work six days
a week. Again, Episcopalians were more numerous than members
of any other religious denomination, followed by Methodists,
Presbyterians, Baptists, Roman Catholics, and Jews, in
that order.

Housing for many of the men who were flooding in was
unavailable at the university or in Charlottesville. About five
hundred of these veterans could be accommodated in the

Woodrow Wilson Army Hospital near Staunton, whence they
commuted to the university by bus, thirty-five miles each way.
Lectures also were given at Woodrow Wilson by some faculty
members.

At Woodrow Wilson the students were able to use the excellent
facilities of the former Officers' Club. The bar was available
for snacks, and the sports areas were used with the help
of equipment supplied by the university. All university students
left Woodrow Wilson by the end of 1946, since accommodations
of one sort or another had been found at or near
the university.

Construction was beginning on a "veterans' village" at
Copeley Hill, adjoining the university grounds just north of
the intersection of Routes 250 and 29. A total of 320 married
couples and 500 single students were to be cared for in apartment
units and trailers.

The Student Senate had ceased operations in the spring of
1942 because of war conditions. Three years later the Student
Council arose in its stead and elections were held. Again in the
fall of that year, 1945, there were Student Council elections.
The council's function was to investigate matters pertaining to
the well-being of the undergraduates and to discuss with the
administration means by which grievances might be adjusted.

The first football rally in the fall of 1945 was announced by
College Topics with great fanfare. "Football rally processions of
past years used to start from the Cavalier (now deceased), and
end up on the Lawn," said the paper. "Tim (now deceased)
used to lead them with his torch and his four-legged pal Beta
(now deceased). We haven't got the Cavalier, Tim or Beta, but
we can promise a roaring good time. Bring your dates."

The rally was a "flop," according to Topics, and so was the
cheering at the game with the Coast Guard, won by Virginia,
39-0. "Feeble, disinterested yells," at this and other gridiron
contests were blasted by the journal, which declared that "any
little down-country high school could show more spirit at one
football game than we at the U. Va. have displayed all season."

Festivities on Homecoming weekend November 9-10 were
convincing evidence that things were indeed getting back to
normal. There were two dances, a football game, and a dozen
fraternity parties. Such jollity was not appreciated by undergraduates

scornfully termed meatballs by their more cantankerous
fellows. A meatball was defined in the Spectator as "a
socially maladjusted individual usually found in the library
general reading room on Saturday night; one who considers
a weekend `a good time to catch up.' "

Discussion continued over whether one should speak to students
one didn't know. Fontaine C. Armistead, '42, one of the
ablest students, had made a speech on tradition some years
before in which he defended the custom of speaking only to
acquaintances. It was reprinted a number of times and was
generally well received, but one phrase drew criticism. "Instead
of grinning and gushing indiscriminately," said Armistead,
"the Virginia student speaks only to people he knows,
and thus enjoys a more sincere relationship than if he spoke
to all." The words "grinning and gushing" were regarded by
some as inappropriate, although widespread agreement was
expressed with Armistead's general thesis.

Lucy Lou Floyd of Waynesboro, a graduate student in the
School of Education and associate editor of both College Topics
and the Spectator, was one of those who felt that the overall
attitude of reserve was desirable. On the other hand, Prof. T.
Braxton Woody conducted a forum under the auspices of the
University Christian Association at which the consensus was
that students should not consider it "sticking your neck out" to
speak to those with whom one was not personally acquainted.
There was criticism of the long-established custom of not
greeting strangers.

Lucy Floyd was one of the few women during this era to win
a place on the editorial staff of a university publication. In
1948 Mildred Callis served on the staff of Corks and Curls,
while Margaret Potts achieved a similar place on the Spectator.

College Topics came in for an overhaul in the spring of 1946.
Ed Myers and Chris Cramer, editors in chief, announced that
they had "cleaned house" because of the "low caliber" of the
paper. It had recently been "little more than a political football,"
they said, and "men have gained important posts
through their friends and fraternity affiliations rather than
through skill and service." The editors declared that "a new
Topics is emerging; it has already enlisted the help of the Student
Council and the administration, but it is sadly lacking in
personnel."

The Spectator was named by the Student Council in 1948
"the official magazine of the student body." This publication
had combined the year before with another journal, Crust, under
the name of Spectator and Crust, sponsored by the Jefferson
Society. Crust was dropped from the title a few months later.

The ban against operation of automobiles by other than
first-year students had been removed in 1945, and first-year
men were allowed to have cars the following session. As a result,
the weekend exodus was resumed. The Spectator observed
that during Founder's Day ceremonies in April "ninetenths
of the students either perform a little sleep-catching or
embark on the traditional week-end."

Nor did the greater maturity of the postwar generation of
students alter their aversion to literature, in the view of two
members of the university's teaching staff. English Professors
Joseph L. Vaughan and E. C. McClintock contributed an article
to the News Letter of the College English Association in
which they wrote: "Real progress can be made in the teaching
of required literature courses at the undergraduate level only
if the fact is squarely faced that a large majority of students do
not like literature."

The recently adopted alphabetical grading system was objectionable,
in the unanimous view of the Student Council. It
requested a return to numerical grading on the ground that
the alphabetical system "is non-illuminating and too indeterminate."

Appointment of James H. Newman, dean of men at the
University of Alabama, to the newly created office of dean of
men at the University of Virginia was announced. He took
office in February 1946 and assumed general supervision over
student activities, thus "relieving Dean Ivey Lewis, dean of the
university, of many of the details of student life which he had
been administering." Lewis was named dean of the college.
George O. Ferguson, who had been in charge of admissions
for many years, was appointed dean of admissions and registrar.
In the lastnamed post he succeeded Miss Virginia Moran,
who had retired after 24 years.

Edward R. Stettinius, a member of the university's Board of
Visitors, was elected rector of the university in 1946, succeeding

47. Rowland Egger, dean of the
faculty, 1962-63.

[ILLUSTRATION]

48. Prof. Weldon Cooper, director of the Institute of Government
and editor of the University of Virginia News Letter.

R. Gray Williams, who had died shortly before. Stettinius
had been extremely prominent and popular during his student
days at the university, but he had been a decidedly mediocre
student and had not graduated. When he became
chairman of the United States Steel and then head of LendLease
and secretary of state, he was given honorary degrees
by the following universities and colleges: Oxford, California,
Columbia, Colgate, American, New York, Rutgers, Lafayette,
Union, and Elmira.

As rector, silver-haired, deep-voiced "Ed" Stettinius was extremely
active in the affairs of the university. He knew that he
had a health problem and that he should not subject himself
to undue strain. Yet during and after the war he did not spare
himself. In fact his zeal for the university was such that, as
rector, he injected himself into matters that were really beyond
his proper sphere. By the spring of 1949 he had exerted
himself to such an extent that he had a heart attack and had
to resign. That fall he died, aged forty-nine. He was one of
the most illustrious of all the university's alumni and the author
of two books having to do with his public service—LendLease,
Weapon for Victory (1944) and Roosevelt and the Russians,
edited by Walter Johnson, which appeared almost simultaneously
with his death.

The high quality of the student body immediately after the
war, with a heavy injection of veterans, was remarked upon in
later years by Prof. B. F. D. Runk. "Back in those days," he
said, faculty and students "went to school for long periods and
didn't think anything of it. The GI's flooded us and we had
full classes; we would teach from Monday morning through
Saturday afternoon. The students were desirous of getting
back into academic work, many working toward graduate
school. I have often remarked that we did better teaching than
we do today with our reduced teaching loads, with our leisurely
Monday through Friday schedule."

Growth of the Alderman Library collections, following the
library's dedication in 1938, had been extraordinary. In the
first ten years the number of books "made available for use"
rose from 303,502 to 484,826. This was better than the normal
growth of book collections, but it paled beside the astronomical
leap forward of the manuscript collection—from
about five hundred thousand to over three million documents

in the decade. Among the more important manuscript acquisitions
were the Cocke and Bruce family papers, manuscripts
of the "Edgehill" Randolphs, the Carter Glass papers, and the
Fred O. Seibel collection of newspaper cartoons. A significant
addition to the book collection was an assemblage of material
on Charles Darwin exceeding anything in the world except
Darwin's own collection in England. Presented by an anonymous
donor, it is rich in source materials on the history of
science and includes virtually all of the first editions and variant
issues of Darwin's works. There are also important letters,
essays, and photographs, as well as first and other editions of
writings on the subject of evolution by such Darwin contemporaries
as Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley, and Sir Joseph
Hooker.

In view of the University of Virginia's high rank in the field
of science, it was fitting that the Darwin collection should
come to Alderman Library. In volume 6 of American Men of
Science, eleven university faculty members were "starred," a
greater number than any other southern university could
show, one more than Yale had and one fewer than Harvard.
The eleven starred Virginia professors were Jesse W. Beams,
Arthur F. Benton, Francis P. Dunnington, Harvey E. Jordan,
William A. Kepner, Ivey F. Lewis, Edward J. McShane, Samuel
A. Mitchell, Carl E. Speidel, Lyndon F. Small, and Gordon T.
Whyburn. It should be noted, however, that when Virginia
was ranked on the basis of the number of faculty members
elected to the National Academy of Sciences, it made a much
less impressive showing. The university had only four members,
highest in the South except Texas, but was in a five-way
tie with Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana for seventeenth
place nationally. Harvard had fifty-one members of the
academy, California thirty-four, and Yale eighteen.

The Law School inaugurated a course of graduate study in
1945-46 leading to the degrees of S.J.D. and LL.M. It involved
the acceptance of each graduate student by one member
of the faculty, who worked closely with him. The student
was required to take certain seminar courses. For the doctor's
degree a dissertation was necessary, and two years would normally
be needed to complete it. For the master's degree a thesis
equivalent in quality and quantity to a Law Review article
was prescribed. There were two graduate students in 1945-46.

Dean Ribble stated that the high standing of the university's
Law School—and it was generally conceded to be among the
top dozen in this country—was due "more than any single factor"
to its Law Review. The great majority of students in the
school were from outside Virginia, giving it a cosmopolitan
outlook and contributing to its excellent national ranking. In
1946-47 there were 410 non-Virginian students to 237 from
Virginia, and at the two succeeding sessions the figures were
496 to 264 and 346 to 194. Returning veterans accounted for
the large enrollment in the years immediately after the war,
but when they were graduated, the total fell. Then the Korean
War broke out, and there was a still sharper drop. The figures
for 1951-52 were 226 non-Virginians and 147 Virginians.

Enrollment in the postwar years was falling in several directions,
and the number taking Latin and Greek was low. In
1947-48 only fifty-five were taking Latin and thirteen Greek.
For the two succeeding sessions the figures were thirty-eight
and eighteen and forty-three and twenty-one.

The name of the School of Germanic Languages was
changed to the School of Germanic Languages and Russian in
order to call attention to the fact that courses in Russian were
being offered by Prof. Matthew Volm. This instruction had
been available since 1943, but the fact had not been made sufficiently
clear in the university catalogue, and enrollment, in
consequence, had not been up to expectations. It climbed
when the availability of the courses was emphasized.

An Institute of Foreign Service and International Affairs
was established in 1945, with two new degrees offered to matriculates.
The idea for such an institute was suggested in 1943
by Branch Spalding, '24, who had become editor of the Alumni
News the previous year. Spalding proposed that "an outstanding
school of international studies" be established at the university
and that the first step be the raising of $35,000 to provide
the nucleus of its book collection, which would be a
memorial to alumni lost in the war. The money was raised and
the idea caught on. It was given added impetus by the support
of Secretary of State Stettinius, who expressed the belief that
there was great need for a school devoted to training diplomats
and foreign service personnel. The newly established institute
opened July 2, 1945. Liberal arts education, with emphasis
on foreign languages, was the basis for the specialized

study to be concentrated in the third and fourth years of the
course leading to the B.A. in international affairs, while for
the M.A. particular attention was given to more advanced
courses. These were in the areas of Latin-American affairs,
international and maritime law, the British Empire, international
organization and economics, diplomatic practice, and
related matters.

A few months after the institute opened, Jesse H. Jones, a
wealthy Texan who was a great admirer of Woodrow Wilson,
agreed to give $20,000 a year over a period of fifteen years
for faculty salaries and lecture fees toward establishment of a
Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs. Jones said
that Wilson "sacrificed his life for world peace," and he wanted
to make this $300,000 contribution in his honor. Wilson had
been a law student at the university from 1879 to 1881. President
Newcomb said that the school would be an integral part
of the Institute of Foreign Service and International Affairs.
Prof. Hardy C. Dillard was appointed head of the Wilson
school, but he was wanted by the War Department to assist in
the reorganization of the Army War College, and Prof. Robert
K. Gooch was named acting head. During the war Gooch had
been a special adviser to President Roosevelt on problems of
Western Europe, working through the Office of Strategic Services.

Librarian Harry Clemons said in 1949 that the international
studies library begun during the war was "a very live collection
indeed," and he quoted Professor Fernbach of the Woodrow
Wilson School as saying that "every class in foreign affairs constantly
uses these materials, and they have been vital to the
development of graduate studies in the Woodrow Wilson
School." A plaque explaining that the volumes are a memorial
to missing and dead alumni of World War II was placed in the
Browsing Room of Alderman Library.

The Bureau of Public Administration "has regained a position
in the mainstream of the administrative life of the state
not appreciably inferior to that which it enjoyed in the prewar
years, 1936-42," Prof. Rowland Egger, its director,
reported. The program of research and service in county government
became well established in 1945, Egger said, and the
bureau had reentered the municipal field, which had been its
principal concern in earlier years. It had recently assumed primary

responsibility for the research work of the Richmond
Charter Commission and was engaged in a survey of the revenue
system of Norfolk. A program in county government was
being carried on in collaboration with the League of Virginia
Counties, and close relations were being maintained once
more with the League of Virginia Municipalities. The bureau,
furthermore, was serving as the secretariat of the Virginia
chapter of the American Society for Public Administration
and the Virginia Social Science Association.

The Bureau of Population and Economic Research, headed
by Prof. Lorin A. Thompson, was established at the university
in 1944 as a combination of the Bureau of Industrial Research
and the Population Study of the Virginia State Planning
Board, both of which had been inaugurated four years before.
Files and information of the agency, as well as its staff, were
available to all interested parties and agencies in Virginia. The
bureau dealt with the industrial development of the state and
addressed the problems of manufacturing, marketing and distribution,
employment, agriculture, mining, family income,
and related matters. "From time to time the bureau will make
special area studies which will appraise the prospects for future
economic development," Thompson said.

More than one thousand contestants, a record, took part in
the annual Virginia High School League state championship
contests at the university in the spring of 1947, Extension Director
George B. Zehmer reported. The league, formerly
known as the Virginia High School Literary and Athletic
League, had achieved an unprecedented high school membership,
with 350 of the 391 Virginia schools enrolled in
1946-47, far more than in any previous year. The contests
were in dramatics, public speaking, publications, tennis, track,
and field. Regional clinics for coaches and sponsors in these
areas of activity, as well as in football and basketball, were attended
by over four hundred and fifty persons. Richard R.
Fletcher, executive secretary of the league for the preceding
two years, "has now the confidence and enthusiastic cooperation
of the high school officials," Zehmer reported. "Through
the Virginia High School League, the university has the most
numerous, effective and lasting contacts with the high school
officials and pupils," he went on. "No other activity brings as
many high school officials and pupils to the university every
year." Professor Zehmer was given a leave of absence in

49. Dr. Vincent W. Archer of the medical faculty.

1946-47 to aid in organizing the University Center in Richmond,
of which the university was a member, after which he
resumed directorship of the Extension Division.

A highly constructive activity of the division was publication
of the New Dominion Series by Jess and Jean Ogden. Begun
in 1941, the leaflet appeared eighteen times a year, and the
Ogdens told there of efforts in local communities to improve
the level of living. In Lexington, for example, a health survey
of school children uncovered "an alarming number of children
with defects," and led to remedial action. Other numbers
in the series described the maintenance in Charlottesville of a
nursery to care for children of working mothers, a processing
plant for tomatoes in Buckingham that added to farmers' cash
income, and so on. Sociology classes and theological seminaries
were using the series, and it was the basis for community
studies in several states. A fieldworker in the U.S. Office of
Education wrote: "We hope that you will be able to keep on
preparing and distributing these leaflets indefinitely. I don't
know any material that compares with this in value for helping
people see the possibilities in community organization."

The Summer Quarter was placed on a new schedule of a
single eight-week term in 1947, instead of two six-week terms,
as in previous years. Prof. Lewis M. Hammond, '28, acting
dean of the summer session, explained that the new arrangement
would permit attendance of many teachers and school
administrators with early and late summer workshop and conference
commitments. The normal schedule would consist of
two classes daily six days a week.

Hospital Administrator C. S. Lentz, who had had such severe
wartime problems, declared that he was having others.
In his annual report for 1945-46, he said concerning the hospital's
executive committee (no names mentioned): "After a
desultory period which has lasted during the war and during
which time they have in general had little time for committee
business, certain members have now determined that they are
full-blown hospital administrators, and are attempting to
prove this in a very obnoxious way. . . . Several members go
off half crocket [sic] without ever investigating the matter under
their consideration. . . . Something must be done . . . to
take care of their attempted high-handed methods." Whether
anything was "done" did not appear in subsequent reports.

Dr. Lentz also complained that he not had a raise in salary
during his fifteen years with the hospital, and that he was the
only employee connected with the Medical School whose compensation
had not been increased during that time.

The School of Nursing was given complete accreditation in
1948. It had been included since 1941 in the list of nationally
accredited schools, but the war had prevented it from fulfilling
certain requirements. In 1949 it was placed among the top
25 percent in the country by the National Commission for the
Improvement of Nursing Service, the criterion being its basic
programs in nursing. In 1951 the B.S. degree was instituted,
and three years later all programs were consolidated in a Department
of Nursing.

Prof. John H. Yoe, internationally known chemist, was in the
Pacific during the spring and summer of 1946 as head of a
committee of U.S. and foreign scientists to observe the atom
bomb tests near the island of Bikini. He had worked from
1940 to 1945 as a section member and investigator for the
National Defense Research Committee, after which he was
made an official investigator for the Chemical Warfare Service.
In 1943 Dr. Yoe received the Charles Herty Award "for
outstanding work in the field of chemistry in the South." He
was the author of numerous books and several score scientific
papers and was in demand as a lecturer all over the United
States.

Another member of the university faculty was honored
when Prof. Edward J. McShane was given one of the highest
accolades that can come to a mathematician—an invitation to
deliver the twenty-fifth in the series of Colloqium Lectures
before the American Mathematical Society's annual convention.
This was in recognition of his work on the calculus of
variations which he had developed since joining the university
faculty in 1935.

Remarkable demand from various parts of the country was
being expressed for the lectures of Prof. David McCord
Wright. A typical year for Wright was 1947-48, when he
taught for six weeks in the summer at the University of California
at Berkeley and the other six weeks at the same university
in Los Angeles. In December he gave a seminar before
members of the Yale economics and law faculties and a seminar

at Harvard the same weekend. Later in the month he
spoke at the annual meeting of the American Economics Association.
A series of lectures in March at the University of
Buffalo was followed somewhat later by service as visiting professor
at Harvard for the summer.

"He was brilliant, also eccentric, and he had a low boiling
point and high temper," said Prof. Tipton R. Snavely, head of
the university's Economics Department. "He didn't hesitate to
go over my head to speak his complaints to the dean or the
president or anybody else. He was in President Newcomb's office
one day . . . on a committee, and they were having a meeting.
He suddenly disagreed and grew angry, walked out and
slammed the door of the president's office. In 10 minutes or
so he came back and apologized to the group. That was typical
of David Wright."

Dr. Fletcher D. Woodward, '19, head of otolaryngology in
the Medical School during these years, had a distinguished
career in that speciality as physician, lecturer, teacher, and administrator.
He introduced new techniques and took part in
many state and national medical programs. Among the positions
he held were president of the American Laryngological,
Rhinological and Otological Society, chairman of the sections
in these specialties for both the Southern Medical Association
and the American Medical Association, and member of the
American Board of Otolaryngology. On a different level, Dr.
Woodward was nationally known for his efforts in the area of
automobile safety, where he was a pioneer. His obituary in the
Richmond News Leader in 1969 said that "a number of ideas
he advanced years ago are now standard features of the modern
automobile, such as safety belts and shoulder harnesses, a
collapsible steering column, padded dashboards, elimination
of projecting knobs and antiglare windshields." He was
awarded the Medical Tribune's automobile safety award in 1962
for "life-saving achievement in the service of health."

Prof. Joseph L. Vaughan of the Engineering School's English
faculty was getting numerous offers from other institutions,
Dean W. S. Rodman stated in recommending him for
promotion to full professor. "Other institutions have recognized
his abilities and are continually trying to induce him to
sever his connections here," said the dean. He remained at the
university and was promoted to full professor. Vaughan was

50. Henry H. Cumming, Olympic track star and university
faculty member who died of polio in Italy during World War II.

lent by the university to the nearby Institute of Textile Technology,
which he served as president from 1951 to 1953.

A coveted fellowship in physics was awarded Frank L. Hereford,
Jr., who had received his B.A. at the university in 1943.
This was the National Research Predoctoral Fellowship,
awarded by the National Research Council. Hereford had
done war work following graduation and was given the Certificate
of Merit by the Office of Scientific Research and Development.
He returned to the university for the session of
1946-47 to resume his studies, looking toward the Ph.D. degree.

The University of Virginia Alumni Fund, launched some
years before World War II, broke all records in 1945, with
$85,690 collected, more than double the total for the preceding
year. Branch Spalding, who had succeeded Eugene E.
Wager as director of the fund, resigned in the fall of 1945 as
fund director and editor of the Alumni News to join the English
faculty at Episcopal High School. Another record for collections
was set in 1947, when over $105,000 came in from the
alumni.

In that same year some twelve hundred old grads came back
to a whopping Victory Reunion, June 20-22. Nearly all classes
since 1882 were represented, the Big Tent was jammed to
more than capacity, and the beer flowed freely. A huge crowd
attended the barbecue at the pits below the old university golf
course. The Alumni Ball took place that evening in the gymnasium,
while stags continued to celebrate in the Big Tent. On
Sunday a memorial service to the alumni who died in the war
was held in the University Chapel. The Seven Society unveiled
a memorial near the gymnasium to the nine members of the
society who gave their lives. That afternoon in Cabell Hall
tributes were paid to President Newcomb, who was retiring.
Additional details concerning these tributes and Newcomb's
retirement appear at the end of this chapter.

The Alumni Association took over all concessions on the
Grounds, effective July 1, 1946, pursuant to action of the
Board of Visitors. Stands operated in Monroe Hall, Clark
Hall, Thornton Hall, Madison Hall, and the dormitories came
under the association's jurisdiction, while concessions at all
athletic contests likewise were assigned to that organization.

Proceeds went to various university causes in need of funds,
such as scholarships, honor loans, the Virginia Law Review, the
Engineering School's library, and so on. Much disappointment
was expressed at the Dry Dock, established in the Madison
Hall basement in 1943, since the profits from its operations
were said to be needed to finance student recreation.

Several important faculty deaths occurred during and just
after the war.

Prof. George B. Eager, '10, member of the law faculty for
more than three decades, died in 1942 at age fifty-four after
a period of failing health. He conducted his classes until a
week before his death. Professor Eager was the author of numerous
papers in the law reviews. In his college days at the
university he was on the track and tennis teams and was several
times singles champion of Kentucky. He had a part in
establishing boxing as a major sport at Virginia.

Francis P. Dunnington, '72, professor of analytical and industrial
chemistry, died in 1944 after being in retirement for
about a quarter of a century. Recognized as one of the foremost
analytical chemists of his time, he was awarded the
Charles Herty Medal in 1935. It was given him not only for
his service to chemistry in the South but "especially for his
splendid record as a teacher of chemists who have attained
renown." Trained under the famous John W. Mallet until Mallet
retired in 1908, Professor Dunnington was thoughtful in
his concern for his students. One of them, Dr. Charles L.
Reese, '84, for many years chemical director for E. I. DuPont
de Nemours, related that when Dunnington noted in class
that he was ailing, the professor took him to his home, where
he and Mrs. Dunnington nursed him back to health. Professor
Dunnington was an elder in the Presbyterian church and a
dedicated temperance advocate. This last was the subject of a
few sly jokes, since "Old Dunny" had a conspicuously red
nose, probably induced by his practice of identifying chemicals
by sniffing the vials.

Dr. William A. Lambeth, who took his M.D. from the university
in 1892 and his Ph.D. in 1901, died in 1944. Born in
North Carolina, he attended the Harvard School of Physical
Training after graduating from the University of Virginia
Medical School. He then graduated from Harvard and returned

to the university, where he took his Ph.D. Loaded with
these academic honors, Dr. Lambeth joined the university's
medical faculty and became head of the Department of Physical
Education and superintendent of buildings and grounds.
He is remembered especially for his leadership in the field of
intercollegiate athletics and his insistence on high standards
of eligibility and conduct. Termed "the father of athletics at
the University of Virginia," he was associated for many years
in this work with Prof. Albert Lefevre. Lambeth also was
known for his longtime interest in Italian history and civilization.
He was twice decorated by the Italian government for
promoting understanding between Italy and the United
States, and he furnished the Italian room in the Romance Pavilion
on East Lawn.

The death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945
was noted by College Topics with a rare "extra." FDR was the
only president most of the students could remember clearly,
as he had been in the White House for a dozen years. His
death occurred on the eve of a university dance weekend, and
the Friday and Saturday night dances were canceled. Topics
expressed the hope that "as dates roll into Charlottesville from
all corners of the country, they will understand."

A wartime casualty involving a faculty member occurred
when Col. Henry H. Cumming, Jr., died in Italy from polio.
He was assistant professor of political science at the university
before entering the war. In his student days he had been captain
of the track team and an Olympic sprinter at the 1928
games. At the time of his fatal seizure in 1945 he was assistant
chief of staff G-2 at Peninsula Base Headquarters in Italy.

The university community was shocked on the last day of
1946 by the sudden death of Prof. Walter S. Rodman, dean of
the School of Engineering since 1933. He made a report on
faculty salaries and promotions in 1929 which Prof. William
H. Echols termed "one of the finest pieces of work I have ever
seen, and one of the greatest contributions to the progress of
the university since the time of Thomas Jefferson." It paved
the way for substantial salary increases at the session of
1930-31. Dean Rodman was secretary of the university's
chapter of Phi Beta Kappa for nearly a quarter of a century.
During his years as dean of engineering the school experienced
unprecedented growth both in enrollment and equipment.

He served for more than thirty years as critic of manuscripts
on electrical engineering for the New York publisher
McGraw-Hill.

Richard Heath Dabney, '81, who had retired in 1938 after
forty-nine years on the faculty, died in 1947, aged eight-six.
He had been dean of the university's first Graduate School for
almost a quarter of a century and a one-man history department
for a longer period. Thomas J. Wertenbaker, '10, who
took his Ph.D. under Dabney and then joined the Princeton
faculty, where he was serving when elected president of the
American Historical Association, wrote: "With the passing of
Richard Heath Dabney the last link was broken with the faculty
of the nineties. The students of half a century ago, while
they mourned the loss of others of the inspiring group at
whose feet they sat—Frank Smith, Jack Mallet, Charles Kent,
Milton Humphreys, etc.—consoled themselves with the thought,
Mr. Dabney still lives, to greet us when we visit the university. . . .
How often have we heard the remark, `It was Heath Dabney
who gave me my lifelong interest in history.' Mr. Dabney not
only opened new intellectual vistas to his students, he had a
profound influence in shaping their characters."

Dr. Samuel A. Mitchell, internationally recognized astronomer,
retired in 1945 as professor of astronomy and director
of the McCormick Observatory after thirty-four years in those
posts. As professor emeritus he continued his research. In
1949 he was awarded the Watson Gold Medal of the National
Academy of Sciences, awarded only ten times since its establishment
in 1887, and only four times to an American. Dr.
Mitchell's longtime associate, Dr. Harold L. Alden, succeeded
him as head of the department and director of the observatory.

Prof. William A. Kepner, '08, one of the most interesting
lecturers on the faculty, retired in 1946 as professor of biology.
Physically he was of small stature, but his mental capacity was
wide-ranging. It was at the request of Clarence Darrow, the
famous defense counsel for John T. Scopes at his trial for violating
the Tennessee antievolution law, that Dr. Kepner testified
in Scopes's behalf. Following his retirement, Kepner was
honored at a reception given by his former students and colleagues.
Students from distant points were there, and several

spoke. A volume edited by his faculty associate Prof. Bruce D.
Reynolds, '20, was presented. It contained research papers by
some of the outstanding research biologists who had studied
under Kepner. He was the author of Animals Looking into the
Future (1925) and of more than sixty research papers and
other articles in leading scientific and educational journals.

Another longtime university figure retired in 1947 when
Elmer I. Carruthers relinquished the post of bursar, which he
had held since 1912. He had succeeded I. K. Moran in the
position, after serving as a bank teller for several years. Carruthers
had organized the university's first course in accounting
in 1918 when the U.S. Army required such training for
some of its soldiers. He received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan
Award and was elected by the Students to Omicron Delta
Kappa. Ill health forced his retirement, and he died in 1951.

Vincent Shea, '35, was appointed bursar and would be a
leading influence in university affairs from that time forward.
A specialist in public administration and finance, he got his
M.S. at the university and then took graduate courses in public
administration at the University of Chicago and Stanford.
On his return to Charlottesville he became research assistant
to the Virginia Commission on County Government under
Prof. George W. Spicer, its chairman. Subsequently he joined
the Bureau of Public Administration and became its acting
director during the absence of Rowland Egger. Shea also
served for two years as field director of studies in reorganization
of state financial agencies and as financial consultant to
the Richmond Charter Commission. He was elected president
of the National Association of Business Officers.

John L. Newcomb announced in 1946 that he would resign as
president of the university on his sixty-fifth birthday, December
18. Thomas B. Gay, '06, was named chairman of a Board
of Visitors committee to seek a successor. High tributes were
paid to Newcomb at the 1947 Finals. Rector Stettinius spoke
and presented him with a silver box on behalf of the visitors.
Robert B. Tunstall, '02, pointed out that under Newcomb, despite
depression and war, "in plant, in appropriations and in
equipment the strength and power of the university have approximately
doubled." He added that the new library is "the
greatest single step toward realizing the aspirations of a century."

51. F. D. G. Ribble, dean of the Law School, 1939-63.

The faculty was virtually twice as large as when he took
office and twice as many Ph.D.'s had been graduated as in the
entire previous history of the institution. Two years later President
Newcomb's bust by Charles Rudy was placed in the entrance
hall of Alderman Library alongside that of Alderman.
The ceremonies were simple, in accordance with Newcomb's
wish. Dean F. D. G. Ribble of the Law School presented the
bust and President Colgate Darden accepted it.

After his retirement there were expressions of high praise
from various faculty members for the manner in which he
discharged his duties in extremely difficult times. But Stringfellow
Barr entered a strong dissent: "Newk was a nice guy,
but he hadn't the slightest idea what it was all about. I was
devoted to him, but I thought it was a kind of awful choice."
On the other hand, Prof. Robert K. Gooch said that "on the
whole, I think he was the best president we ever had." Randall
Thompson declared: "I never worked under a president who
was more benign, more understanding, fairer, more patient,
more considerate of my rights. . . . He has been a kind of
yardstick for me at other places where I have taught." Professor
Thompson's opinion is shared by many of those who
served on the faculty during Newcomb's presidency.