College - World War II

This post is taken from notes made by my father who was a university student during the beginning of World War II. I include it because it was interesting to see how the war made such an impact on his university as they went from a normal sized group of students, to very few students when so many were drafted and went to war, and then a huge amount of students when everyone returned and had access to the GI Bill. He was a chemistry major, so his comments are pretty specific to what happened in his department.

He says:

Perhaps the effects of World War II in the chemistry department might be of interest. I began my time at USAC (Utah State Agricultural College) in September of 1941. Things had not changed much then except that Dr. Reuben Hill, the department head, had been called to the service before the US got into the war.

I took inorganic chemistry, taught by Dr. Sherwin Maeser. The class was always taught at 8 AM. The old lecture room had seats for 120 students but there were about 150 in the room the first day of class. Dr. Maeser came in at 8 AM and saw about 25 students standing in the back of the room. He looked up and said, "There will be plenty of seats next week." -- and there were. I think there were less than 50 left in the class by the end of the school year, maybe partially a result of Pearl Harbor being attacked on December 7th.

Things really changed in 1942. Several teachers were no longer there. Two of my high school teachers were there along with Professor Neuhoff, a refugee from Poland, who was teaching general chemistry. (The next year he moved on to the University of Utah for more pay and later it was learned he had never been to college.) The analytical chemistry teacher, Professor Hurst, was still there since he was nearly old enough to retire.

We were told to expect to be drafted soon unless we joined the reserve, in which case we could go on to school. Most everyone joined by November 1942. We had physical exams in December by either the Navy or Army. (The Air Corps was part of the army still.) Those who joined the reserves were sent to the service about February of 1943 and a group of servicemen took over the only ladies' dorm for the Spring quarter. I don't think any of them took chemistry, so the classes became quite small and almost completely female.

Those who joined the reserve all went to Fort Ord and became operators of heavy guns. I had signed up for the Navy but didn't pass the physical exam and somehow they transferred me to the Army. This resulted in my missing the big call-ups until July, and then I went to the infantry in Texas.

For about the next two years I went to different Army schools and finally spent some time in Guam in the Signal Corps. I was discharged in time for the Spring quarter in 1946. I returned to Logan and visited the chemistry department. By then, Dr. Hill was back. Dr. Maeser was still teaching inorganic chemistry and physical chemistry. Professor Hurst had died, so analytical chemistry was taught by Bruce Weidner who came from Ohio. Dr. Theodore Burton was teaching organic chemistry and Dr. Delbert Greenwood was in biochemistry.

In the Fall of 1946, returning veterans came in large numbers. Dr. Hill's class in general chemistry had over 1900 students (probably about as many as the prewar total students in the school). It was moved from the Chemistry building to the auditorium in Old Main. Of course, all those students had to have 2 labs each week, so lab classes were scheduled at all available hours of the day.

I was called in and asked to be the assistant for an overflow of ten or twelve students in the evening. The first night there were 120 students with space for just half of them in the lab. The rest I got to teach in the lecture hall. Somehow we all survived and perhaps they learned something. I know that I did. I graduated after the 1946-47 year, so that they must have made out all right. I think Dr. Hill's class still holds the record for the number of students in one class.

As I recall, veterans had tuition paid by the government plus $90 a month for living expenses. In graduate school I received $66 per month for being an assistant at the University of Kansas, so I lost touch with the USAC chemistry department.