Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

Page 15 text:

Q TT XA V 1912 196 Collegians and the rest of the world were shaken into reality hv the invasion of Pearl Harbor and World War II. Memphis State College shared with her country the wounds, the desperation, and the toil of the war years. Young men exchanged textbooks for rifles and left MSC for Bataan and Corregidor. while many of their former classmates worked on con- struction jobs as members of the National Youth Administration. Students built an industrial arts building on campus: combined Social activities with USO work and volunteer work at Kennedy Hospital: studied special courses that were designed to further the war effort. In 1943, Dr. Jennings B. Sanders became presi- dent of the college. Dr. Sanders was the youngest man to hold that position, (he was forty-three at the time of his appointment ) and the first man to occupy the President ' s chair holding a Ph.D. degree. Prior to his assuming the position, Memphis State had lost its academic standing with the South- ern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and Dr. Sanders explained that he came to Mem- Ol3 phis State with two purposes: (1) to get the college reinstated as a member of the Southern Associa- tion of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and (2) to try to get the college designated as a training school for officers and men in the armed forces. Dr. Sanders succeeded in having the college re- instated in just three months. Also, Memphis State College was used as a pilot training center. The pilots were housed on the third floor of Mvnders East, now a girls 1 dormitory. In 1944, of seventeen seniors only two were males, with less than twenty male students attending in all levels. Happily, however, this situation soon changed, the war was over, and the boys came home. The 1945 DeSoto, dedicated to those veterans, had the appropriate theme. Scenes of Home. Two pages of this annual gave it a sad distinction, a page filled with lists of those missing in action and prisoners-of-war: an adjoining black bordered page whose list of names carried the heading In Memoriam. Thus the war ended for MSC. II

Page 14 text:

Depression Days The institution ' s rapid expansion was halted as the nation sank into the depression. During those lean years of the thirties, when school administra- tors struggled to maintain and operate existing fa- cilities, and economy was the watchword, the school ' s title was shortened to State Teachers Col- lege. During those years many well-known indi- viduals such as Flora Rawls, J. M. Smith, C. C. Humphreys, Leo Davis, R. P. Clark, and others, joined the staff. The Tiger Rag, a weekly student newspaper, was first published, and in athletics, the college was a member of the Mississippi Valley Conference. In August of 1933, the school Glee Club sang at the Chicago World ' s Fair. At the close of the Depression Decade the college lost the second of its great presidents, when John Willard Brister died in his sleep. He had occupied the president ' s chair for twenty years. Richard C. Jones succeeded President Brister and served in that position until 1943. The school, along with the nation, hopefully plunged into the ' 40 ' s, flinging off the gloom of the depression years. Even glamour had its place at State Teachers, when handsome movie star Dick Powell came to the campus and chose six Vanity Fair Queens. Along with this new face for the forties, came the new name of Memphis State College in 1941.

Page 16 text:

Peace was not the only thing that returned to the Memphis State campus in 1946. Along with it came the man who was to lead and guide the college to university status. That man was Jack Millard Smith, a 1929 graduate of West Tennessee State Teachers col- lege, who occupied the president ' s chair from 1946 to 1960, with one year off while he served the state of Tennes- see as Commissioner of Education. When President Jack, as he insist- ed students call him, assumed control of MSC, enrollment was nearly fifteen hundred, and the college plant consist- ed of the administration building, Mynders Hall, Scates Hall, the John Willard Brister library, the Training School, the cafeteria, and the gym. Due to the war, the college ' s growth had been limited, but under the leader- ship of President Smith it soon began to expand in all fields. 0 T , 1912 1962 An incident in 1947 put the name of Memphis State on the lips of the entire country. When Miss Barbara Walker, a student at MSC, was selected Miss America of 1947, the college received nation-wide publicity. In dedicating the 1948 issue to Miss Walker, the editor of The DeSoto said: Who through her wholesome ideals had brought national acclaim to Memphis State because of the outstanding qualities of true womanhood, and who side-stepped all stage and screen offers to return to MSC and graduate with her class of ' 48. Of the first Southern girl to acquire this title we are exceedingly proud. 12