New York University - Violet Yearbook (New York, NY)

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..-f Peace was a year old when the Class of 1950 began to study at University Heights, and crises were already developing. While men studied within the separated area of forty-three semirural acres, the world they were to live in was being changed. Sus- picion replaced cooperation and doubt be- came the successor to belief in progress. The K Classics Department Chairman-Professor Albert Billheimer: rx, fllllli, liflili, 'i'Ii.x, ll:-lf, .vlfila Gettysburg College, A.B. 1906, Princeton, A.M. 1910, Ph.D, 1918. last year of the first half of the twentieth century saw an increase in the frequency of disturbances, and that an allusion to a Geiger counter could be drawn to describe this situation, indicates the most important fear and problem facing the country. C lt was an unusual year in many ways. There was the weather, which got itself confused, bringing dry Thursdays and colds. Less universal instances of uneasiness were the song revivals and the return to the Twenties for women's fashions, investigations and ac- cusations, the large play given to the extra- marital life of Hollywood stars, rising un- employment and restricted hiring in several fields, a dull year on Broadway, indications of growing religious interest, and extremes in various aspects of social life. 0 Almost everyone had received a lesson in the chem- istry of death. The hydrogen bomb was widely discussed, and although it was de- nounced as a weapon of destruction with unknown possibilities, the world was still building into two armed camps. The future was unexpectedly cloudy, and doubts and fears grew. Not yet a lost generation and determined to live in peace and accustomed

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At the right hand of the Dean is his Executive Assistant, Commodore Robert E. Robinson, Jr. lUSN, Retiredl. Mainly concerned with the overall administration of the college, Commodore Robinson's work only infre- quently brings him into contact with its students. A graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, he retired in July, 1949, when he came to the Heights. harold k. work robert e. robmson gr Liaison officer between the college and lndustry and government, Dr. Harold K. Work holds the position Director of Research. Dr. Work came to the college 1949 from a career in industry where he had risen become director of research for Jones 8. Laughlin. 1923 he received his degree from Columbia. Two of in to In years later he was awarded a Ch.E. degree. In January, 1946, Mr. John A. Hill, a graduate of the NYU College of Engineering, 1939, was appointed to serve as the Director of Student Personnel and Admis- sions. Mr. Hill's duties on campus include handling the admissions to both the day and evening sessions, acting and veteran coordinator, and directing freshman guidance, a program initiated this year. iohn andrew hill A graduate of the Heights, Assistant Dean Harold Torgersen has been with the school for the past twenty years. Now an Associate Professor of Electrical Engi- neering, he also serves as Director of the Evening Divi- sion. Dean Torgersen did post-graduate work at Wis- consin, Columbia, MIT, and received his Master's Degree from Harvard. harold torgersen

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security, graduates gave more time to self- analysis and thoughts about their later years in a world they had not made but must continue. I Similar uncertainty with less disastrous consequences, was general some one hundred and twenty years ago. Then, the cause was the accession to the presi- dency of Andrew Jackson, with the control of the nation passing from the aristocratic, landed few to the unprepared masses as a result. O So long as this ruling class re- mained socially and politically ignorant, so long as it could not lead, there was danger. Fear of such a situation provoked public- minded men throughout the country to find means to educate the people. In New York City a group met to lay the foundation of a university whose purpose would be to pro- vide useful and practical education for the now governing elements. A school of liberal arts already existed in New York, devoted to the training of men for the professions, but the new university was planned to serve men who intended to enter business, engi- neering, or architecture, but who lacked the classical background necessary for admission to the universities of the day. U The gene- sis of the university was a meeting held on English Department Chairman-Professor Albert Ste- phens Borgman: flllilfg Michigan, A.B. 1911, Har- vard, A.M. 'l9'l2, Ph.D. 1919. December 30, 1829, presided over by the Reverend James Mathews, who later be- came the first chancellor. The men at the meeting decided to invite leading citizens of New York to a gathering, at which the actual formation of this university would be dis- cussed. At the second session, General Mor- gan Lewis, former governor of New York, 'NN Trees, hedges, and bush. Trees shade, they cover, and they lighten the spirits: This green plot shall be our stage . . . - Midsummer-Night's Dream