Rutgers University - Scarlet Letter Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

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SENIGR CLASS l-IISTQRY 0 Light, relatively carefree days-that month of September, 1930, when a group of, as the records show, carefully selected youths entered the portals of Qld Queens for the first time. Three hundred and sixty-five strong they were, culled from all walks of life. Some were sons of wealth, with a back- ground of material and mental prosperity on which to form the new set of ideals which college inevitably constitutes. Others had worked hard and long for their chance to battle for a diploma and a broad training in their chosen field. But through all there ran a feeling of optimism for what the future held. lt seems a long way in retrospect to the crisp fall day when a black-shirted freshman football squad drenched and were drenched by a fire hose in the hands of a belligerent group of sophomores to furnish what might have been a lasting tradition in the history of class warfare at Rutgers. Clashes between frosh and upperclassmen have become less frequent since then. Class warfare seems to have had its heyday and passed into the darkness of a bygone era. Other values have arisen . . . But the decline of this time-honored pastime did not reduce the enthusiasm with which l934 supported its class functions on a social plane. Probably the most successful to date has been the lunior Prom, in which Al Beissert, working in cooperation with the administration under the new plan of dance management, made the affair a financial and social success that it deserved to be. Slashing the price of tickets to this affair and to subsequent college functions has proved no detriment to the calibre and popularity of the dances. Athletically, the class has been on a par with most of its immediate predecessors. George Kramer, football and lacrosse star as well as president of five campus organizations, is probably the brightest in '34's sport contribu- l24l

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tion. Walter Spence, internationally famous sprint swimmer and class presi- dent, is another l934 product. Peaches Heenan, in baseball, football and basketball, lim Humphreys, in basketball and lacrosse, Lloyd Hirschorn, in water polo, football and baseball, and Red Demarest in football and basket- ball are other outstanding performers. The rise of sports at Rutgers has, in general, been one of the many signifi- cant changes in the life of Qld Queens during '34's stay here. George E. Little, coming here from the wide open spaces of Wisconsin, put Rutgers sports on a new basis, enlarging and solidifying the entire program and adding a wide intramural series with the aid of Harry Rockafeller. Our class -.z has been an important one in the rebuilding of many Scarlet teams. The break came while athletes of lf-334 were in a transition stage of varsity com- petition, and with the building of the new gym, have played a large role in , the new sports picture. i Qf more vital importance to the college as a whole has been the advent y of President Robert C. Clothier, former dean of men at Pittsburgh, who has, l in a short space of time, become one of us. Those of '34 who have been in T close Contact with him have known the President for the genial friend and T adviser that he is. Financial stress on the university has been great since the advent of the administrative head, but he has not been found wanting in the final test. His services to the university in general and to the several classes in particular will, perhaps, never be fully realized. Sung and unsung heroes are scattered throughout the class roll. There is Don Dickerson, editor-in-chief of the Targum, varsity sports manager and Phi Beta Kappa-one of the few men in recent college history to achieve such . distinction in addition to participating extensively in Student Council activi- 1 ties. There is George Kramer, whose work in non-athletic fields has been I unusually significant, and whose achievements in the field of sports has T helped to carry the name of Rutgers far and wide. Ranging with him in this regard is Walt Spence, who certainly merits a place with his recent predeces- sor, George Kojac, in the swimming Hall of Fame at this old stronghold of the tank sport. ln the domain of publications, in addition to Dickerson's work, Iohn Mackenzie, a late addition to the class roster, has been noteworthy for the rebuilding of two organizations which had been on the decline. Queen's Players and the Anthologist have flourished recently, and Mackenzie is also y y head of Philosophian. All three, through catering to particular groups on the campus, are highly significant in the role they have to play. 7 And there is Larry Leeds, the electrical engineer whose story is known to few. Entering as a freshman, with no credits, but a wide background of practical experience, this sandy-haired little figure who stalks the campus on . cold mornings with his cap pulled well over his eyes, worked for years before ffi. coming to college as radio operator on ocean liners and experimental assis- tant for the Bell Telephone Company. He has a Phi Beta Kappa key now I g E and a desire to participate in the eternal search for theoretical knowledge A35-5,22 ,,', in the scientific field. 'ng This, however, is not the story of individuals, but of a class. Perhaps the most characteristic of our achievements as such was the donation of S300 V b from the class fund for use by the University. This amount was part of the sstv V' n i- 4 profits from the Iunior Prom, and was awarded by a class vote after the affair. if All types are represented in l934. Though small, the class has its quota of 5 ..., every type of individuality that goes to make up the composite picture of j campus life. Through the four years has gone the vein of the depression that K . 5 has made its mark on the colleges as it has on every American institution. f lust what will be the end of the road for the members of '34 they, nor no one isa else, can tell. Certain it is that their years on the campuses of Queens College is T have helped rather than hindered them in their drives to whatever goals they if have set. l'l 3 ,f tif, PHILIP 1. Doneis, Historian. ' ,ZS I tr. l .4 ...i f Ns. T N iid, ft lzv- V' . Q