Seattle University - Aegis Yearbook (Seattle, WA)

Page 8 text:

 GUi cMtii uj, THE CHANGES wrought by the four years since this graduating class of 1944 entered the hallowed halls as green S. C. freshmen have been many and drastic, and the class history is clear evidence of such changes. The largest Freshman class ever to enter S. C. stormed through the portals r of knowledge in the fall of 1940, quickly organized itself and appointed as its leaders President Earl LaRivier, Vice President Gene Voiland, Secretary Margaret Berridge, Treasurer Guy Trotter and Seargeant-at-Arms Bob Mahaney. 1 Chief accomplishment during this year was the concession by the upperclassmen to the appointing of Freshmen members to the Advisory Board, though the success of the annual Barn Dance and Freshman week were close behind in the race for highest achievement awards. Comfortably settled now in their niches of Eds” and Coeds” of S. C., the Sophomore class of 1941 straightway got off to a good start by promoting the biggest and most successful Barn Dance ever held. Class business was under the able management of Gene Voiland, president, and his assistants. But the cloud of war and the storm of Pearl Harbor broke upon the horizon and by May of 1942 these same Sophomore boys who had been chosen members of the International Knights of the Wigwam were being chosen members of the greatest Knight organization of all—the Knights for peace, in the service of Uncle Sam. The fall of 1942—the Junior year—evidenced the call of Uncle Sam by the failure of many more students to return to college classes. Material for doctors, engineers, flyers, officers and enlisted personnel of all fields was plucked from the ranks of S. C. Juniors. Because of their absence, class officers Gene Voiland, John Ayers, Bernice Gaffney and Art Doran, and other members of the class were forced to double their efforts to insure the success of the junior year. And insure it they did, by such feats as the Spring Informal, the Homecoming, and the Junior Prom. But more and more time was being spent in Army and Navy tests in the Library, and departure of even the class officers for training fields in far-off states. The senior year—1943—and beginning Fall Quarter days evidenced the almost complete depletion cf male members of the student body by the Services. But the coeds on the Home Front carried on by electing Cay Mayer, presi- . ! dent; Louise Smyth, vice president, and Lorraine Cobb, secretary-treasurer, to work hand-in-hand with the Jesuit professors in senior philosophy courses, through the maze of senior orals, and to the long-awaited moment when days . ,p of preparation were a thing of the past and the day of success a thing of the present. The steps up the stairs of knowledge had sometimes been faltering, but they had always been straight. The Servicemen's page, though incomplete as to number, is representative of the success which follows those straight steps. And so, the remainder of the graduating class of 1944, confident that equal successes await them, pause for only a moment on the threshold before stepping into their own bright future.