University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

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Days of Our Years: Class History Rhode Island Stale, we pledge our Loyalty, The Class of Nineteen Forty-five A class song .... sung in September, 1941, by four hundred and fifty fresh- men. Yes, we were freshmen, green and innocent and enthusiastic. For a long time the word “college” had held a peculiar fascination for us. We had imagined that college life consisted of four years which were an entity of life in themselves. College was a world of its own; the outside world simply ceased to exist. And so we came in September and sang our song in September. It was our song; we would sing it for four years, and in June, 1945, we would re- ceive our diplomas and sing our song for the last time, together. Little did we dream then of what the next four years had in store for the Class of For- ty-five. We give the best we have to offer, To keep her glorious name alive . . That first year, as an actual part of Rhody’s student body of twelve hun- dred, w r e were proud to give all that we could. The girls started in with a bang- up stunt night at which Dean Gilbert, the freshman of the faculty, stole the show. We chose Miss Mary A. Reilly as out class adviser, and elected Carl Beckman, President; Dorothea Dahl- quist, Vice President; Champlin Wil- bour, Treasurer; Jeanne Freeman, Sec- retary, and Gordon Davis, Social Chair- man. The Class of Forty-five had a fin- ger in almost -every organization on campus. We went out for sports . . . freshman football, basketball, baseball, and we remember such names as Aid- rich, Miller, Dahl, Topazio, Davis, Don- abedian, Wilbour, Bennett. . . . Our own cheerleaders, Carl Beckman, Owen Dex- ter, and Dee Dahlquist, followed the team and kept us rooting. None of our girls made Varsity teams that year but they made records ... all of them . . . Browning, Angell, Anthony, Freeman, Jones, Whitaker, Pingree and E. Martin. That was a year to remember. A year of real college life. There was no moment of rest. Event followed event . . . Vic dances on Friday nights . . . Homecoming week-end and the fair at Rodman . . . State celebrating its fif- tieth anniversary . . . the Aggie Bawl . . . football games . . . particularly our victory over Connecticut, and our boys took their caps off . . . fraternity and sorority rushing . . . State’s stealing the Brown bear . . . bonfire rallies and snake lines . . . Slide Rule Strut . . . Rhode Island’s victory over Fordham in the Garden . . . Soph Hop and Junior Prom and our own Frosh Frolic. Yes, event followed event. Our own events over which the outside world had no control. On December 7, 1941, our college life began to change. We didn’t realize it then, but the troubles of the outside world became our trou- bles. It was war, all right, but “war” was just a word to us then. We didn’t think of it in terms of diminished enroll- ments, of our own boys in uniform, be- ing killed, of rationed gas and food and clothing, of soldiers on our campus. We kept on living a normal life until May; then they talked of a word called “ac- celeration,” and of first semester and second semester students. In June the graduating R. 0. T. C. officers did not look for jobs; they went directly into the Infantry or the Air Corps. “Acceleration” materialized. Most of the Junior and Senior classes went to school that next summer, and our class was divided for the first time. All our engineers and a few girls stayed in school that June; the rest of us went home to a summer of rest or work. In September we came back as first semester Sophomores; those others of our class were in their second semester. We found things fairly normal, but there was an intangible “something” there which made college life that year different from the first. Many boys, even our own, had left school to join the Army or the Navy, and a Rhody Roll Call was an added feature in the Beacon. - §{ 20

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tisi, Elvis Angelo, Pfc., U. S. A Killed in Auto Accident Camp Rapid, S. D., September 12, 1943 ★ ★ ★ KNIGHT, EARL, S SGT. U.S.A.MED.C. KRUEGER, HAROLD, U.S.A. KUDLACIK, LOUIS, U.S.A. A.C. LANPHEAR, CLAYTON, U.S.A. LIBER ATI, EUGENE, U.S.A. LIGUORI, ALPHONSE, U.S.A.A.C. LINEHAN, JOHN, U.S.A. LITWIN. ALFRED, PVT. U.S.A. LOMBARDI, NICHOLAS, TVT. U.S.A. LONG, SYLVESTER, LT. U.S.A.A.F. LOVETT, JAMES, LT. U.S.A. INFANTRY LOWE, HAROLD, U.S.A.A.F. Mcelroy, francis, u.s.n.a.c. MAlCKER, ALLEN, U.S.A.A.F. MADDELENA, HAROLD, U.S.A. MANNING, DAVID, U.S.A. MARASCO, RALPH, Sl C N.T.S. MASON, ARTHUR, PFC. U.S.A. INFANTRY MASTERSON, STEVEN, U.S.A. MEDAS, JOSEPH, CPL. U.S.A. MEDEIROS, ARTHUR, U.S.A. MESROBIAN, JOHN, U.S.A. MILLER, ALAN, U.S.A. INFANTRY MILLER, ROBERT. U.S.N.T.S. MORSE, RICHARD, U.S.A. MORSILLI, FREDERICK, LT. U.S.A.A.F. MULCAHY, WILLIAM, U.S.A. OGDEN, WILFRED, U.S.A.A.F. OPDYKE, GEORGE. U.S.A. ORTLEVA, ROBERT, PFC. ARMY PASOONE, DONATO, LT. U.S.A. PERRY, GEORGE, LT. U.S.A. PETTENGILL, ARNOLD, LT. U.S.A. FIELD ART PHILLIPS. CHARLES, LT. U.S.M.C.R. PIGNATARO, JAMES, U.S.N. PIRANI, JOHN, LT. U.S.A.A.F. PLATT, RONALD, LT. U.S.A. POULOS, PANOS, U.S.A.A.C. PROCTOR, DONALD, LT. U.S.A.A.F. PYNE. JAMES. SGT IT s M r RECORDS, HENRY, ENSIGN U.S.M.M. ROBBINS, DONALD, N.A.C.C. ROBERTS, JOHN, LT. U.S.A.A.F. ROBINSON, JOHN, PVT. U.S.A. ROCCIOLO, JOHN, U.S.A. ROCK, JOSEPH. PFC. U.S.A. ROMANO, JOHN, A.S.N.R. ROSSI, FRANK, LT. U.S.A.A.F. ROSSI, LOUIS, M1DSII. U.S.N.R. RUSK, JOHN, U.S.A.A.F. RUSSELL, WILLIAM, LT. U.S.A.A.F. SALTER, WARREN, PVT. U.S.A. SAMARAS, NICHOLAS, U.S.A.A.C. SANATORO, SEBAST1ANO, U.S.A. SARRA, FRANK, U. A.ATF. SCHOCK, CHARLES, U.S.M.M. SCOTT, ROBERT, U.S.A.A.F.M.D. SELBY, CHARLES, U.S.A. SILVESTRI, ANTHONY, U.S.A. SIMMON, JAMES, U.S.A. SMITH, LINWOOD, U.S.A. SMITH, RICHARD, H. A. S 2 U.S.N.R. SPARKS, MOSES, U.S.N.R. SPENCER, ANDREW, U.S.A. STEAD, DEXTER, 3 C A.M.M. STELLITANO, JOHN, U.S.A. STICKNEY, ALDEN, U.S.A. STOTT, CHESTER, LT. U.S.A. INFANTRY SUDDARD, THEODORE, S2 C U.S.N.T S SUNIIIN, ROGER, U.S.A.A.F. SZYMKOWICZ, RAYMOND, PVT. U.S.A. INF THOMAS, WHEATON, PVT. U.S.A. INFANTRY TOPAZIO. ATTILLIO, PFC. T.V.A. TRAYNER, ALBERT, O.C.S., U.S.A. WALES, THAYER, LT. U.S.A. INFANTRY W ' ATSON, WILLIAM, U.S.A.A.F. W r EINER, LLOYD, U.S.N. WTHTAKER, WILLIAM, LT. U.S.A. WILBOUR, CHAMPLIN. C.M., M.M. WILLARD, KENNETH, U.S.A.A.F. WILSON, JAMES, U.S.A.A.F. WTtIGHT, FRANK, U.S.A. WYNNE, RICHARD, MIDSH. ANNAPOLIS ZALKIND, PHILIP, PVT. S.C.S.U. WOMEN EATOUGH, VIRGINIA, SC3 C WEAVES TIMMONS, PHYLLIS BANFIELD, T3 C WAVES We are sorry this list is incomplete, but we have no record of the whereabouts of the other boys who were in the original class of 1945.

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The GRISTETTE To honor State, and Land and College, Our hearts and minds will ever strive . . It was hard at first to keep things going in those times . . . everyone’s mind was on the war . . . but we knew we had a definite responsibility; that now, as Sophomores, we had to work hard to keep State qnd its traditions, and that it was our duty to show the new Freshmen what college life should be. We elected officers again: Carl Beck- man, again as President; Jeanne Free- man, Vice-President; Edward Dahl, Treasurer; Dorothea Dahlquist, Secre- tary, and Gordon Davis, Social Chair- man. Our adviser. Miss Reilly, went on leave to work for her Doctor’s De- gree in English. The first formal dance of the year, in October, was our own Soph Hop for which Sam Donahue’s Orchestra played. Dee Dahlquist was selected to be Queen of the Sophomore Class. We had a football team and a basketball team, and many of our boys made Varsity . . . Miller, Topazio, Bennett, Donabedian, Davis. At the same time, some boys of the Class of Forty-five had made Uncle Sam’s Varsity team. Girls, too, were prominent on the hockey field and the basketball court . . . Anthony, An- gell, Browning, Jones, Freeman, Pin- gree, and Whitaker. All the clubs on campus received our hearty support . . . Portia, Wranglers, Home Ec Club, the Choir, Phi Delta, 4-H Club, Camfera Club, Student Senate. W. S. G. A., and the Beacon. The war was brought even closer by the arrival of C. P. T. groups . . . our football team did well but we realized that it was a “w ' ar time team” after the physical slaughter by New Hampshire . . . December, and the last Junior Prom at the Biltmore . . . basketball team beaten in the Garden . . . the last Mil Ball in April and Dee Dahlquist was chosen Sweetheart of the Regiment . . . another graduation in June, the second since September for one had taken place in February. This accelerated program had really taken hold of the campus, and most of us planned to continue as first semester Juniors through the sum- mer. There was no denying the presence of war on the campus that semester. Two hundred and fifty Army trainees moved into Eleanor Roosevelt Hall, and our own Senior R. O. T. C. boys were put into the regular Army, and lived with the ASTP’s. Our cafeteria was given over to their use, and the stu- dents used the housing units as dining rooms. The civilian boys, regardless of their fraternity, were moved into T K E, Alpha Tau, Lambda Chi and Beta Psi. The other fraternity houses were occupied by dorm girls and fresh- men. We heard talk of donating blood ... air raid drills . . . war diplomas . . . and then a service flag for our Rhody boys, some of them members of our own Class of Forty-five, was hung in Ed- wards Auditorium. That made us real- ize how close to home the war was, and, although we were proud of them, wp were saddened at the sight of the blue and the gold stars. September came and brought another graduation. Those of our class who had not attended school that summer re- turned, and the Class of Forty-five then existed in three sections. Football was a casualty that fall, along with the Soph Hop, Junior Prom, and so many of the clubs. Girls were forced to take over many of the organi- zations ; even The Beacon staff was nine- ty per cent feminine. . . . Our girls made a good showing in basketball and hoc- key . . . and our Rhody basketball team played in Philadelphia and the Garden. That year we had no class officers, but instead each semester sent one repre- sentative to a Student Board. Jeanne Freeman was chosen as our represen- tative. That winter we were grateful for the presence of the ASTP boys . . . they were the inspiration for the opening of the Union, a sort of Campus USO for which purpose Beta Phi was used. The soldiers produced a play, “Misbehavin’.” and held a winter formal, the “Crystal Ball.” Somewhere . . . somehow ... we hoped our boys were having a little fun. -4 21 fr-