Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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found that our classmates thus honored were Rushton, Korolyshun, Hollick, Chand¬ ler, Lewin, Ljunggren, McEwan and Ras- lavsky. On March 15 the Tech News carried the first Junior Prom publicity, remind¬ ing us of that event of events for a third- year man, namely Junior weekend. The prom held in the Bancroft’s main ball¬ room with the scintillating music of “Tommy” Reynold’s Orchestra was an event to be long remembered. The “Show-Off” excellently presented by the Masque continued the festivities on Saturday night while the Round-Robin dances topped the joyous weekend. The last important event of this year came on May 24 at government lecture when class elections were held. The crew selected to guide the class on its trip down the home stretch were: Raslavsky, pres¬ ident; Hollick, vice-president; Amidon, secretary; Keyser, treasurer. The ordeal of finals then came and went and we broke up for the last time at which we could look forward to coming back in the fall. Some events are spoken of as having a “whirlwind beginning”. That phrase can be admirably applied to the Senior year of the class of ’39, the whirlwind being the now famous New England hur¬ ricane. All of us vividly remember the readily apparent change in appearance of the campus on return for the last year of our formal education. Later in the year the Worcester papers carried an official appraisal of the system of athletic scholarships, a practice begun with our class. The results were highly successful as evidenced by the now famous undefeated season successes of the ’38 football and soccer teams, both of which numbered many ’39 men among their players. Not so well known, however, was the also phenomenal success of these men MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING of ’39 as students with most of them on honor rolls time after time. At the first two assemblies of the year, eight men of the class were pledged to Sigma Xi and ten to Tau Peta Pi. On November 19 the Tech Carnival again “rolled around” with a tradition falling with presentation of a fine Junior-Senior skit in place of the justly famed faculty act. Just before Christmas recess many of us attended the interfraternity Ball which was an innovation in Tech history in having a “name” band, that of Glenn Miller, supply the rhythms for the evening. The Christmas recess was not long over 124 ]

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was short-lived however, because after two meetings the Tech Council decided, on November 8, that ’39 should forfeit the rope pull because we took undue advan¬ tage of the Frosh. Some class had to be the “goat” to end unfairness in rope pulls and 39 was it, much to our disgust. Before this, the Frosh had also won the inter¬ class track meet from us, which only deepened our misery. Later our spirits were raised, however. The hard fighting Soph football and soccer teams defeated the corresponding fresh¬ man teams. In the latter part of Novem¬ ber, the Tech Carnival was again put on. This time Warren Keating again came through with a winning skit for us, “Charlie Chin in Worcester”. No more events of interest occurred until March, at which time the fast playing Soph bas¬ ketball team not only defeated the Frosh, but also won the interclass hoop title. In April the Soph-Frosh rivalry was tied E.E.’S ALSO MUST EAT by our win in the bowding matches. Things now r seemed more hopeful for us than at the beginning of the year. In May there was a little class strife all our own about junior jackets for which we had long waited. Very few r of us will ever forget that half-hour long class meet- PINKY’S MEN ing, after physics lecture, when dinners became cold and arguments became hot. Some wanted red, some wanted grey, some didn’t care. The final choice was red jackets, now long familiar. On May 24 elections were held for our next, or Junior year, with the following results: President, “Al” Raslavsky; vice- president, John Hoi lick; secretary, “Charley” Amidon; treasurer, Carl Lewin. The Frosh-Soph rivalry was now re¬ sumed. We won the rifle clash, but the Frosh took tennis and golf thereby gaining for themselves the Goat’s head. Our next event of the year was our first social event as a class, the Soph Hop, which was held at the Worcester Country Club. Soon after exams came and went, marking the end of our career as Soph¬ omores. The first event of interest to us as Juniors was the fall pledging of Tau Beta Pi at wdiich time several of our class were chosen. For a while, life as Juniors was uneventful with only the usual mid year finals to break the “monotony”. On Fri¬ day, April 1, an assembly was held which was of intense intere st to Juniors because at that assembly Skull “tapping” took place. When tapping was completed we 123 ]

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when the problem of mid-year exams again presented itself, but for the last time it was during this mid-year recess that the Worcester Sunday paper carried head¬ lines announcing the addition of the new mechanical engineering building, auditor¬ ium, quadrangle plans, and other changes to our familiar campus. The enthusiasm which these plans aroused in faculty and students alike, was however, short lived. On the afternoon of Monday, February 13, an invisible and subduing pall settled over the campus when it was learned that our good friend and guiding hand, President Ralph Earle, had unexpectedly passed away that noon. His sailing from the port of life meant to each of us the loss of an always true and sympathetic friend. To Tech it meant the loss of a great and progressive man at the helm who had done much for the wel¬ fare of young men interested in engineer¬ ing. Even the last act of President Earle was in the interests of the students, this last act being a chapel talk on the merits of the quality of persistence which talk will be an indelible inspiration to the men of the class of ’39. Soon, graduation with its attendant activities claimed its share of our inter¬ est and time forcibly reminding us the class of 39, that four years of lasting memories and associations were fast draw¬ ing to a close. On the morning of Friday, June 16, 1939, at commencement, the voluminous curtain of time was drawn with Worcester Tech on the stage side even then improving and adding to the “props” needed to prepare young men for a future in engineering. On the auditorium side of the curtain was a group of eager and expectant young men passing through the exits of commencement and out into the world to use and apply the knowledge gained from the play just completed on the stage of Worcester Tech. William R. Ahern Class Historian — 1, 2, 3, 4. 25 ]