Whitworth Memories, 60 years later

T.J. Summerson, Class of '49

There was a freshmen “mixer” soon after we registered. It was held in the Jay P. Graves Hall (gym). Carol Moss, neighbor and freshman too, and I attended. What a shock because we played child games like “drop the handkerchief”! Whitworth, you have come a long way!

Who can forget Dr. Mark Koehler’s bible classes. I recall one spring quarter, one of his classes was held just after lunch. It was a warm afternoon and some of the class fell asleep. But they were abruptly awakened with laughter from the class mates who were awake. Everyone was laughing at the nappers because they didn’t realize that Mark had spiced up his lecture by turning on the flashing lights on his bow tie. Then when all were awake and alert, he flashed them again. We all chuckled and Mark went on with his lecture. Talk about your flashers!

I could mention the episode of how a cow ended up in McMillan Hall library but Bill Gwinn says that he knows all about that.

Attendance at Chapel on Wednesday was mandatory, so skipping chapel was not the thing to do. Bill Chapman was scared one day because he skipped Chapel but was in the men’s dorm when Dr. Warren came through making a “bed check”. Bill was a very shy guy and probably had a good excuse for not attending Chapel. (I don’t think that Dr. Warren saw him.)

The basketball teams ‘43-44 and ’44-45 did not have very good seasons. But we had a lot of fun. Our losses were considered moral victories. There was great comradeship among the players. Al Brown, Dick Schwab, Larry White, George Yamamoto, Tom Haji, Sadao, Kureiwa, Tome Terao, Bert Kimura, Dan Masamoto, LaVerne Brassard and Dave Barnes. It is amazing that there were no photos of the basketball team in the 1944 Natsihi yearbook and only one in the 1945 Natsihi!. But the caption beside that photo on page 30 is today’s reality. “Basketball is a favorite sport, and the College should in the near future become a college of champion teams.” PS- If you want to see a picture of the team, you will have to look at Page 14 in the July 2003 issue of Nostalgia magazine.

My two sisters Betty (Elizabeth) and Georgene (Josie) were also at Whitworth when I was finishing the last two years of my BS degree. Betty was into drama and literature. She had major roles in some of the plays, while I had minor roles such as the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Georgene was journalism major and worked on the editorial staff of both the Whitworthian and the Natsihi. I spent some time as advertising manager, to help defray expenses. Interestingly, both Betty and Georgene found their husbands at Whitworth. Betty married Darrel Turner and Georgene married Les Patten.