University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 2/1996 50th Anniversary: G.I. Bill at the UD Some 1,500 veterans flooded the University of Delaware campus after World War II, many of whom would not have found their way to Newark without the G.I. Bill. It was 50 years ago, in the spring of 1946, that the largest wave of war-weary veterans arrived, eager to absorb all the University had to offer-including the inspiring beauty of the elm-lined Mall. The veterans came armed with educational vouchers authorized by the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G.I. Bill. The act was groundbreaking: Never before had any country assisted its veterans in readjusting to civilian life through education and training. The number of veterans returning to school took higher education by surprise. Wartime surveys predicted only 8 to 12 percent of servicemen planned to go to college, according to The G.I. Bill, the Veterans and the Colleges by Keith W. Olson. At the end of the war, 29 percent of those eligible used their G.I. Bill entitlement to study at colleges and universities. The G.I. Bill pushed enrollment at Delaware to levels never approached before-to 1,817 in 1946-47, nearly twice its largest previous total. The University met this largely unanticipated demand with a strong commitment to the returning vets. In May of 1946, faced with a huge number of applicants, the faculty adopted a resolution allowing for the acceptance of all Delaware veterans and former students qualified to do work at the college level-and to do whatever it took to accommodate them. The Review reported that: "Members of the staff will be asked to make sacrifices in order to provide adequate instruction for our returning veterans." Class schedules needed to change. In November 1945, a "double time" schedule was approved for veterans who had not been able to start classes in September. It allowed them to complete a full term's work in half the time, while restricting them to only two courses for the shortened semester. By the next spring, the faculty approved an extension of hours in which courses could be scheduled (8 a.m. to 9 p.m.), and the first summer school sessions were announced. "We were in a hurry," recalls Lewis Reign, Delaware '48, an engineering graduate. "I went straight through, with a full course load. We had a goal-to get out and get on with things." The rush by veterans to use the G.I. Bill made economic sense. Under the bill, each veteran was entitled to one year of educational benefits of up to $500 per year, with an additional year of education for every year served. The benefits lapsed if not used within the allotted time. (In 1947-48, Delaware residents paid approximately $240 for tuition annually; out-of-state students paid approximately $490.) The most immediate challenge posed by the sudden influx of students was where to house them. Although vets received monthly stipends for living expenses (starting at $50 a month for single veterans and $75 a month for married veterans, rising to $75 and $105 by 1948), a survey of vets at the University showed that most had living expenses in excess of their stipends. Many supplemented the allowance with income earned by their wives (the great majority of veterans were men), or with their own part-time jobs. And, most struggled to find a place to live. The Review reported in February 1946 that "the main problemhas been in providing living quarters for the new students. To relieve the acute shortage, the University has arranged housing for some of the single men at Old College, the Training House, and has even opened the Knoll, formerly the residence of the president of the University, to 24 men." On the women's campus, buildings formerly used as the infirmary and for music classes were turned into dormitories. The University also obtained former Army barracks, which were erected on the east end of campus and became known as "King's Row." Married students, in particular, had to scramble to find housing. Some lived in a federal project that had previously housed workers in local munitions plants. Many married students commuted to Newark from homes elsewhere. Charles Joanedis, Delaware '50, remembers: "My new bride and I couldn't find any housing at all in Newark, so we ended up renting a room in a farmhouse near Elkton, Md. We shared the farmhouse kitchen, and Sylvia learned to cook using a woodstove." As the University stretched to accommodate the veterans, they stretched themselves. Most took full advantage of the academic opportunities given them. John A. Munroe, Delaware '36, H. Rodney Sharp Professor Emeritus of History, writes in The University of Delaware: A History, "...Most of the veterans...did better than before the war; the 'C' student of prewar days, now older and more serious, generally became a 'B' student if he returned to college after the war." In October 1946, The Review reported that the majority of those on the Dean's List, both in numbers and as a percentage of total students, were veterans. "Contrary to the opinion so oft expressed, that the vets will have a difficult time getting into the habit of studying again," the paper observed, "it is gratifying to note that vets make up the majority of the list." Anna Janney DeArmond, professor emeritus of English, says she remembers veterans as more serious than the average undergraduate. "The veterans had lived more strenuously, and sometimes more tragically, than most other students. I saw them as survivors. The majority were very, very good students." Ralph Newman Jr., Delaware '44, laughs when he recalls his return to school after four years of military service: "I don't think the professors recognized me. I was a changed person. Before the war, I was a terrible student and was threatened with dismissal several times. As a veteran, I got a 4.0 in every one of my engineering classes. I was the top student in my class one semester." Why? "Partly because of simple maturation," Newman says, "but, mainly because of the hardship I'd seen during the war. It gave me a much greater appreciation for the chance to go to college." The determination and maturity the veterans brought to their studies also gave them an advantage in sports. Delaware's postwar teams were dominated by ex-servicemen. The most successful was the football team. This exceptional group of men had played together under Coach Bill Murray before the war, with undefeated seasons in 1941 and 1942. After the war, they reconvened as an older and disciplined team. Star halfback Billy Cole, Delaware '49, says he believes the support the players received during their military service contributed to the team's later success. "Coach Murray corresponded with each of us, then combined excerpts from all of our letters and sent them to wherever we were stationed," he says. "Getting one of his updates was something we really looked forward to, and it helped bind the team together. So, once we got to play together again, we were stronger than we might otherwise have been." The veteran football team stretched Delaware's undefeated streak to 30 games when it beat Muhlenberg in November 1946. According to One Hundred Years of Delaware Football by Elbert Chance, Delaware '52, '59M, the victory was unprecedented, and, in other years, would have occasioned a day off from classes for the entire student body. But, the seasoned players rejected the idea of a day off. They had been out of school long enough. And, when the Muhlenberg triumph won Delaware invitations to three bowl games, the team's choice again revealed maturity and dedication. They chose to go to the Cigar Bowl in Orlando, Fla., because it was scheduled during Christmas vacation and would not interfere with classes. Campus life also took on a new, more adult tone. Harold (Buck) Thompson, Delaware '50, recalls that the seasoned veterans didn't have much patience for some traditions and activities that were once a part of college life. "Freshman hazing, for example, became a thing of the past-a freshman in his 20s who had served three or four years in the war wasn't about to be hazed," he says. The G.I. Bill has been praised for democratizing higher education by sending a generation of men to college who would not have gone otherwise. One thing is clear: The legislation, adopted at the end of a harrowing war, was a demonstration of faith in the individual veterans and of hope for the future. The veterans who studied at the University of Delaware generally consider that they fulfilled that expression of confidence. "Most of us worked very hard, studied hard," reflects Reign. Joanedis agrees: "We went on to do things and participate in society in ways that we never would have without the education we got on the G.I. Bill. We contributed to our communities and paid back the government's investment many times over." Lee Perry, Delaware '48 After serving as an observation pilot on a heavy cruiser in the western Pacific, Lee Perry entered the University in the fall of 1946. It was not a place he would have expected to be just a few years earlier. "I was never a star student in high school," Perry remembers. "I didn't have the inclination or the funds to go to college. But, the G.I. Bill gave me the money, and my intensive pilot training gave me the determination I needed to get the grades. I made the Dean's List my second semester." In less than three years, Perry earned his degree in business and economics, which he later put to use in a real estate career. "I took classes straight through both summers," Perry says. "Most of the veterans took a heavy load, worked hard. We were in a hurry to get out and get on with life." Robert F. Siemen, Delaware '43, '55M, '64M "Coach Murray called to ask if I'd come work for him, and I said yes," recalls Bob Siemen about his first job after World War II. After a tour in the Pacific with the 11th Airborne Division, Siemen came to Newark in July 1946. He'd accepted the invitation to work as assistant manager of athletics, with responsibility for coaching basketball, tennis and baseball. "Our teams were made up mostly of veterans," he says. "They were exempt from the University's physical education requirement, but they played on the varsity and junior varsity teams. They were very responsible and knowledgeable. It was a no-nonsense thing to coach someone who had spent the last three or four years, say, jumping out of planes." Siemen says he remembers well the 1946 football team. "The veterans on that team, and others, were mature. It was as if they had aged eight or 10 years in the three or four years they had been away from school." It was easy to distinguish veterans from the other students, according to Siemen. "Lots of the veterans wore parts of their uniforms, because other clothing was not always available," Siemen says. "And the 'Ike' jackets looked better than anything you could buy." Siemen and his wife, Florence, Delaware '61, felt fortunate to find a place to live when they moved into federal housing, which had been built for workers in local defense plants. Siemen studied under the G.I. Bill, obtaining a master's degree in economics while working in the athletics department. "I think I probably would have gotten my degree regardless of the G.I. Bill," he says, "but people didn't really debate whether to go to school or not. The entitlement wasn't going to last forever, so it behooved you to get going if you wanted to go to school." Walter Kittle, Delaware '49 Verdell Short, Delaware '48 Charles Griffith Jr., Delaware '49 Walter Kittle, Delaware '49, came to the University of Delaware by way of a promise made in a foxhole in Belgium. "Verdell Short and Charlie Griffith and I, and one other man who didn't live, said, 'If we get back home, we'll go to school together.'" Kittle, a native of Kansas City, came with Short and Griffith to the University of Delaware, where they had been students before the war. Having served together in the 104th Infantry Division in Belgium, Germany and France, the group had four Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and a Bronze Star. The fact that Kittle, Short and Griffith played sports helped them obtain housing. "The three of us were all on teams, so we lived in the Training House," says Short, who played basketball. "And, we all had a hell of a good time." Short studied business and went on to build a career in industry and real estate. Griffith, an education major who played football and baseball, recalls a sense of relief on returning to campus after the war. "I was glad to get back," he says. "It was great to be back at Delaware." Griffith dedicated his career to teaching history in Delaware secondary schools. "I never would have gone to college without the G.I. Bill," says Kittle, who graduated in mechanical engineering and spent his career with Cities Service Co. Kittle's two sons and a daughter-in-law also graduated from the University of Delaware. Samuel Macrum, Delaware '52 "I came to the University of Delaware because my commanding officer was a Delaware graduate and recommended it to me," Sam Macrum recalls. "And, I knew I could live with my grandmother in Wilmington. That was very important, because there weren't many places to live on campus." Macrum, a native of Connelsville, Pa., entered the University as a mechanical engineering major in 1947, after serving in Germany and France in the military railroad service. Macrum says it took him five years to graduate. "I wasn't the best student, but I made it," he says. Then, Macrum went on to a varied career in engineering, including research and development, production and, eventually, launching his own company. How does Macrum remember the University on his return? "Smallvery small. And, it was nice. I enjoyed every bit of it. For veterans, going to school was a transition-a chance to blow off some steam safely." -Mary B. Hopkins