College Graduation

The summer I spent at Iowa in 1942 finishing up my college career was like Fort Dodge JC days some of the more pleasant times I spent at school. During summer school there were fewer students around and generally there was a more relaxed tempo on the part of the instructors etc. Added to this feeling was the situation as to my immediate future which was more or less fixed at that point as to its course. So I “could live for the day” as it were.

Summertime in Iowa City was much like it was in Webster county with warm days, thundershowers, and the inimitable feel of a countryside lush with green vegetation, abounding with the sounds of insects and the songs of meadowlarks (though the latter were seldom encountered in a city environment).

The courses I took were to complete such long-delayed requirements as the first semester of physical chemistry, but I also had a math course in differential equations and a course in meteorology (both of which were replacements for various beginning engineering courses I had missed out on). The latter two were chosen on my personal predilections largely — the course of meteorology I’d selected since at the time I had not made a firm commitment between Shell and the navy.

So I came to the end of my school days. Graduation was at the end of July and my parents came to Iowa City for the event. Vincent came along but I think I was not able to get him a ticket. I have the feeling that he had to sit out the hour or so outside the hall in Memorial Union where the graduation exercises were held. After the event we drove back to the farm, along with my belongings — we must have arrived rather late. Vincent drove; my father had developed one of his sick headaches.

I’ve been back to Iowa City perhaps three or four times since, most recently I think in the year of Laurel and Mike’s wedding in 1985. As I’ve mentioned earlier the campus had changed, becoming more congested and to me at least a less lovely place. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of my graduation. I doubt I’ll make the effort to attend. I never established close relations with any of my classmates — perhaps the closest was Dwight Johnston, but this relationship developed not at Iowa but in later years at Shell. This may have been the result of my having spent my first two years at Fort Dodge junior college.

The professors and instructors I knew are probably mostly dead by now and such colorful figures as old Doc Raiford, the organic chemistry prof, exist only in my memory now. Dr. Arnold with his acerbic personality eventually came into conflict with the administration at Iowa and left. He actually moved to Albany, California (near to El Cerrito) and purchased a home there. He worked for Chevron for awhile but after that was apparently unemployed. There must have been some personality defect or quirk that kept him from getting along with people and society in general. It was sad since after I got used to him I thought he was a very good teacher. His marriage fell apart and eventually he was divorced — I don’t know where the family went, there were several children — but Arnold stayed on in Albany.

Somewhere along the line, shortly after his family arrived in California I had a Christmas card from them — really a nice, interesting looking family. Anyway he would probably be the only teacher still to be alive to be at the reunion (and from his experience not likely to be) and he would be the only one I would still be interested in seeing.

I receive from time to time a publication put out by the Iowa engineering department, and I’ve noticed from time to time the obituary of some professor or instructor I had. Not long ago there was an article about Mary Sheedy — a longtime departmental secretary and general factotum. Even when I was in school she was a fixture, and regarded by students and faculty alike with fondness. By now I’d suppose she would be approaching 90 years of age, but the article described her as still alert and active.