5p, one-sided pages, 5 horizontal folds, staple in top left corner. Mimeograph on matte off white paper. Announces that the spring quarter will begin at 1230 pm on Tuesday April 3. announces the students that will be admitted into the senior division announces the spring quarter new students. The students that will be admitted into the senior division: Ati Gropius, Chuck Forberg, Patsy Lynch, Janet Rees, Anna Schauffler; Curtiss Cowan and Betty Schmitt will be admitted once they finish the mathematics requirements Spring quarter new students: Norman Davis, Eva Schlein, Joan Stack, Earlene Wight. Visitors last week: David Schauffler, Warren Outten, Jerry Rubenstien, Mrs Baker (Mother of Vera); Vaclav Vytlacil; Thaddeus Malionowski; Upcoming visitors: Dr Earl Newcomer; Mr and Mrs Theodore Rondthaler Dr Frank Porter Graham
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
Community Bulletin Bulletin 24
College Year 12 Monday, April 2, 1945
CALENDAR:
The Faculty will meet this evening at 7:15 o’clock in the Faculty Room to consider the report of Vaclav Vytlacil on the examinations for graduation of Jane Slater.
The Spring Quarter of the 1944-45 Session will begin at 12:30 P.M. on Tuesday, April 3.
There will be a meeting of the Board of Fellows on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 o’clock in Bob Wunsch’s Study.
The Faculty and the Student Officers will meet in the Faculty Room on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 o’clock.
The drama reading on Wednesday evening will be of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The Faculty announces that the following students will be admitted into the Senior Division as soon as their Senior Division Plans have been approved by the Faculty; Ati Gropius, Chuck Forberg, Patsy Lynch, Janet Rees, and Anna Schauffler. The following students will be admitted into the Senior Division when they have completed their mathematics requirements and their Senior Division Plans have been approved by the Faculty; Curtiss Cowan and Betty Schmitt.
Black Mountain College will featured this spring in Weather Magic, the house organ of the Trane Company, manufacturers of heating and cooling air conditioning equipment. The publication goes to 30,000 architects, engineers, and contractors throughout the country.
“Korea’s Industrial Development,” an article by Fritz Hansgirg, appears in the April issue of the Korea Economic Digest, a publication of the Korea Economic Society.
Trudi Straus will leave on Thursday for concerts with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra in Raleigh and Durham and at one of the North Carolina military camps. She will return to Lake Eden on April 17.
Among the students entering Black Mountain College this quarter are: Norman Davis, from Kingston, New York; Eva Schlein, from New York City; Joan Stack, from Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Earlene Wight, from Cleveland, Ohio.
WITH FORMER STUDENTS:
New Addresses:
Henrietta Barth, AS Naval Training School (WR) Platoon 613 Bronx, New York
Mrs Hope Stephens Foote 2630 Gaynor Avenue Richmond, California
Pvt Frederic W Goldsmith, 14168661 Squad A (Guard) 3706 AAF BU Sheppard Field, Texas
Lt William F Hanchett, 0-824622 422 AAF BU, TAAF Yonapah, Nevada
Mrs Donald Bloom (Kathryn Sieck) 740 Ardsley Road Winnetka, Illinois
John Gifford 166 West Eighty-Seventh Street New York City
James Hall (Elmer) 11829 Mayfield Avenue Los Angeles 24, California
Dorothy M Jeffrey 113 East Ninety-First Street New York 28, New York
BMC Community Bulletin –2- Bulletin 24
Faith C Murray II Hoffman School 254th Street and Independence Ave Riverdale, New York
Tec 3 John W Swackhamer, 14101336 Med Det 90th Inf Rgt Camp Rucker, Alabama
Henry M Winter 120 East Eighty-Sixth Street New York City
Mardi Peterson 1273 East Second Street Long Beach 3, California
Frank M White, Jr US Coast Guard Base Stapleton, Staten Island, NY
Mrs Alice Woog (Alice McNeil) Apartment 10, University Club UISB, Pocatello, Idaho
In the Mail:
PFC Henry Adams writes from France on March 18: “My outfit is now in a rear area in the relative comfort of tents and cots. We are certainly getting more to eat then the French civilians. It takes only a glance at the tattered, worn clothing of the people and the way they shiver in the cold to realize how they would like to have anything as warm as our heavy woolen uniforms. There's no coal and very little wood, so the people suffer quite a lot when it gets cold. Their houses are cold, and they can’t dress warmly enough to keep warm..We’ve taken quite a lot of hikes around the countryside lately. The farms and villages have a placid, settles, Old World appearance. There is that rural charm that you see in a French landscape painting. This country was just as prosperous and well-fed as any mid-western state before the war. Today, what a change! Even though this is a prosperous farming region where the soil is as rich as any in the world, the people are just one jump ahead of starvation. They are allowed in one week: four ounces of meat, four ounces of bread, two and a half ounces of butter; and, if they are lucky, they get one or two eggs a month. They should be getting bread or potatoes enough to fill them up from one meal to the next; but they got only ten ounces of bread a day- less than two-thirds the pre-war average- and they are very lucky when they can find any potatoes at all. The thing that strikes us most forcibly is the way these people came out to our camp at mealtimes in the hope that they might get a little bit of food from some big-hearted soldier. The look of hunger on their faces as they watch us go through the chow line is unforgettable. Imagine how they feel seeing us get coffee two or three times a day when they haven’t had anything better than roaster acorns for five years....Recently we were given passes to a nearby town. The things I saw were terribly depressing, but I’m glad that I got to see them- wanton destruction by the Nazis. The center of the town had been completely leveled..The center of town had not been a military target Neither side had made a stand here. According to the natives, in 1940 when the German blitz was rolling through France, the Nazis had come to this town. They found it intact. For no reason, except to be sadistically cruel, they had set fire to the town center and had burned it to the ground. Then they went on an orgy of looting and destroying, breaking windows and robbing houses. They burned the most beautiful buildings in the town out of pure meanness....The people of France have not forgotten this. Nor will they forget it soon. Their families have been broken up, their cities have been bombed, their food rations were cut to a semi-starvation level, and their country humiliated and impoverished..And whom do they blame?..Well they give the Nazi party their share of the blame, but they single out the German people who supported the war, who built up and manned the Wehrmacht, who in their blind, fanatical support of the Nazi party got themselves into their present state. In the French view, it’s the German people who must be so weakened that she will never be able to start a war again. We'd like to see heavy industry taken out of Germany and placed in the hands of those countries that are friendly to us, countries that suffered so much at the hands of the Germans. I think we should reward those countries for their struggle to rid themselves of the German menace; for in so doing they gave America those precious moments we needed for preparation. They saved the lives of countless Americans, and they are giving us much help today....Let’s not even think of rebuilding Germany; let’s rebuild all of Germany’s neighbors..”
BMC Community Bulletin –3- Bulletin 24
Kathryn Sieck Bloom writes from Winnetka, Illinois: “The winter after I left Black Mountain College I spent in Arizona recovering from rheumatic fever. Got engaged and married two weeks before Pearl Harbor. Camp followed until Don went overseas. Present activity: housekeeping, local Ration Board, and raising Barbara Kathryn.
Jack Gifford writes from New York City: “After playing in 1944 summer stock at Cape May in New Jersey, I went on tour in Shakespeare's “Othello.” Later I played parts in commercial films. Now I am in “Dark of the Moon,” a Broadway production. In this play I have a much better part than I ever dreamed I’d have in the short time I’ve been in the professional theater. The show, on the whole, received high critical acclaim in New York, although the Times and P.M. did not rave. Most critics feel that it will win the Pulitzer Prize..I play the heavy in the folk drama, the character who forces Barbara Allen into seduction during a revival meeting, thereby changing the witch boy back to a witch and causing Barbara’s death..”
Private Fred Goldsmith writes from Shappard Field in Texas: “I was at home until August 10 of last year. Took Air Basic training at Amarello, Texas, for two months. Then I went to Hobbs A.A.F. in Hobbs, New Mexico. I came to Shappard Field as an on-the-line trainee in January of this year. Am working here as an M.P. My main interest now is in getting out of this M.P. squad and getting to preflight. Hope to get there sometime in July or before.”
PFC Nell Goldsmith, WAC, writes from Homestead, Florida: “I’m thinking seriously of taking advantage of USAFI- doing some sculpture at odd moments now and then and taking advantage of the swimming pool here whenever I can. It’s almost an absolute necessity, with the Florida summer coming in fast.”
Elmer Hall writes from Los Angeles, California: “Since my graduation from UCLA, I have been working in a book store and spending my spare time writing....Our young son, James Parnell, is now four and a half months old....One of my great interests at present is getting back to New York City..”
Dorothy Jeffery writes from New York City: “After leaving Black Mountain College I spent a year and a half as an investigator for the Emergency Relief Bureau in Buffalo, New York; six years as a Work Shop Supervisor with the National Youth Administration in Buffalo; and one year in teacher’s training at the Rudolf Steinar School.. I am now a Class Teacher at the Rudolf Steiner School at 15 East Seventy-Ninth Street in New York City.”
Lieutenant Jack Kasik writes from France on March 18: “We have moved from our former bombed-out German airbase onto another one, almost as bad, father north and closer to the front. We continue to live in tents on an outhouse basis, which is no hardship, now that milder weather has set in. The planes roar overhead all night and all day (our group flies ‘round the clock, too) hitting them what I hope is the final lick.”
Faith Murray writes from New York City: ”I spent last fall in Charleston. Studied sculpture...and assisted my mother with her art classes at the Gibbes Art Gallery. I have been teaching art at the Hoffman School for more than a month.”
Mardi Petterson writes from Long Beach, California: “I attended the University of Hawaii in Honolulu during the 1941-42 session and the University of Mexico in Mexico City during the 1942-43 session.. I have just returned from an extended fishing trip and vacation in Mazatian, Mexico.”
Jack Swackhamer writes from the Camp Rucker in Alabama “Was inducted on May 10, 1943, and trained as a medical aid man. Am still a medical aid man, but have had the very dubious luck to be assigned to a regiment which has been tossed from pillar to post and trying to get in the mountain troop in Italy- but it doesn’t look as if it will come through. Was stationed in Colorado in the Rockies for fifteen months.
BMC Community Bulletin –4- Bulletin 24
It is incredibly beautiful country. Am now in Alabama, about ninety miles from the Gulf, and I’m hot. Have worked pretty hard, but not happily; not many do. Wish to resume studying as soon as possible.”
Frank White writes from Staten Island, New York: “From 1937 to 1942 I was engaged in insurance business, then in July 1942 I enlisted in the United States Coast Guard. On February 12, 1942, I married Katherine C Cole of New Rochelle, New York; on October 30, 1944, our son, Raymond Russell White, was born.”
Henry Winter, assistant to the Vice President of the Pepsi Cola Company, writes from New York City: “Would be glad to talk with any student at or graduate of Black Mountain College contemplating a career in foreign commerce and wishing a, perhaps, humble, but certainly promising start with a firm very active in this pursuit.” During 1943 and 1944 Henry wrote the Radio News Commentary for Station WINS. He is the author of three novels and a regular contributor to foreign trade periodicals.
Alice McNeil writes from Pocatello, Idaho: “After leaving Black Mountain College I was a councilor in a Vermont camp. Later I took a horse-back trip through Vermont and New Hampshire. Worked for a while on a fur ranch in northwest Wyoming, then came to Pocatello under and Veterans Administration Education Program...Shortly after school had begun here I had the opportunity to help in the University Press and very much enjoyed the work, although it was only temporary. Since then I have had another equally interesting job of short duration in an Egg Producers Cooperative. Since the beginning of the new time I have been studying Botany, Forestry and Pendrology with Alan....We are already making plans for the summer, when we will be stationed on a fire look-out in northern Idaho in one of the most ‘primitive’ of US forested areas. Next fall we will carry on with the government-sponsored education in Moscow at the University of Idaho. Under this program Alan receives four calendar years of education, which will enable him to take his master’s degree in forestry...One of Al’s professors has spent some time as a forest ranger in the Mt Mitchell area of North Carolina and considers it one of the best-forested areas in the United States. Knowing this and also what a broad liberal arts background is included in the forestry curriculum, I have wondered many times why Black Mountain College has no teacher of forestry. One man should be able to give enough professional courses to enable a student to complete his four years of education at the College. The greater number of courses are those the College already offers- or has offered; English, Chemistry, Botany, even Philosophy. Forestry seems particularly popular with returning veterans because of its healthful, out-of-door character, and there is every reason to believe that there will be even more demand for professional foresters after the war than there was before it. I have often thought that if Black Mountain expects to appeal to the returning veterans, it must not only have adequate housing for married men (as Bob Marden suggested) but offer an education that will enable the veteran to support a wife and family.”
WITH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF:
New Addresses:
David W and Peggy L Bailey Thomas House Lawrenceville School Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Gerald Barnes 49 South Avenue Melrose, Massachusetts
In the Mail:
David Bailey writes from Lawrenceville, New Jersey: “The Woodstock County School is scheduled to open for business next fall with me as co-director. Our progress so far has been happy, and we think we have something pretty good aborning....The school will be co-ed, of course, starting with grades 7-11, and probably spreading in both directions thereafter. It will be essentially college prep, with farming and skiing, etc, and much BMC atmosphere....BMC graduates
BMC Community Bulletin –5- Bulletin 24
Should regularly apply to us for jobs, as they will normally follow the type of thinking we want to have. Externally we will somewhat resemble Putney, but we don’t expect to be as strenuous, and we will have more emphasis on good manners and religious training.”
Gerald Barnes from Melrose, Massachusetts: “I am now Director of Civilian Training at the Boston Quartermaster Depot. From 1940 to 1942, I was with the Department of Agriculture; and from 1942 to 1945, I was with the Red Cross.”
VISITORS:
Among the visitors at the College last week were: David Schauffler, the brother of Anna and Sue; Warren Outten and Jerry Rubenstien, friends of Mary Phelan; Mrs Baker, mother of Vera; Vaclav Vytlacil, art examiner of Marilyn Bauer and Jane Slater; and Thaddeus Malinowski, instructor in the Modern Language Department at Guilford College in North Carolina.
Expected for a week-end visit on April 5; Dr Earl Newcomer. Dr Newcomer is Professor of Biology at the University of North Carolina.
Expected for a visit on April 27-29: Mr and Mrs Theodore Rondthaler of Clemmons, North Carolina.
Expected for a visit in the last week in May: Dr Frank Porter Graham, President of the University of North Carolina.
