Student Life - Then and Now. A Trip Back in Time

By Grace Correll

We’ve all heard of “the good old days.”
Have you ever wondered what made them so good?
Just for fun, we decided to take a look back at those times, and how things have changed in 50 years at the College of Agriculture. We wanted to compare the life of a student in the year 2002 with that of a student from over 50 years ago. We found that while much has changed, some things have remained the same.

We drew upon the five decades of wisdom of Dr. Jim Kemp ’48,’49; Dr. Bill Moody, ’56,’57; Bob Culton, ’51; and Charles Butterworth, ’49.

One theme that rang true for all these men was that it was a time of war for our country, with World War II and the Korean War raging then. Because of the war, some students’ education was interrupted or delayed because they were called into military service.

Block and Bridle Horse Show, 1955

The year 2002 finds our nation again at war, but this generation has a choice as to whether or not to enlist in the armed forces, unlike generations past.

As Jim Kemp recalls, “When I graduated from high school, I just stayed home and farmed until Uncle Sam called because anyone who was able was expected to serve.”
Moody echoed the expectation that all young men would serve in the military. “All male students were required to take two years of basic ROTC when I was in school,” he said.

Because of their stints in the military, the graduates of the 1950s typically were a little older than an average college student, and a large portion of their education was paid for with the GI Bill.
In 1946 Kemp’s GI bill paid for tuition and books and supplied him $90 per month in spending money. Of the other three, some received a little scholarship money, and all of them had some type of part-time job.
A-a-a-h-h, yes, those wonderful student jobs. These four were employed on and off campus, earning wages that these days would seem, well. . . modest. Kemp was paid $.70 an hour at a construction company that built the Cooperstown Apartments, an on-campus housing complex. Bob Culton and Charles Butterworth were both employed off campus: Culton worked for Sears and Roebuck for a whopping $.50 an hour, while Butterworth earned double that rate per hour at a Greek restaurant.

Members of meats judging team from mid 1950s. Clockwise from top left: Bill Moody, Oliver Deaton, Doug McDonald, Doyle Oliver, and Paul Rogers.

All of the men learned many lessons from those jobs during school — lessons they took with them into their future careers. Butterworth was once berated by a manager for not handling a small problem himself. “He (the manager) said any time something happens that you can take care of promptly without going to someone else for help, take care of it! I learned responsibility without complaining and do not try to put blame on someone for trivial matters that can be taken care of with minimum effort without getting someone else in trouble,” Butterworth said.

Culton, a successful entrepreneur, said one of the best lessons he learned from his college education was that if you didn’t know an answer to something, that the answer was out there; you just had to find it yourself. “My college experience gave me a lot of self-assurance,” he said.

Bill Moody and John Kuegel in uniform in 1956, their last year in college and ROTC.

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“On the train I learned a new card game called black jack. That was my first experience with gambling. I lost some money, but did not have much money to lose. The lesson taught me that ’tis more blessed to win than lose, and money is too hard to earn to take a chance on losing it just because someone can add up to 21,” Butterworth said.
One recurring theme through all the generations was best described by Moody, who not only was a student at the College but also served on the faculty for 37 years.

Jim Kemp on graduation day (B.S.)

“The College of Agriculture cares about its students, faculty, and staff. The faculty and administrators always took an interest in the students and made them feel welcome. That hasn’t changed over the years,” he noted.

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