My College Years

Filled with anticipation about college life, I arrived in Evanston, Illinois, in the fall of 1950 to enroll in the Northwestern business school. In those days fraternities and sororities were a big deal at Northwestern, and rush started as soon as you arrived. I was torn between the Sigma Chis, the Phi Delts, and the SAE's. SAEs had the inside track because a good friend from Kansas City and Lake Lottawana, Joe Jack Merriman, had been an SAE at Northwestern and encouraged me to join. I pledged, moved into the fraternity house, and went through “Hell Week.”

Hell Week for our group was a little unusual and quite challenging. There was the usual paddling, but it wasn't bad. The thing that was unique was the treasure hunt we were sent on. We had only one night to complete our list. One task was to get the autograph of a famous opera star and after we tracked her down, she graciously accommodated us. The symbol of SAE is the lion and one of our more challenging tasks was to return with fresh lion poop. Not easy at night when the zoo was closed. A guard caught us as we were sneaking in. It turned out he was a good sport, and we were successful. Hell Week accomplished its intended purpose as it bonded us into a tight group that continues some 70 years later.

I was still very much in love with Robbie who joined Kappa Kappa Gamma and we had a ball our freshman year. Both of us had such strong high school educations that the academic work was not difficult. We still studied hard and made good grades. Our dates were often library dates since we found it hard to study in the chaos of the fraternity/sorority houses. We frequently double dated with Bertie Buffett. We did not know that Bertie’s brother, Warren, would later become one of America’s wealthiest magnates. Bertie later donated $100 million to Northwestern. Maybe I was dating the wrong girl! 

As a going-away-to-college present, my father had given me a beat-up Plymouth that had been used as a demonstration vehicle to sell construction equipment. There was just a front seat and a huge empty space in the back where they had carried a masonry saw. Although it was a weird vehicle and definitely not what I would have chosen, it was wheels and that was more than a lot of my friends had. The huge area that should have been a backseat was very uncomfortable sitting up but very comfortable lying down and stretched out. There was a line to double date with Robbie and me.

Those years at Northwestern were great ones. The fraternity had wonderful parties—always off campus, as there was no drinking in Evanston. It was one of the last places in the country to be "dry" as it was the home of the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union). At first a “dry Evanston” seemed like a big drawback, however, we had wonderful fraternity parties at downtown Chicago hotels and the house never suffered the damage of wild parties. 

Although I liked my business courses, I really enjoyed taking some elective liberal arts courses taught by famous instructors. One I particularly remember was taught by Dr. McGowan and was on far Eastern religions. He lectured on the Shinto religion where they were so fanatic about not killing animals, they swept ahead of themselves as they walked to prevent stepping on stray bugs. 

I joined the NROTC program and won several scholarship awards. I remember all of us NROTC cadets being assembled on the huge lawn in front of Dearing Library, and I had to march up to receive my award. We had had no instruction in marching, and I was embarrassed by how sloppy my movements were. 

My sophomore year I was elected treasurer of the fraternity, which meant I roomed with the current president, Howie Benedict. Howie was in the journalism school and had just returned from Korea where he was a correspondent for Stars & Stripes. He probably could have taught the course. Being older, he loved to hit the bars. While we did not have much in common, we became good friends. After graduation, Howie became the AP correspondent covering the space program and had an apartment in Cape Canaveral overlooking the launching pad. I was honored when he invited me down to stay with him and watch a space launch from his balcony. 

I got involved in school politics. The SAE's appointed me as their representative to the Interfraternity Council (IFC) and I was eventually elected president. Another honor was being elected president of DERU, the business school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa. 

My romance with Robbie had continued, and in my junior year, we discovered that she was pregnant. It was a long drive to Sioux City to announce this to her parents, but they took it remarkably well. Robbie's father, being a doctor, told us he could arrange for us to terminate the pregnancy, but we immediately rejected the idea. 

Everything about school changed on December 12, 1953, when Candy was born.

That fall, Robbie and I had found an affordable apartment on the north side of Chicago not far from Evanston. We had to walk up three flights of stairs to arrive home. That was the good news. The bad news was that the bedroom was located no more than 40 feet from the elevated track, and every time a train went by (they ran 24 hours a day) the whole building shook. Eventually, we didn't even hear the trains, yet friends would come over and look at us in alarm when a train went rumbling by during dinner, practically shaking the dishes off the dinner table. 

Robbie dropped out of school; I continued. During my senior year, we rented a house on Ridge Avenue just on the edge of the Northwestern campus. Since it was a big home, we became a boarding house and rented rooms to some of my fraternity brothers: Roger Dickinson, Tom Woodward, and Chuck Hollinshead. We didn't serve them meals; everybody shared the kitchen. In the spring of 1954, we had great sessions watching the Cubs play on TV while we drank Hamm’s beer and Roger popped popcorn. Even Candy participated from her crib. The games were a great opportunity for Robbie to go shopping. 

I kept my grades up, however, school and the fraternity became less important with a wife and a baby to think about. Robbie and I weren't interested in the graduation ceremony, so we didn't attend. Since I was working for my father selling construction equipment, I received my diploma by mail.