Covers Contents - Past Issues - Wake Forest University

Speas of physics, who mumbled uncomplimentarythings under his breath ashe graded papers; C.S. Black of chemistry;E.E. Folk and H. Broadus Jonesof English; Olin T. Binkley and J. AllenEasley of religion; Cocke’s colleaguein biology, Ora C. Bradbury; and manyothers. Talented, principled, caring yetuncompromising, working on twelvemonthcontracts and teaching two outof every three summers for salariesthat were south of $5,000 a year forassociate professors as late as 1950;they were revered by the generationsof students who arrived from the farmsand towns of eastern North Carolinaas diamonds in the rough and departedas gems, thanks to their mentors’ hewingand polishing. If a student’s parentscould not afford the tuition, they wouldbe ushered into the office of PresidentKitchin, who would tell them therewas no financial aid available but thathe could reduce their bill by, say, athird. Those in their eighties or ninetiesrecall education professor Jasper Memory’sannual Commencement contestfor his faculty colleagues; the winnerknew the most names of the graduatesas they paraded to the podium. Andthe students returned the affection.When hard times threatened to forestallpublication of the first volume ofG.W. Paschal’s (BA ’27, BS ’28, MD ’29)epic history of Wake Forest College,each member of the Class of 1935donated five dollars toward it.“It was like heaven. It was as close toheaven as one could get on this earth,”says Beulah Lassiter Raynor (MA ’47)of Wake Forest in those years. Raynorcame to the College in 1945 as one ofits first women faculty members, teachinghalf-time while assisting Dean ofWomen Lois Johnson. Having retiredfrom the English department in 1979and now ninety-six, she will be buriednext to her late husband, longtimeSoon after esteemed Latinscholar Hubert Poteat (right)delivered his farewell speechat the last Old CampusCommencement, gradsmilled about near themoving vans that werepoised to commence themove to Winston-Salemthe following day.mathematics professor K.T. Raynor(1914), in Old Wake Forest. “Therewas no distinction between cap andgown and community,” Raynor goeson. “All the faculty members andstudents knew each other and went tochurch together, and you had a personalconnection with your grocer.”Raynor didn’t know it at the time,but the seeds of the campus relocationthat would sprout a year after herarrival had been sown a full decadebeforehand.WFN AN EFFORT TO SOP UP THEInation’s glut of medical practitioners,the American Medical Association’sCouncil on Medical Education votedin fall 1935 to stop recognizing twoyearmedical schools like Wake Forest’s—one of three (along with UNC andDuke) in North Carolina and only tenin the nation. Forced to decide betweenclosing the school and expanding itto four years, Wake Forest chose theSEPTEMBER 2006 17