The Victoria College, 1925-2000: A Tradition of Excellence

personnel and the potentially high voter turnout
by veterans, Congress passed the Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act, commonly known as the “G.I.
Bill of Rights.” The law stipulated, in part, that
eligible returning servicemen and servicewomen
would not be charged tuition, fees, books, and
supplies for academic classes. Furthermore,
single veterans were allowed $50 a month living
expenses, and married veterans received $75
each month. 65
Victoria Junior College, like other colleges
and universities throughout the United States,
profited from the generous legislation for veterans.
Enrollment for day school in the fall of
1946 almost doubled the number from the previous
year. Whereas in 1945 there were 82 students
registered, in 1946 the figure was 159.
More dramatic was the difference in summer
school enrollment between 1946 and 1947.
According to the college records, in 1946 there
were 51 students registered for summer classes,
and in 1947 the number was 147. 66
Veterans were especially interested in the
college’s Vocational Training School under the
direction of V. T. Kallus, an ex-serviceman and
graduate of Texas A&M University. The veterans
who were enrolled in the vocational program,
which consisted of agriculture, business,
and mechanics courses, received subsistence
pay of ninety dollars a month if they were married.
Single students, on the other hand,
received $65 a month. In the spring of 1946, 85
students enrolled in the academic courses,
while there were 75 individuals, fifteen of
whom were black, taking vocational agriculture.
By the fall of 1946, veterans, both in academic
and vocational courses, dominated the
enrollment figures. 67
B. F. Harbour, who replaced Clark C. Wilkes
as dean in 1945, observed in May 1946 that the
veterans “are just as normal as any students I
have ever seen in my teaching experience. If
they didn’t wear their discharge badges [referred
to by the ex-service personnel as ruptured
ducks], you nor anyone else could tell them
from any of the other students.” On the surface,
the comments appeared to be on target, but
behind the facade, there was disrelish by some
of the veterans toward what they considered to
be shallow teaching methods. Herman J.
Krehmeier, who entered the military service a
few months after he graduated from high school
in 1943, was astounded that an English instructor
“was trying to teach like the college was a
junior high school or high school.” Particularly
galling to Krehmeier was when the students
“had to sing happy birthday.” The faculty, he
further stated, “hadn’t quite caught up. They
didn’t know the veterans’ frame of mind.”
“Overall,” Krehmeier recounted, “I enjoyed the
classes. It was a good experience, one that I will
always remember.” The preceding remarks were
made by a 20-year-old who entered the military
as a boy, and exited as a man. Wars have a way
✯
G. V. Prichard was business manager
and registrar of Victoria Junior
College during World War II.
of doing that. 68 Depression and War ✦ 41