The History of Western Technical College

May 3-6 Miss Portia Winters, a nationally known lecturer and home economist, conducted a four-day cooking
and homemaking school, sponsored by the La Crosse Tribune and the magnificent foods she prepared
before her audiences were given away. In addition, gifts for the home and baskets of groceries were
given away at each session.
June 3 “Ladies in Retirement”, written by Regional Denham, was presented by the Winona Players.
October 24 The Community Concert Association sponsored the spirited General Platoff Don Cossack chorus in both
sacred as well as folk songs.
Pre-Christmas activities included “The Messiah,” presented by the Vocational Civic Choir under the
direction of Harold Youngberg. A free will offering was taken for the benefit of the Camp McCoy
Hospital Service.
The Vocational Civic Orchestra presented the light operetta “Show Boat” and featured seven members
of the La Crosse Vocational Civic Choir as vocalists for the popular musical.
The war years were grim years, and the community concerts were a morale builder. At several concerts, collections
were taken to benefit the USO (United Service Organizations.)
In 1943, directing the activities of the La Crosse Vocational and Adult Schools were A. P. Funk, president; J. G. Becker, vice
president; Raymond C. Bice, secretary; Frank A. Papenfuss, and Dr. R. W. Bardwell, superintendent of schools.
In 1943, the school records showed that, although the school still held first place in the world for attendance in
proportion to population, enrollment had gone into a big slump. Evening classes, especially, which formerly drew about
one-fifth of the city’s population, became a wartime casualty. Director Coleman attributed the decline to five main
reasons.
1) Many of the older students preparing for higher jobs were working a 3 p.m. to midnight shift and could not attend
evening classes;
2) Workers have taxed their energies to keep up the strenuous pace of war industries and work overtime;
3) As the war has made everyone more mechanically conscious, those who took mechanical courses to develop a second
skill were already established in war jobs;
4) Because of the dire need to employ workers, companies were training them while they learned; and
5) Women who took part in avocational programs were spending their time rolling bandages for the Red Cross, working
in the hospitals as nurse aides or at USO centers.
In the fall semester of 1943, Evening School enrollment was down to 1,034 and was attributed to “right now the necessity
of training is less than ever because there are jobs everywhere.”
Rehabilitation programs were begun. Under the Selective Service Act, employers across the nation promised the
draftees one thing – a job when they came home. As some of the earliest draftees returned home disabled it necessitated
career changes. “Through a planned rehabilitation program, we hope to train young men in crafts and trades that they
are mentally and physically fitted for. We already have trained many of these returned war veterans and they are
embarking happily on professions they had never dreamed of before.”
In 1943, the second wartime year, the Vocational School was a center of community service . . . it was the unplanned
coordinator of various activities of the city . . . it housed the La Crosse Civic Forum . . . it was the practice grounds of the
Civic Choir and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra.
In January 1943, a tremendous boost was given to the development of music in La Crosse when the entire musical library
accumulated by the state Works Progress Administration (WPA) was placed in custody of the Vocational School. The
library included 264 titles, and its estimated cost was $5,000.
In 1943, a pair of railroad division superintendents and a couple of railroad telegraphers made a class in Morse Code
Telegraphy and Railroad Rules so fascinating that more than 40 people enrolled. After completion of the course, they
were eligible to begin work on the railroad as extra help, filling in during vacation periods.
In January 1943, the Vocational Board voted that the wives of soldiers and officers stationed at Camp McCoy could attend
either day or evening school without paying the usual nonresident tuition of 50 cents a day.
In January 1943, a new training course began for civilian employees of Camp McCoy post exchanges. The three-week
training program taught students how to make change, check cash, use a cash register, care for and arrange stock, take a
check of inventories, arrange stock displays and marking, short order cooking, handling of