Association of Rice Alumni Scrapbook, 1955

Item — Box: 29, item: 2

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The collections includes a series of scrapbooks of the activities of Rice alumni and a series of scrapbooks from Rice University departments, Rice-related events, and other materials related to the life of the university. Additional scrapbooks, such as the scrapbooks created by the Literary Societies, can be found in the related record groups.

Dates

Creation: 1955

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Conditions Governing Access

Portions of this collection are available online at: https://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/95187

Extent

From the Collection: 64 Linear Feet (49 boxes)

From the Collection: 6.86 Gigabytes (Nearline access: UA0230aip_001 (6.86 GB))

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

General

The content is a collection of newsclippings about activities, events, and people associated with Rice during the 1954-55 school year. Coverage of athletic teams and engagements and marriages dominates the collection, but there are a number of additional noteworthy particular items.

Activities of note include the opening Rice football game against Florida, at which attendance was expected to be 40,000, and which Rice won 34-14, and the annual Archi-Arts Ball with the theme “The Universe of the Future” and eight women honorees. At Autry House the Pallas Athena Literary Society presented their annual burlesque, “Tsk Tsk (All About Women).” The Rice Players pre- sented Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral and Earth Spirit by Frank Wederkind (in the Fondren Library exam room).

Events include the Nov. 21, 1954 Fall Lecture by Mr. C. M. Class, “Recent Advances in Nuclear Science”, the setting of four relief sculpture tablets into the entrance pillars of the Chemistry Building, and the opening of a center for Catholic Rice students, the Maryheart Newman Center. Commencement on June 3, 1955, for which Sen. J William Fulbright was the speaker, was marked by the conferring of the first geology degrees and the first Ph.D in any kind of engineering.

People covered include Charles F. Jones, William Marsh Rice’s slayer, who killed himself in his Baytown house; Jack Heard, who played football at Rice, becoming Houston Chief of Police; Representative Albert Thomas, who started at Rice but had his studies interrupted by World War I; Dr. Tom Bonner, head of the physics department, for his research using the Van de Graaff atom smasher; Oren Arnold, alumnus and novelist, for winning the first Elsevier Southwest Literary Award; wife of English Prof. A. D. McKillop for her repeated lectures on old English silver; Ervin Frederick (“Tiny”) Kalb, graduate of the first class, for his work raising funds from alumni; Dr. Roy Talmage, professor of biology, receiving a grant for his armadillo research; Dr. Frank Vandiver, appointed assistant professor of history; Joe Frank, alumnus, for his nationally known women’s high fashion business; English Professors Carroll Camden and George Williams, featured in article about Texas writers; David Westheimer, alumnus and writer, whose entire article, “The Non-Television Part of Texas Is shrinking Apace,” is included; Mason Lockwood, alumnus, chosen Engineer of the Year in Houston; Dr. B.B. Hudson and Dr. W. H. Masterson promoted to full professor; Sandy Havens, praised for his role in Univ. of Houston production of Androcles and the Lion; Dickey Moegle, drafted by the San Francisco ‘49ers and also offered a movie contract; Joan and Jane Ryba, twin Rice cheerleaders, named queen of the Auto Show.