Comments on: The Whole Year Through: LDS Business College, 1944

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:05:46 +0000

The GI Bill must have been passed prior to that ad — maybe it was aimed less at future veterans who hadn’t yet returned home, and more at simply lining up a share of those dollars by planting the idea of LDS Business College education in the minds of wives and mothers at home who might influence the vets whenever they did come home?

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:28:58 +0000

Curt’s comment echoes my puzzlement at the mention of “returning veterans.” My dad’s enlistment was for “duration plus six months” which I think was the standard enlistment period for most G.I.s during World War II. As he spent late autumn 1944 in England, and winter and spring 1945 in France, he thought he would be lucky if the war against Japan ended in ’47, but it might be as late as ’48 or ’49, so any return to take advantage of the G.I. Bill was, in their minds, a long way off.

And, in typical army fashion, he wasn’t discharged until July 1946, which, whether you count from V-J Day or V-E Day, is longer than six months!

By: Maurine

Maurine — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:01:49 +0000

I have a framed diploma for my grandfather’s sister. She graduated from the 8th Grade from Centerville Elementary School in 1902, then went to the Latter-day Saints University. The diploma shows that she graduated from the Normal Courses on 28 May 1907. This would have been similar to our high school. She was nineteen and went on to teach in the Centerville Elementary. The diploma/certificate is about 28″ x 16″, I’m not exactly sure because it is framed with a matting on the front, and I’m not certain how much is behind the mat.

It is signed by Anton H. Lund, President of the Board; Arthur Winter, Secretary, Willard J. Young, Prsident of the University; and A. B. Christenson, Principal of the Department.

By: Curt A.

Curt A. — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:52:22 +0000

It is very interesting to see how the school was reacting to World War II progress in its ads. President Roosevelt signed the Servicemens Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights) on the 20th of June. By October, the school was using it in its ads. In September, it was using the term: “postwar world”. It would be interesting to see the ads of 1945 as the December 1944 Battle of the Bulge and the February and April battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa including the devastating Kamikaze attacks chilled the outlook of a “postwar world” in the near future. I wish my memory could call up recollections of how I felt as a high school kid at the time. I do recall we were more concerned about our likely involvement in the last stages of the war with Japan than we were about what school we might attend after high school.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:03:59 +0000

Its Ok Ardis. Ollege is such an obvious typo, it would not be a spelling error. Whereas a missing apostrophe is usually a spelling error, and a common one at that. Be merciless!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:34:26 +0000

The spambots have discovered this post and are doing their dangedest to bombard us with ads for online degrees!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:35:27 +0000

Alison, I s’pose we can allow for a dropped piece of type now and then. Unless, of course, it involves an apostrophe and BYU, in which case for some uncertain reason I am merciless.

By: Alison

Alison — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:25:13 +0000

Is the missing “C” from the front of “Ollege” in June meant to be a pun on the “shortsightedness” element of the ad?

By: Wm Morris

Wm Morris — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:20:12 +0000

That’s a great anecdote, Ardis. Thanks for the mini history lesson. It’s funny, you still encounter in popular culture how phone systems worked a half century and more ago, but postal stuff? Not so much.

And: I can see it well enough. I love that the tag line is “The Emblem of the Efficient School.” Trade/vocational schools still have a bit of a stigma and attitude that expresses itself in a similar sentiment.

By: Phoebe

Phoebe — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:17:56 +0000

My folks always called it LDS high school, so I assumed they studied the general education subjects of the time. The year my Dad was at the JC he studied a business course. That was also the year he played basketball and the team won the state championship. George Romney was one of his teammates.

I looked through the yearbooks a couple of years ago and scanned a few pages. I was surprised at how many now familiar names I saw there–graduates who had become known in business, political and church activities. There should be a history of the school, but now that you bring it up, I don’t know of any.

I will think about this today and try to remember what they told us about those days. I’ll ask my sisters what they recall.