Peter Steinhauer’s (A&S’58) class of 1958 reunion speech, May 2008
Welcome! It seems like just yesterday that I drove my ’41 Chevy up the dirt road from Golden to start my freshman year in the fall of 1954. The furthest thing south in Boulder was the Bureau of Standards and the Denver-Boulder turnpike and the UMC had just opened the year before.
Many of our classmates were returning to CU from the Korean War. Men who had never had the financial means for a college education had the doors opened by the GI bill.
The way we were
There were 7,500 students on campus. Tuition was $72 per semester, everyone took Western Civ 101-102 our freshman year, and we all had to pass a spelling test to get into upper division. Women had hours in the dorms and sorority houses, which sometimes were a good way to get rid of a bad date.
The football and basketball teams were all white until our junior year. Boulder was dry except for 3.2 beer. No calculators — the engineering dorks all carried slide rules. Green beanies. Sexual harassment was only if it was unwanted. All boys had burr haircuts and only girls wore earrings and three were one too many. CU days. No birth control pill. There were no “condoms.” They were called rubbers and us guys always carried one in our wallet but never used it. Eisenhower was president. And we only had 48 stars on our flag. The Brooklyn Dodgers became the los Angeles Dodgers and the CU basketball team went to the final four our freshman year.
Some of the famous names and places of the 50s were: Jonas Salk, Rosa Parks, Autherine Lucy, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Julius and Ethyl Rosenberg, Elvis, Bill Haley and the Comets, Rocky Marciano, Father Pat, Dal Ward, Panmoonjom, Dien Bien Phu, Sputnik, the Sink, the Tule., Timber Tavern, the Twinburger and Tempest Storm and Winston Churchill, not Ward Churchill.
As I remember, we were all programmed in those days to go to college, probably pledge a fraternity or sorority and graduate. Many of the men would join the military for a couple of years, then get married. The women would become desperate housewives. We would have kids and then work the rest of our lives.
CU Love Story
So, how many of you met your spouse here and are still married? How many of you or your spouse went into the service before or after CU? Stand up – Army, Navy. Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines. Anyone make a career of it? Thank you for your service.
How times have changed. Today, CU-Boulder has 30,000 students. Tuition is around $6,000 per year, $21,000 for nonresidents. They come from all 50 states and 94 foreign countries. Of the 29 institutions of higher education in the state, CU-Boulder gives out 25% of the bachelor’s degrees, 24 % of the master’s degrees and 47% of the PhDs. We have over 200,000 alumni. The university has two other campuses, which total to over 50,000 students: UC D and UCCS.
Students today
Most students today were born in the late 1980s.
- Their lifetime has always included AIDS but they’ve never heard of polio.
- To them, Jay Leno has always been the Tonight Show host.
- To them, Chappaquiddik is a prehistoric sea animal.
- They’ve never heard of a cloth diaper.
- They have no clue how to use a typewriter.
- They think Michael Jackson has always been white.
- They’ve never seen a black and white TV and wouldn’t know what to do without a remote control.
- The Vietnam War is as ancient as the Civil War.
- They’ve heard the name “Glen Miller” but they think he was a member of the Grateful Dead… are you feeling any older yet?
And just for a minute, let’s think about the graduating class of 1908, 100 years ago, which had its 50-year reunion when we finished. CU had 650 students. Tuition was $15-20 a year. Teddy Roosevelt was president. There were 45 stars on the flag. The Wright brothers had invented the airplane just five years before. The San Francisco earthquake had just happened. And in 1908, Henry Ford put out the first Model T automobile. Mother’s Day was first observed. The FBI was founded. The Panama Canal opened and Novocaine was invented. Construction began on Macky Auditorium and graduation was held at Chautauqua!
So here’s a pop quiz with the answer:
The Indian chief Niwot put a curse on the early settlers of Boulder which stated, “Once you gaze upon the beauty of the Flatirons, you will never be happy anywhere else and if you visit this area you will always come back,” so welcome back.
Enjoyed your address. The line about Chief Niwot makes me think of one about Pa Sapa, the Black Hills, to do with “as long as the hills are green and the waters flow”, or words to that effect. I forget who said it; but since I’ve climbed Harney Peak 3 times (plus others), and am 1/32 Delaware/Susquehannock (ie 5 generations back on my mother’s side), I appreciated it. I always appreciate Chief Niwot’s statue on the way to Eben G. Fine Park and Red Rocks or Mt. Sanitas.
I grew up in the age of cars with rocket fins, “I Like Ike”, Levittown–and the Korean War. Roger Williams, M.S. ’90.
Hi Pete, Your reminiscence brought me back to the 40′s with the return of the G.I.’s. Do you remember the Anchorage (changed to Tulogies) in the 50′s, TimberTown on Arapahoe and of course the trips to Louieville (spelling as we use to pronounce it) for the good times. Being an Engineer, the past time between classes was on the wall outside of Ketchum to girl watch. There use to be a Fraturnity called Delta Tau Delta which has disappeared from the campus (about 20 years ago). (I was one of them). Many of the guys were ex-G.I.’s and on the Government payroll for almost everything.
When I go to the University on visit now days, I get lost in all of the new buildings which didn’t exist in my age. Many changes, but that is to be expected and all for the better. That’s it for now.
Peter, had to chuckle and delighted in turning back the clock @ CU during the ’50′s…..I entered in ’52 playing for Dal Ward; lived in Guggenheim Hall ( along the old 24th St., South of Farrand Hall )
Left in ’54 to join the Marine Corps & returned in ’58 on the Korean GI Bill…panty-raids were common in the early ’50′s and bonfires to celebrate the BB teams’ winning the Big 7 Title. I like the “two earings minimum” era.
Good Read, Peter
Stan Wyatt-PE/’56-’60