Celebrating 150 Years  |  Alumni Memories

James R. Dowdall '50

In the spring 2006 issue of Spectrum magazine under the heading "Forester Flashback," Jill Van Newenhizen ’81, an associate professor of mathematics and computer science, described a secret study space she shared with her friend Lori Nerheim ’82 on the fifth floor of what was then College Hall, now Young Hall. 

She recalled: “The fourth and fifth floors were vacant, abandoned, forsaken, derelict, and dilapidated.  And of course, OFF LIMITS!  I do not remember the first time Lori and I ventured illegally into that forbidden place.  We discovered the shells of what had once been dorm rooms, and on the fifth floor we found our penthouse—a room overlooking Sheridan Road.”

The purpose of my memory is to once again breathe some life into those abandoned “shells of what had once been dorm rooms” on the fourth floor of College Hall circa 1947-48 when I roomed there as a freshman.  I was one of the returning World War II veterans who were housed in about four or five dorm rooms on the fourth floor.  Each room contained two students on the west side of the fourth floor with a splendid view of the library, North Hall and Sheridan Road.  College Hall’s central location was a plus.  On the east side of the fourth floor were shower and bath facilities. 

My roommate was Ned Finnell also a resident of Evanston and something of a prankster.  One weekend while I was away from our room working in Evanston, he taped a hunk of Limburger cheese to a hot water pipe in the room.  Upon opening the door of the room Sunday evening the stench from the cheese almost blew me away.

We took all of out meals at Commons and I must say we were all a congenial group of older students.  I lived at College Hall from September 1947 to June 1948. I remember songs of that era blaring on radios while we dressed for dinner, notably Vaughn Monroe’s “Ghost Riders in the Sky.” Thereafter, until my graduation in June 1950 I roomed in Harlan Hall where the Kappa Sigs were housed.
 
During my year on the fourth floor I vividly remember trudging up and down four flights of stairs innumerable times each day to attend classes, meals and fraternity activities and, of course, dating.  It was great exercise then but since I am almost 80 now I would be hard pressed to hike up and down those stairs today.