University History
Colorado A&M gears up for World War II
"You're in the Army Now!" aptly described the entire community at Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts during the 1940s.
The military influence on campus became visible shortly after the arrival of President Roy Green, who took over the college's leadership upon Charles Lory's retirement in fall 1940. Shortly after the start of that academic year, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the nation's first peacetime selective-service law, which required all men between the ages of 21 and 25 to register for the military draft by Oct. 16. On that day, Colorado A&M suspended classes so Professor Warren Leonard could supervise a campuswide draft registration.
American involvement in World War II seemed inevitable by fall 1941, and Colorado A&M prepared. The college began to offer tuition-free national-defense courses through its engineering program and made quick improvements to its airfield and ROTC facilities.
Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Rocky Mountain Collegian printed war analyses by Professors Willard Eddy and Robert Dunbar. Armed guards kept watch over ROTC equipment, and students hurriedly enlisted in the armed services.
Green tried to prepare for the sudden departure of students and employees by bringing military-training programs to campus in hopes of retaining faculty and preserving courses for remaining students. Among the military-oriented programs were pilot and clerical training and instruction for army engineers and veterinarians.
Colorado A&M looked like a military post two years after Pearl Harbor, with the college serving as many as 1,500 servicemen. To accommodate the men's boarding needs, the school leased the Northern and Armstrong hotels and turned Johnson Hall into a barracks. The College Field House became a huge dining hall.
Although servicemen filed onto campus, they did not replace the hundreds of regular students and employees who left to serve their country. Student enrollment in fall 1942 was 1,637. It dropped to 701 in fall 1943, and female students outnumbered male students for the first time at Colorado A&M. The school suspended intercollegiate athletics, women took over as editors of the Rocky Mountain Collegian and the student body elected its first female president.
Close to 80 former Aggies died in World War II including football talent Lewis "Dude" Dent and Richard Monfort, whose father and brother would serve on the State Board of Agriculture.
About one-third of the school's teaching and research staff departed campus to fight on the battlefields or serve as civilian advisers. Engineering Dean Nephi Christensen and three colleagues conducted weapons research in Maryland and made major contributions to the U.S. Army's rocketry knowledge.
On the home front, Colorado A&M volunteers helped with war-bond drives and pitched in to harvest "war crops" during a farm-labor shortage in autumn 1942. Workers for the college's Experiment Station and Extension Service were involved in programs that resulted in raising more produce on less land with fewer workers than ever before.
Colorado A&M faced a new set of challenges when the war ceased in 1945. The G.I. Bill of Rights, made law in June 1944, entitled veterans to an education paid for by the federal government. Soldiers returning from Europe and the Pacific filled U.S. higher-education institutions.
To expedite the enrollment of former servicemen, Colorado A&M switched from a semester to quarter system. Nearly 1,040 students attended the college in fall 1946. About 1,600 students enrolled by spring 1946, and two-thirds were veterans in need of immediate housing.
The cheapest and quickest housing the college could provide for married veterans was a tiny community of military-surplus Quonset huts set up at the corners of West Laurel and Shields streets. Students established a trailer court beside Veterans Village in fall 1946, when 3,500 students crammed into the school's now inadequate classroom space.
Colorado A&M also was threatened with a faculty shortage in late 1946, when about 50 faculty members left the college for more lucrative salaries offered by other institutions burgeoning with new students.
In an unusual move, Colorado's higher-education institutions collaborated in efforts to handle the crowded campuses and faculty losses. The President's Association submitted a combined budget request to state legislators and obtained an unprecedented increase in appropriations and a 10-year extension on the soon-to-be expired building mill levy.
Sadly, President Green did not live long enough to enjoy the more stable days at Colorado A&M. In his first year as president, Green's demanding schedule led to a physical collapse that forced him to take a short leave of absence. His health hit another low in 1946 when he was wounded by a deranged ex-soldier who opened fire in Denver's Brown Palace.
Finally, surgery for a high blood-pressure condition caused a blood clot in Green's heart and took the president's life in January 1948.
