I was more surprised by a newspaper story I recently found in a box of old clippings than anything else I’ve run across in quite some time. The gist of it is this: “The war is hitting close to home to industrious co-eds at Rice Institute, who are giving freely of their time to help the all-out effort. Bridge parties and ‘bull sessions’ have been replaced by extra-curricular training courses and volunteer work, and the girls are preparing themselves for the full time job of winning the war.”

They weren’t kidding around, either. The first image is of someone I knew: Catherine Coburn ’43(later Catherine Hannah, she served on the Rice Board and was a member of the search committee that brought George Rupp to Rice), hard at work learning mechanical drawing:

This next one, though, is just astonishing. Delores Frey and Charlie Trammel, both Rice sophomores, were learning to fly in order to perform Civil Air Patrol duties:

I’ve seen lots of stories about Rice co-eds doing Red Cross work during the war but I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Bonus: Speaking of strong women, it was about 38 degrees when this lovely but sleeveless bride was having her picture taken outside Lovett Hall. She claimed she wasn’t cold so it must truly be love.