It isn’t every day that you find this much trivia, and so much of it so amusing, condensed in such a short document. I think English professor J.D. Thomas had just been made chief marshal and was trying to figure out what exactly the job entailed. This memo is the report of Guy McBride, the Dean of Men, on his part in organizing the chaos of the 1952 commencement ceremony recently completed. I hardly know were to start with this one:
Bonus:
Who was Prof. Squire? The concept of faculty pulling graduating students out of line for pictures is quite unexpected to me. Parents, spouses, etc., yes, but faculty?
He was a physics professor. He came to Rice, if I recall correctly, just after World War II and started one of the first low temperature physics labs in the state. He left Rice for A&M sometime in the early ’60s. I’m just as puzzled as you are about the photos.
I have a vivid memory of the way J.D. Thomas announced student winners of academic awards. He had a wonderful way of adding emphasis from “cum laude” to “magna cum laude” to “summa cum laude.” His stentorian voice rang out from Rice to down town on “SUMMA CUM LAUDE.”
Google “Bridey Murphy” to read about paranormal phenomenon in the 1950s that was so pervasive in American culture that Dean McBride became known as “Bridey Mackey”.