1946
The United Nations Assembly held its first session in London. The Atomic Energy Commission
was created in the US. Eckert and Mauchly created the first electronic computer. Hirohito
declared his divinity was a myth. Churchill gave his "Iron Curtain" speech in Missouri. Irving
Berlin's
Annie Get Your Gun
starred Ethel Merman. Assault became the sixth horse to win the
Triple Crown of racing, and was the smallest at 60.5 inches. Nine Nazi war criminals were
hanged at Nuremberg. Scientists declared that smoking caused lung cancer. John Hersey's
Hiroshima
and Eugene O'Neill's
The Iceman Cometh
caused furor among critics. Dr. Benjamin
Spock's
Baby and Child Care
book became a best seller.
General James Doolittle
Malone Branch
Barbara Ann Scott
College Costs
The Clarkson Letter
Veteran’s Impact
Massena Branch
New Faculty
Sigma Delta Flagpole
Activities
Alumnus
Magazine Award
Faculty Prank
William B. Conroy
Clarkson Guard Reactivated
Expansion Aid
Convocation Choices
Return to Campus
General James Doolittle
. Clarkson held three Commencements: on June 24 with 16 graduates,
and an address by General James Doolittle, hero of World War II, and leader of the famous first
air raid on Tokyo in 1942; an earlier graduation ceremony was held on February 24 with 12
graduates; and the last one on October 20 with 18 graduates.
Malone Branch
. In March 1946, Governor Thomas E. Dewey requested each New York State
college to expand its faculty and facilities to the point where it could effectively enroll twice as
many students as its previous maximum enrollment. Up to that time, Clarkson's peak
enrollment had been 644 students in the fall of 1942. By spring 1947, Clarkson had enrolled
over 1,500 students in engineering and business administration, more than fulfilling the
governor's request.
To accomplish that task, Clarkson had to expand its facilities dramatically. Because no
appropriate buildings were available in Potsdam, the administration had to look elsewhere, and
found in Malone a suitable campus for the expansion: the old Northern New York Institute for
Deaf Mutes built in 1890 at the foot of Willow Street. Destroyed by fire in April 1911, it was
replaced by three buildings named Gilbert Hall, Rider Hall, and Badger Hall, which Clarkson
used as administrative offices and dormitories. A second building, constructed in 1897, had
served originally as a kindergarten, but was used by Clarkson for a physics laboratory. A 1914
addition to the "kindergarten" building was used by Clarkson for mechanical drawing. The last
building on campus, Ransom Hall, built in 1938, met the College's need as a consolidated
classroom and a gymnasium.
