1947
Veteran enrollment in American colleges reached a peak of over a million. Pan Am
inaugurated .i the first globe-circling passenger service. Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act
over the president's veto. Capt. Chuck Yeager, USAF, piloted the first plane (Bell Aircraft's X-
1) to achieve supersonic speed. The Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, first major league black
baseball player. US scientist Burkholder produced chloromycetin. William Odom flew around
the world in record-setting 73 hours and five minutes. In a speech at Harvard, Secretary of
State George C. Marshall revealed an ambitious plan to aid the economic recovery of
EuropeáPthe Marshall Plan. Babe Didrickson became the first woman to win the British Open
golf tournament. The world's largest plane, Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose," flew its only
flight of one mile in Long Beach Harbor, California. Willard Libby found Carbon 14 useful in
dating archeological material. The American Friends Service won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Miller's
All My Sons
and Williams'
A Streetcar Named Desire
opened on Broadway.
Commencements
Snow Delay
Enrollment and Housing
Classrooms
Glee Club
Campus Radio Station
Ice Carnival
Sports
Commencements.
Clarkson held only two Commencements when the 31 students who had
finished in February were awarded their degrees with 78 others on June 15, and a second, a fall
Commencement, was held October 19 for 61 additional graduates.
Snow Delay.
The worst snowstorm since 1900 delayed registration and school opening for the
spring semester for two days. Students attempting to return to school from the south found it
impossible to get through by rail. One train leaving New York City on Sunday evening became
stalled in Watertown, and did not reach Potsdam until 5 a.m., Wednesday. The next two-day
holiday for heavy snow occurred on March 4-5, 1971.
Enrollment and Housing.
The spring term enrollment of 1,578 was Clarkson's highest ever:
1,029 in Potsdam and 549 in Malone. In the previous spring (1946), enrollment stood at 662; in
fall 1946, it was 779; in the following spring (1948) it reached 1,525.
This sudden flood of students caused incredible problems in housing, classrooms, and
laboratories. To house students, the Trustees bought four large homes, and leased the second
floor of the Montgomery Ward store on Fall Island (now Evans and White Hardware), which,
with Woodstock and Holcroft, accommodated only 172 men.
Additionally, the Federal Housing Authority allocated surplus housing units to care for
100 married couples. Begun late summer 1946, these units for married veterans finally were
completed in 1947. Originally calling for 38 one-story dwelling units containing 150 individual
apartments, each equipped with cooking and heating facilities, and insulated against the
elements, these buildings were to be erected overlooking the river on the east side of Clarkson
Avenue just past the arena. Shipped from their original location at Camp Wheeler, Ga., these
