Font Resize"Day after day, year after year, the universities of this country are making important contributions to all branches of learning," Harvard University President James Bryant Conant told some 10,000 assembled at the first university meeting of the year 75 years ago on Aug. 26, 1937, in the Greek Theatre. (University meetings were a tradition where the entire campus population was invited to come hear a distinguished speaker or discussion of an important current topic.)
Conant, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported, asked his audience to imagine what the world would be like if all the advancements of learning from the past quarter century created by universities were to be eliminated.
"The very success ... of this great university here in Berkeley in directing the education of large numbers of students and at the same time maintaining a scholarly standing of its faculty which places it in the front rank of American institutions demonstrates what are tax-supported institutions can accomplish."
Robert Gordon Sproul, UC president since 1930, told the incoming freshman at the meeting that he would not give advice as he had to past classes, since all that advice "had remained unused in their hands."
Instead, he encouraged them to come to his office for a one-on-one talk. "It isn't necessary to have a problem," Sproul said. "The best ticket of admission will be a frank curiosity to meet me and discover whether I am really human."
Some 12,000 Berkeley children would be returning to public schools on Sept. 1, 1937, the Gazette noted Aug. 28. "Housing facilities for Berkeley pupils will be in the best condition since December, 1933, when many of the buildings were closed to occupancy on account of structural hazards. At Berkeley High School, complete gymnasium facilities will be restored with the opening of the gymnasium, which has been reconstructed. All the facilities of the building will be ready for use, including regular gymnasium space, shower and locker rooms, examination and consultation rooms, and the boys' and girls' swimming pools."
Sadly, instead of undergoing another rehabilitation, that same building was torn down in summer of 2012 by the Berkeley Unified School District.
On Aug. 30, local teachers gathered for a one-day educators' institute held at the Berkeley High School auditorium with the theme of "cooperative democratic living," particularly emphasizing contacts between the schools and community service groups.
Boy burned
John A. Demathra, 14, of 1805 McGee St., was severely burned at the Berkeley dump at the base of Gilman Street on the morning of Aug. 26 when he fell through a crust of new landfill into a hot pit created by a fire that had been smoldering below the surface all night.
"Visiting the dump with companions in search of adventure this morning, the youth had walked too close to the edge of the fill. He screamed as the seemingly solid footage gave way and he fell feet first into a cavern of red ashes."
Pulled free by his friends and garbage workers, he nonetheless suffered second-degree burns.
Nanking attack
An estimated 500 civilians were casualties Aug. 27, 1937, when Japanese warplanes flying from near Shanghai bombed the Chinese capitol of Nanking. "The streets were strewn with corpses," a United Press report in the Gazette that day stated. "Previously their targets had been military ones. Today's attack was merciless and terrible."
Mellon passes
Andrew Mellon, who had served for a near record 11 years as U.S. Treasury secretary during the administrations of presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, died Aug. 26, 1937. At one time he had been one of the five richest men in the world.
