Brown and White Vol. 66 no. 50

              the 485 recipients of degrees at the 87th commencement exercises in grace hall monday morning were urged by charles s thomas secretary of the navy to have faith in themselves their country and its future and god in order to develop a life meaningful happy and productive degrees were awarded by president martin d whitaker to 371 seniors ninety-five candidates received master's degrees and 19 were awarded doctorates secretary thomas received the honorary degree of doctor of laws four other persons also were hon ored with degrees robert d cal kins president of the brookings in stitute doctor of laws tom m gird ler chairman of the board of repub lic steel corp and frank m mas ter bridge designer doctor of engir neering and wilmer a dehuff principal of the baltimore polytech nic institute doctor of humane let ters commissions as second lieutenants were presented to 97 students by the army and air force in special ex ercises in packard auditorium pre ceding the commencement exercises col albert c moulter awarded commissions to 74 students in three branches of army service and col earl j berryhill presented commis sions in the air force to 23 seniors prizes were announced by dean wray h congdon secretary thomas told the seniors your three basic tools — time op portunity and education will be use less unless you have faith in your self the country and its future and god i know that faith is not some thing which one can pick up and carry out of grace hall like a book or a diploma he commented it is not something that can be suddenly conjured to reality if faith is not a part of your life already leave room for it faith will grow from within slowly perhaps hauntingly and with struggle to have faith or not to have it is a transcendant and an eternal decision in every age for every person unless a man has faith trouble and tribu see 485 page 4 sherwin polk arons 55 committed suicide june 4 after being expelled from a final examination for cheating arons 21 of scarsdale n.y heir to a new york garment-manufacturing business was found dead at about 3 p.m in his 1953 ford convertible parked near packer aye and adams st shot through the head arons was pronounced dead by dr james pfromer who arrived at the scene in the st luke's ambulance george kametz northampton county deputy coroner attri buted death to a gunshot wound self-inflicted with suicidal in tent according to friends arons was expelled from the final examination in law 204 wills estates and trusts about twenty minutes after the start of the test he had been caught using crib sheets in the exam and in line with the universi ty's policy had been expelled from the exam arons who was due to enter the army june 7 seemed shaken by the event and went from the chemistry building where the exam was be ing held to the office of dr carl e allen dean of the college of busi ness administration after being told of the ab sence of dean allen arons went see senior page 4 president whitaker awards a sheepskin to a master's degree can didate one of the 95 to receive master's degrees nineteen were awarded doctorates and 371 seniors received degrees at the monday commencement center-dorm fund over 1,500,000 ticipate in the drive the national total now stands at 1,525,000 collected from eight areas this represents contributions from approximately half of the alumni the remainder of the alumni will be contacted in the near future the 24 to 30 areas as yet not or ganized are expected to give the difference needed to meet the 2,200,000 necessary for the construc tion of the new building and the renovation of packer hall the proposed dormitory will house 24 men it is presently under construction and is ad jacent to taylor hall above the nearly-completed health center the new packer hall wings ex cavation work is also near comple tion the structure when renovated will provide meeting rooms dining hall and a snack bar for the stu dents it will be the center of extra curricular activities included in the new building will be the offices of the publications cost of the proposed dormitory is 830,000 it is designed to eliminate the sophomore squeeze which each year has forced second-year men to move into town because of insufficient dormitory facilities the center is also very much needed drown hall is now the center of campus clubs and activities but its rooms are in adequate to compensate for this facilities for such organiza tions have been increased included in the new building will be three dining rooms — the white cloth cafeteria and a snack bar these have been designed to pro vide vastly improved facilities for students faculty rooms will also be con structed in the center vol 66 — no 50 summer bethlehem pa thursday june 23 1955 lehigh university brown and white un 6-0331 faith keynote to happy life advises thomas sherwin polk arons recipients of honorary degrees at monday's commencement and university officials are 1 to r : presi dent martin d whitaker robert d calkins tom m girdler eugene g grace president of the board of trustees charles s thomas secretary of the navy frank m masters and wilmer a dehuff award 5 honoraries rado fuel and iron co girdler joined the atlantic steel co at atlanta ga where he became general superiniendent he re turned to pittsburgh in 1914 to become assistant superintendent of the aliquippa works of the jones and laughlin steel corp when several independent steel companies in the midwestern states see degrees page 3 were consolidated into the republic steel corp in 1929 he was named chairman of the board during world war 11 he also served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the consolidated vultee aircraft corp he is a director of the goodyear tire and rubber co of akron 0 five honorary degrees were awarded monday at commencement exercises by president whitaker the honorary degree of doc tor of engineering was confer ed upon tom m girdler chair man of the board of republic steel corp and frank m mas ter harrisburg bridge designer the doctor of humane letters was presented to wilmer a dehuff principal of the baltimore polytech nic institute secretary of the navy charles s thomas who delivered the commencement address and robert d calkins president of the brookings institution received the honorary degree of doctor of laws girdler son of an indiana coun try doctor was graduated in 1901 from lehigh with a degree in me chanical engineering he started his career with the buffalo forge co and was sent to london england as its foreign salesman he next joined the oliver iron and steel co of pittsburgh where he remained until 1905 after two years with the colo a total of 451,892 has been col lected in the bethlehem area during the last month for the packer hall dormitory fund this amount ex ceeds the goal by more than 26,000 the brown and white fund which was organized by mahlon b simon jr 57 spring editor of the brown and white amass ed a sum of 10,180 it was orga nized so that students could par arons commits suicide caught cribbing in exams 400 present for summer 44 courses over 400 graduates and under graduates began study in 44 areas yesterday as the first 1955 summer session got under way the first ses sion which includes special under graduate engineering courses and two education workshops for gradu ates will end july 30 the second term commences aug 1 and con cludes sept 10 frederick e ressler assistant to the registrar estimated tues day that around 300 under graduates and 175 graduates would register for the first six week session the registration will drop for the second six weeks as the number of gradu ate courses offered decreases in the second session undergraduates have 23 areas of study from which to pick their eight hours for the first session aside from the three special engineering courses offered c.e 40 and 41 mech 1 and mining 4 there are courses available in accounting biology chemistry civil engineering and mechanics economics english jour nalism speech finance fine arts geology german history and gov ernment i r math m.e mining engineering philosophy physics psychology french spanish and so ciology graduates will attend courses in education history speech english and journalism see 400 page 3