by J. Grant Hauber
I went to school on the GI Bill. I didn't have family backing; I was on my own. You had to know what you wanted to do because you didn't have the money to start over. I took four years of classes in two years, plus summer classes and a couple of courses at night.
I took three years of English classes to improve my writing ability and my understanding of what I read. During one semester, the teacher, Dr. Sine, used the Bible as a textbook. He wanted us to use our imagination to enlarge upon a story. We would hand in the assignments on Thursday and he would read them over the weekend, then he picked out four or five and brought them to school to discuss on the following Tuesday. One time he chose one of mine. I had used a word he didn't understand: I was trying to say that I thought the story was bologna, and he laughed. To have the professor you admire going over your work and giving a response is very important. It must be; I remember his name 50 years later.
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Contact Information:
Center For Tomorrow
Buffalo, NY 14260
Phone: 716.645.3312
Fax: 716.645.3838
The Hitchhiking Pharmacist
by Thomas Taylor
"Lyle Graves graduated in 1932. He lived in Wellsville, New York. As a kid, growing up, his uncle had a drug store in Wellsville, and another relative had a drug store in South Buffalo. He used to hitchhike from Wellsville to Buffalo to go to school. That's an hour and a half drive today, so back in the Thirties it must have taken him a good three hours.
So Lyle would hitchhike to his uncle's, and stay with his uncle in South Buffalo, then take the trolley or hitchhike to UB on Monday morning. And then until Friday, he would stay with friends in Buffalo and go to school. Then on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning he'd turn around and go back to Wellsville and work in his uncle's store. Come Sunday night or Monday morning, he'd do it all over again.
He later moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Back in 1996, the Dean and I were in Nashville at a conference, and I decided I would drive to Chattanooga to visit Mr. Graves. He'd given us nine dollars in his lifetime.
So I went to visit Mr. Graves, and we hit up a nice little relationship. We met two times, just getting to know one another, and talking about his experience at UB, about hitchhiking in winter; he looked back on it with fond memories. He shared with me that he wanted to do something for students, because he had been very poor. He had saved some money, and wanted to create a scholarship fund. He truly desired to support the university based on his very positive experience-even though he had to go through some very difficult times to get here."