Memories … of the way SOP alumni were!
Reunion Weekend 2012 is just around the corner: April 20-22. Here are some fond – and fun – memories by former School of Pharmacy students. Enjoy, and we hope to see you here! To see who has registered for the weekend, please click here. (Remember, not everyone who plans to attend will have registered.)
To learn more about the weekend’s events, click here. This year, the classes of 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1977, 1982, 1987 and 2002 will celebrate with individual lunches or dinners!
Be sure not to miss the All School of Pharmacy Award Reception 6-8 p.m. April 21. John P. Crowder III (B.S. ’79) will be presented the Distinguished Pharmacy Alumni Award, and Elizabeth “Scotti” Russell (B.S. ’77) will receive the Pharmacy Alumnus Service Award. Congratulations to both outstanding alumni!
Thanks to the following alums who shared some great stories:
TOM RORRER, CLASS OF 1952
In 1948, a 17-year-old boy left his home in Coeburn, Va., in the heart of coal-mining country, headed for pharmacy school. It was his first big trip away from home. He walked along the gravel rail bed to board the N&W passenger train, climbed aboard and found a seat. His first stop was Bluefield, W.Va., to change trains. He boarded the N&W’s fastest passenger train, the Powhatan Arrow, and proceeded to Petersburg. There, he again changed trains for Richmond aboard an RF&P passenger train that ultimately stopped under a large building, Broad Street Station (now the Science Museum of Virginia).
He walked upstairs to a magnificent lobby, which led outside to tall buildings, streetcars and city buses, taxis and a lot of traffic. These things did not exist in Coeburn.
I spent two years living at the YMCA at Franklin and Foushee streets. My idea of culture was to walk through the lobby of The Jefferson Hotel down the street, Richmond’s grandest hotel. After spending four years on the second floor of McGuire Hall and its annex, I became a pharmacist and joined a profession that served me well.
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My pharmacy school week went something like this. I spent 30 hours per week in classes and labs, then worked 20 hours per week at Jeffries Pharmacy, located on the Boulevard, to earn the $20 it would take to pay my weekly expenses.
A room at the YMCA (double occupancy) cost $4.50 per week. A meal at Crouses Restaurant on Third Street cost 25 to 35 cents, breakfast at Shaia’s Grill cost 20 cents and then the rest went for laundry, etc. Tuition was $100 per quarter and another $100 yearly for books and supplies. Things change. Pharmacy has changed. Pharmacy served me well.
The last year we were in school, 1951-52, work began on the first phase of the new dental building [the Wood Memorial Building]. This meant around-the-clock driving of pilings into the ground to stabilize it for the building. You can imagine the NOISE.
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We had a couple of rainy day activities when we were between classes and too lazy to study.
We visited the White House of the Confederacy, which at the time was set up as a museum with each state having a room where they displayed musty uniforms, medals, muskets and whatever else they had.
We could also visit the Valentine Museum just up the street, which was set up much the same.
The most daring was to walk across the street to the college library, go downstairs and find the door that led to the heating system that served all of the hospital complex as well as the Capitol Building. We then walked through this underground tunnel with the steam pipes to the Capitol and back. I think we were bored.
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Several pharmacy students lived at the YMCA on Foushee Street, and we walked the 16 blocks to school each day. One of my classmates, Steve, liked to make the walk fun, so he devised games to pass the time.
One game was to pick out a city bus on Broad Street and see if we could walk faster to 12th street than it could make its way through its stops and heavy traffic, which was prevalent at the time. We sometimes won. [Editor’s note: You probably still could! Things have not changed, traffic-wise.]
The other game was to be able to walk the entire distance without stopping for traffic, crossing only with the lights. This was a little harder to accomplish, but the exercise kept us from finding a gym to work out.
Steve was also a math whiz, so sometimes he would ask math questions such as what percentage was 3.5 of 50. You get the idea.
VICKI GWALTNEY GARRISON, CLASS OF 1977
“Can you believe that we have our 35th college reunion this year???” asks Vicki Gwaltney Garrison. “How can it possibly be happening? Well, it is, and the date is April 20-21, 2012, in Richmond. I have been to three reunions with our classmates. The fifth reunion was great, and I remember that we celebrated Friday and Saturday evenings.”
Garrison also attended her 25th and 30th reunions.
“This year, one of our own, Elizabeth Scott Russell, will be receiving an award after her many years with the Board of Pharmacy. It would really be nice if we could celebrate our 35th by reconnecting with old??? — We are NOT old — friends.
“If you have not been to Richmond in a long time, you will be shocked by its growth. MCV Campus has really grown and you would enjoy seeing what the pharmacy building and labs look like today. … I hope to see you there.”
Garrison is acting deputy, enforcement, for the Virginia Department of Health Professions in Henrico.
Thanks to classmate Ellen Byrne, who supplied the photo of a class trip to Eli Lilly.
S. CHRIS JONES, CLASS OF 1982
S. Chris Jones has managed Bennett’s Creek Pharmacy in Suffolk, Va., for 27 years. In addition, he has served as a Virginia delegate (R-76) for the past 15 years.
Recently, he reminisced about his clerkship at Gretna Drug, which also was mentioned in the School of Pharmacy 2011 Donors Report.
Eliza Hines, Jones recalls, was a wonderful woman who opened up her home to pharmacy students. One of the Gretna Drug pharmacists — at the time, it was Bill Morris (B.S. ’80) — lived in the apartment behind her house. The students would stay in her house, said Jones. “She was just the sweetest.”
“She took care of all of them and fell in love with them!” said Henry Chapman Brown Jr. (B.S. ’56), who owns Gretna Drug. “Eliza was like a mother to the boys. Chris enjoyed her five-flavor cake.”
Jones enjoyed working with Brown as well as Morris — all three were Phi Delta Chi fraternity brothers. Jones had grown up in a pharmacy and found that Brown had the same approach and attitude toward the profession as his dad, Robert S. Jones (B.S. ’53).
“You could tell by [Brown’s] clientele and customer base that he treated them as they should be,” said Jones.
Brown, laughing, said when Chris Jones arrived for his clerkship, he wondered, “Where in the world is Gretna, Virginia?”
Gretna residents probably wondered the same about Chuckatuck, Jones’ hometown. In fact, it turns out, Jones’ nickname was “Chuckatuck.”
If you would like to share School of Pharmacy memories — or new memories you make during Reunion Weekend 2012 — please e-mail them to [email protected] or call Cynthia McMullen at (804) 828-6470.
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