Notes from the Class of 1946

The Sink, Timber Tavern and Greensman’s Drug Store are establishments that remain vividly in Gene W. Miller’s (CivEngr’46) memory when he recalls his CU-Boulder days. Along with living in the dorms, he lived in Vetsville. He fondly recalls professors Warren Raeder, Bill Thoman and Dean Eccles. Married 64 years, Gene retired from the steel industry. Some of his projects included Disneyland’s Matterhorn Mountain and Chicago’s State Street Bascule Bridge. He lives in Houston.

At the Mortar Board National College Senior Honor Society’s national conference in July Virginia Wheeler Patterson (Jour’46) received the Distinguished Lifetime Membership Award. This annual award is presented to alumni who demonstrate a lifelong devotion to Mortar Board’s ideals of scholarship, leadership and service. After returning from being a guest editor of Mademoiselle in New York, Virginia served as president of the Boulder Valley School board for seven years. She helped create the Pearl Street Mall and found the Downtown Boulder Association.

It’s one thing to walk the halls of CU as a woman today. But 70 years ago, in the wake of World War II, being a woman on a college campus was a whole different story. It’s a story that Timmye Berg Pollard (ArchEngr’46) still likes to tell. She and her late husband, Theodore E. Pollard (ArchEngr’49), who died last fall at age 90, met at CU, when Timmye was often the only woman in her classes. While she was waiting for her husband to graduate, she worked as an engineer and even assisted with the structural design of some of the buildings on campus. In May, Timmye, now 88, and her daughter, Evelyn McLane, visited CU.

In March Loy Ledbetter (MechEngr’46) and Peggy Cushman Ledbetter (DistSt’47) celebrated 66 years of marriage. They live in St. Louis, Mo.