1875 CC Trade Dollar: Type 1 Reverse (U.S.)

1863 Indian Head Penny (U.S.)

1874 Three Cent Nickel (U.S.)

1863 2 Öre- Carl XV (Sweden)

1873 Shield Nickel (U.S.)

1803 Draped Bust Large Cent: Small date, small fraction (U.S.)

1868 Indian Head Penny (U.S.)

1802 or 1803 Draped Bust Large Cent (U.S.)

In a snowy outdoor ceremony on Sept. 20, 1875, Boulder town officials and members of the Masonic Grand Lodge placed a small tin box with nearly 50 items in the cornerstone of what would become Old Main. The cornerstone — known as the building’s setting stone — was located on the northeast corner at the transition between the stone foundation and its brick walls.

“The ceremony of today is not one of novelty to dazzle or deceive,” said Webster D. Anthony, the grand master of the Grand Lodge, at the ceremony. “It signifies peace, prosperity, growth in knowledge and social refinement.”

The time capsule contained 12 newspapers, eight coins and a Colorado business directory and statutes book, among other small items. 

The coins range in date from the early 1800s to 1875. All are American coins with the exception of a 1863 2 Öre from Sweden featuring King Carl XV. 

Chancellor William Baughn and Alumni Association executive director Richard Emerson removed the time capsule in September 1985. Another box was placed in the cornerstone with memorabilia from 1985 to be opened in 2075. 

Today, the coins and the other time capsule items are kept at the CU Heritage Center, located on the third floor of Old Main. 

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Photos by Mona Lambrecht, CU Heritage Center

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A military band drills in front of what is now known as Baker Hall. The residence hall, built in 1937, was referred to then as simply the “men’s dorm,” before it was renamed for former CU president James Baker after the war. We’d love to know more about this photo! If you have any context or history behind this image, write us by clicking the button below.

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Photo courtesy CU Boulder photograph collection, Box 42, Item Univ 5191, Rare and Distinctive Collections, CU Boulder Libraries

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CU Boulder’s student population nearly doubled as veterans enrolled during the end of World War II. 

The university clamored to create housing for the more than 4,600 vets — many of whom had spouses and children — who received educational benefits as part of the U.S. government’s GI Bill. While many vets were assigned to live in double or triple occupancy dorm rooms on campus or the homes of willing Boulder residents, the university needed immediate housing for many others. 

In November 1945, CU Boulder opened what became known as Vetsville, a village of trailers located southwest of what is now Arapahoe Avenue and Folsom Street. 

The early dwellings were far from ideal — they were drafty and leaky.  

“Cold winds coming up under the trailers necessitated many, many blankets, and families woke up on bitter winter mornings to find their drinking water frozen,” said a 1947 article in the Colorado Alumnus magazine.  

In the spring, inhabitants caught rainwater in buckets and moved beds to wherever they would stay the driest. 

According to the Alumnus, when the university winterized the trailers with better foundations and ceilings, the waiting list jumped to the hundreds. Within two years, the village housed 200 veterans and 250 of their family members. 

In 1947, John Wesley “Wes” Coryell (�������Բ���’50) and his wife Doris Coryell were among its early inhabitants. 

Wes served in the Navy during World War II and was primarily stationed on Lejima (also known as le Shima), an island near Okinawa, Japan. 

With an honorable discharge, he began undergraduate studies at a junior college in Boise, Idaho, where he met and married Doris. Wes applied to the engineering program at CU Boulder under the GI Bill, and the couple moved to Vetsville for two years from 1947-1949. 

“The space was very small, and they did the best they could with it,” said Judy Cutler, one of the Coryells’ three children. “They would sit and play cards and have a little cocktail party or a dinner party.” 

Cutler recalled one story where Doris’ family visited the couple in Boulder. 

“Mom and Dad had a bed, my grandmother slept on the couch, my aunt slept on the floor and my uncle slept in his car,” she said. 

During the time the Coryells lived in Vetsville, the community grew rapidly.  The university purchased 60 prefabricated steel Quonset huts to house an additional 120 families and acquired nearly 200 barracks-style apartments through the Federal Public Housing Authority. 

As the number of people in Vetsville grew, so did the community around it. Children played in the streets. A co-operative store opened in 1947 for Vetsville residents to shop for fresh meat, vegetables, canned foods and bakery goods. The community elected a Vetsville mayor and published its own newspaper, the Quontrabar, “named for a combination of the words ‘Quonset,’ ‘trailer’ and ‘barracks,’” according to an April 2010 Daily Camera article on Vetsville’s history. 

Cutler recalled her parents talking about the friends they made during their time at Vetsville. 

“They were happy,” she said. 

After Wes received his bachelor’s degree, the couple moved back to Idaho, where Wes worked for a power company his entire career. Doris died in 1991 at the age of 65 and Wes in 2009 at the age of 87. 

As a result of drastic downsizing over the years, Vetsville officially closed in 1973 and the university planned the construction of the Newton Court apartments for married students and faculty. Many of Vetsville’s residents were dismayed at the time. The area boasted some of the cheapest rents in Boulder — $65 a month.

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Photos courtesy CU Heritage Center (aerial and trailer photos); Colorado Alumnus (cooking and reading photos); Judy Cutler (Wes Coryell photo)

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Memories of Professor Nilon

Your picture and story about Professor Nilon [“THEN September 1963,”Summer 2021] brought back fond memories. 

I am attaching a picture [shown above] I took of him in class in 1977, 1978 or possibly 1979.

George D. Halper (�󾱲�’79)
Shawnee Mission, Kansas 

Photo by Courtesy George D. Halper (Professor Nilon)

Coloradan for the Family

A quick note to say I’m only halfway through the new Summer 2021 Coloradan, and I’ve already torn seven pages out to share: one for my husband (“Life, Reincarnated”), two for my 7-year-old (“An Olympic CU Legacy”), two for my 9-year-old (“Pups of CU” and “Climate Change Causes Mammal Range Shifts”) and two for my 12-year-old (“Digits” and “Buffs at Bat”)! Thank you for publishing interesting content that I can share with my future Buffs! 

Megan Elenbaas Harhager (��dz���’03)
Westminster, Colorado

Olympic Infographic Correction

On pages 33-34 [“An Olympic CU Legacy,” Summer 2021], your photo spread shows “Billy Kidd (Econ’69) and Jimmie Heuga (PolSci’73)” in the center photo. Actually, the picture is of Billy Kidd and coach Bob Beatty. That said, the Innsbruck Olympic team with Kidd, Heuga and Jim “Moose” Barrows (Mgmt’70) was awesome. 

George W. Aubrey (�ұ�DZ�’77)
Plano, Texas 

Editor’s Note: We sincerely regret our misidentification of Jimmie Huega and coach Bob Beatty, especially from such a memorable time and photo. Thank you to all of the readers who alerted us immediately of the error. The online article and downloadable PDF of the magazine reflect a corrected version of the photo.

More on Aerosols and COVID-19

I found the comments by David Dennison (�ѱ𳦳󷡲Բ���’73) very interesting. I find myself comparing the response to COVID-19 and the response to the Asian flu in 1957. That year, I was a music education major enrolled in the required clarinet class.

The university’s response to the Asian flu? I never noticed a response! Students rented instruments for the wind classes from the university; two students rented the same instrument. I never met the student who shared my instrument, but I believe I caught the flu from that student. We did have our own reeds, but we used the same mouthpiece. I was terribly ill for two weeks. Finally, when I was well enough to drag myself from class to class, I appeared at the studio door of the visiting piano professor who had taken the place of my regular professor who was working on his doctorate at Eastman. “Well, you should have had plenty of time to practice,” she said. 

Does the university still rent the same instrument to more than one student? Surely it does not!

Irene Eggers (MusEdu'60)
Wheat Ridge, Colorado

Coloradan or Coloradoan?

I have a pet peeve that we should be called Coloradoans not Coloradans. So I found an article online you had in 2019 [“Origins: Coloradan or Coloradoan,” Spring 2019] that I tend to disagree with. I know it isn’t a big deal, but every time I hear what I feel to be incorrect, it drives me crazy! So I would appreciate it if you could help me spread the word that we should use Coloradoan more often.

Judy Green
Greeley, Colorado 

Editor’s Note: Revisit a previous issue to read about the beginnings of the term “Coloradan”. 

The Legacy of Carroll Hardy 

Life is beautiful when you take time to look. This applies to the football field as well. 

The late Carroll Hardy (A&S’55) was one of Dal Ward’s best ever and should have been remembered in your Coloradan with a full page. During 1950 to 1954 Hardy and Frank Bernardi (Mktg’56) were nationally known on the CU football team, and both men continued as very special people in later life. 

I met my wife Barb Palmer (Bio’54) at the 1950 freshman mixer ... this has been an amazing journey. CU is a big part of our life. 

Jim Deeds (ArchEngr, Mgmt’56)
Monument, Colorado 

1956 Class Note

I am responding to an entry in , page 55, Summer 2021 edition. Edward F. Altman (Fin’56) is searching for a classmate that he would like to contact. I am not a classmate (I graduated in 1957 in aerospace). But I had a fraternity brother in the Phi Kappa Tau Greek fraternity who was my pledge “father” named Ed Altman, who was from my hometown of Pueblo, Colo. He and I were not close friends, and after graduation we both went our separate ways, never crossing paths after leaving Boulder. 

In June 1957 when I graduated, I immediately moved to the Dallas area to take a job as an engineer with Chance Vought Aircraft, and nine months later entered the Air Force, attended pilot training and followed a world-wide career path as a pilot until March 1984, when I retired in Annapolis, Maryland, to do a second career as a professional engineer and project manager with a defense contractor. I retired for good in June 2017 and am living in Annapolis with my wife and golden retriever.

Clay Johanson (������Ƿ��Բ���’57)
Annapolis, Maryland

The Stones in Concert

I was at the 1981 Rolling Stones concert in Boulder. We were up front and Mick Jagger put a scarf around my neck at that concert. I was wondering if there is a picture of that? That day was one of the best days of my life. We rode our Harley to that concert. I don’t know the biker that lifted me up so Mick could put the scarf around my neck, but it was a great moment in my life. I am getting older, and my grandchildren know the story and I would like to have a picture to share with my grandchildren. 

Deby Stanger 

How about a commemorative plaque in 2028 placed at Folsom Field honoring the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones playing there on July 16, 1978? It would further endear Folsom Field to a great moment in history and would be recognition of an event not necessarily affiliated with CU Athletics.

Charlie Perkins
Avon, Colorado

Michael Goldman (Rolling Stones)  

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