AMHERST -- With World War II under way, just 13 seniors attended graduation at Amherst College one spring, the smallest number to walk for their degrees since 1823.

Through the war years, Amherst students, including my father Henry, spread to the corners of the world to serve.
Their college days were fractured and scores of classmates died in combat. Still, my father's Class of 1946 hung together.

Its members remain connected to one another and the college.

As they gathered for their 65th reunion this weekend, these 80-somethings celebrated a feat pulled off in four months -- raising $30,000 to help the college create a special room in the Robert Frost Library that will help keep this generation's service front and center for students today.

"World War II was a very significant event not only for the country but for virtually everyone on the campus when we came here," Josh Watkins, president of the Class of 1946, told classmates, other graduates, spouses, families and college officials in a ceremony Saturday afternoon.

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The WWII Library Study Room project, when complete, will offer a space for individual or group work on the library's third floor, along a bank of windows on the building's west side. The effort is being rolled in to a wider renovation project aided by a gift from departing President Tony Marx.

On Saturday afternoon, these alums and veterans and their friends browsed a small display set up in the space and, in an event downstairs, heard from college officials and a member of the Class of 2012 who attends Amherst on a special veteran's scholarship.

That current student, Jacob Worrell, served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade and helped patrol Baghdad. He transferred to Amherst from Middlesex Community College, and is a philosophy major.
Worrell warned of the consequences today of what he termed the military-civilian divide -- and how with just 1 percent of the U.S. population ever wearing the uniform, it's no surprise that most Americans do not understand the nature of military service.

Several dozen listeners in the library gasped when Worrell noted that 1 of every 5 suicides in the U.S. today involves a military veteran. While members of the Class of 1946 returned to a grateful nation, veterans come home today to long waits for benefits and high unemployment.

Worrell said his Amherst classmates have a hard time understanding what he faced in Iraq. And they would struggle to grasp the world that members of the Class of 1946 inhabited.

"They cannot even fathom the dynamic that existed on campus at that time," he said, referring to World War II. Worrell (at left) said he hopes the new study area helps students understand how military service was, for many Amherst classes, a nearly universal experience. From there, he hopes students pay more attention to contemporary military issues.

"The future security of the nation depends on it," he said.

Gregory S. Call, the college's dean of faculty and newly named interim president, reminded the audience that 25 percent of the college's faculty joined with students in serving in the military in the 1940s.

"You know this well," he said. "You lived it."

Call noted how quickly the Class of 1946's gift of the study room came together. "I think it shows how much you care about this institution. It means a lot to all of us."

It is particularly unusual, Call said, for a class so long out of school to do so much. "That's not something that typically happens. It really is a special class."

Bryn I. Geffert, the librarian of the college, predicted that the WWII room will be well used, since students these days like to work together. He said the space will "foster the camaraderie for which your class is so well known. ... This is an extraordinarily generous gift."

Carole Cunningham, who works in development for the college, welcomed members of the class and praised their contributions. She too noted the speed with which the project came together. "They jumped in at the chance to support this," she said.

They took the beach, in other words, and got it done.