From the Archives: 73 Students Make up First Graduates on the Hill

Known as the “Pioneer Class,” 73 students – 36 women and 37 men – made up the first class to graduate from Hartwick College at a ceremony held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 13, 1932, at the First Episcopal Methodist Church (now the First United Methodist Church) as shown on this program from the Paul F. Cooper Jr. Archives.

According to a local newspaper report, “The class was a symbol of achievement, representing a site of 100 acres, a $250,000 building, a faculty of 26 members and a student body, including part-time students, of upwards of 400.”

This senior class day program, also from the archives, allowed the Pioneers to let loose a bit. While the traditional remarks were by Class President Howard D. Sherman ’32 and a formal dedication was made of the Oyaron yearbook, there was also a class poem read by Ruth E. Kittle ’32 and a “class prophecy” – a set of jokes on what the class expected to see of each other at their 10-year reunion – read by Helen E. Tunnecliff ’32.

Photos are part of the collection in Hartwick College Paul F. Cooper, Jr. Archives.