When Scott Mudd decided to buy and remodel an abandoned funeral home in Carthage, Ill., Mudd wasn’t expecting to come across years of memories stored in his basement from DePauw alumnus Charles C. Tyler ’32.
“I think the newspaper in the mailbox the day that they closed on it was from 1972 so it was like a time capsule,” Mudd said.
In the dark basement of the three -story home, Mudd discovered mounds of boxes surrounded by embalming tables storing memorabilia collected throughout Tyler’s life. Mudd did not attend DePauw University, but when he came across a box of yearbooks and a scrapbook documenting DePauw memories, Mudd’s first instinct was to pass on the contents to his friend Tom Strader ’85.
Strader decided to pass on the contents to The DePauw, where staff looked through Tyler’s handmade scrapbook and Mirage yearbooks documenting his four years on campus and learned more about his experiences.
In the midst of the Great Depression, Tyler traveled from Carthage, Ill. to attend college in Greencastle. Tyler was fortunate to be chosen as a Rector scholar and awarded a scholarship that help greatly fund his education. During his time at DePauw, Tyler took no breaks and made sure he made a name for himself: Editor-in-chief of The DePauw, member of Alpha Delta Sigma advertising fraternity and student body president are only a few of his accomplishments on campus. Tyler majored in Speech and his interests included working in business and helping out with advertisements for various publications on campus.
Although some aspects of DePauw have changed drastically throughout the years, the students that attended DePauw then are similar to the students attending this school now.
DePauw students today enjoy their fair share of practical jokes and boulder runs. These jokes could be as bold as throwing rooftop parties to creating blogs that make fun of the school’s culture. In the past, students also participated in their fair share of fun when they wrote for “The Yellow Crab.” This publication was a humor magazine created by the journalism fraternity Sigma Delta Chi. The editors of the magazine promoted their motto “nothing literary, nothing serious, nothing sensible” by producing caricatures of professors, risqué humor and no advertisements. The magazine was so controversial that in 1919, the faculty ordered that the fraternity was not allowed to produce any more issues without the approval of university authorities. During his freshman year, Tyler tried his hand in writing for the magazine and kept close ties with the members of the organization throughout his college career.
Students now have the opportunity to travel abroad during a three week period called Winter Term, but back in the 1930s, students learned about the world beyond the DePauw bubble while they trained in the Air Force ROTC program. The purpose of the ROTC program was to prepare students to become leaders in the Air Force. Students performed rigorous physical training in order to get into shape. Like many students at the time, Tyler trained in the program and upon graduation he was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Tyler eventually used his skills from his trainings when he was deployed to fight in World War II.
The party scene at DePauw in the 1930s was no different from what it is now-well sort of. Students were still very interested in holding formals put on by Greek organizations, and Tyler also made sure he went to as many as he could. In his scrapbook, Tyler saved various miniature decorated dance cards where he kept the names of the girls that agreed to dance with him at formals. Looking through Tyler’s dance cards, we found a lot of different names including Margaret Sargeant. According to the Mirage yearbook of 1932, Sargeant was chosen as one of the six DePauw “beauties” of 1931. Tyler’s dance cards include organizations such as the Men’s Hall association, Alpha Delta Sigma, Rector Hall and Phi Omega Pi.
Students on campus today have had the opportunity to listen to famous speakers such as Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall and Leyma Gbowee through the Ubben Lecture series. In the 1930s students mingled with professors whose names are recognizable to us today, including Henry B. Longden, Roy O. West and Stuart D. Watson.
Tyler was able to see these people on a daily basis because of his position as student body president and a Rector scholar, a program run by Longden.
It’s been over 80 years since Tyler graduated from DePauw, but his experiences recorded in his scrapbook still align with the experiences of students today. The same monuments and known buildings still stand: East College, the memorial fountain and Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. We celebrate the same traditions and still as DePauw students strive for the same goals; to give back to the community and make a name for ourselves in the world. Although we move on in life to pursue bigger opportunities, we still stay connected through our experiences we share at DePauw.