{"id":49340,"date":"2017-12-04T11:04:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T16:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=49340"},"modified":"2022-09-28T10:22:44","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T14:22:44","slug":"scrap-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2017\/12\/04\/scrap-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Scrap value"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sheila Skimmerhorn, the first student to register and complete her degree at what would become Wright State, kept a scrapbook of the university’s early days. The scrapbook is now located at Wright State’s Archives and Special Collections. (Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

The early days of Wright State University are still in the memory banks of Sheila Skimmerhorn. And when she goes through her old scrapbook, those memories come rushing back.<\/p>\n

Skimmerhorn \u2014 the first student to register and complete her degree<\/a> at what would become Wright State \u2014 relived those early days several weeks ago as she pored over her fading photos, letters and newspaper clippings on a table at Wright State’s Archives and Special Collections.<\/p>\n

There are photos of a field trip with fellow geology students and a Christmas dance held in the hallway of Allyn Hall. There is a bumper sticker-sized placard that reads: \u201cDraft Beer, Not Students.\u201d There is a thank-you note from then Ohio Congressman Clarence J. Brown and an artfully written congratulatory letter from Brage Golding, Wright State\u2019s first president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is coming back,\u201d said Skimmerhorn, as each new photo or document unlocked a memory and an exclamation. \u201cOh, for heaven\u2019s sakes!\u201d \u201cHow about that?\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t know so much of this stuff was personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1964, Skimmerhorn became the first person to register at the new Dayton school<\/a> formed by The Ohio State University and Miami University. (There is a photo in the scrapbook of her image on the local television news.) She would go on to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree \u2014 double majoring in history<\/a> and Spanish<\/a> \u2014 from what would become Wright State University and was the first person at the school to complete her degree.<\/p>\n

She is currently capping off a career as a Spanish teacher by working part-time at the Dayton Regional STEM School, of which Wright State is a founding partner.<\/p>\n

Skimmerhorn brought her scrapbook back to Wright State several years ago and donated it to the Wright State Alumni Association. The scrapbook was displayed at association offices in Rockafield House until July 2015, when a storm felled a tree that crashed through the roof and left the scrapbook with water damage. The association later gave it to the archives, and Skimmerhorn went through the contents Oct. 24.<\/p>\n

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Some of the items in Sheila Skimmerhorn’s scrapbook.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are several photos of Skimmerhorn and fellow geology classmates on a field trip to Lake Hope State Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually got thrown out of a store because they called us hippies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There is a photo of Skimmerhorn and her future husband at Wright State\u2019s first Christmas dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had it over in Allyn Hall,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was no venue for it at all. It was in the hallway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skimmerhorn even has Wright State\u2019s first postcard, one that features a color shot of Allyn Hall. And the \u201cDraft Beer, Not Students\u201d placards were put up by students around campus at the height of antiwar protests during the Vietnam era.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I posted one in my father\u2019s shower, and my father was an Air Force major,\u201d Skimmerhorn recalled. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go over well. He was not happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Skimmerhorn said she and her fellow students had lots of \u201cinnocent fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never encountered drugs here, and we were in the hippie era,\u201d she said. \u201cEven our protests about Vietnam were not violent. It was a different time. I think my generation, my age group, was the end of innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skimmerhorn recalled a campus demonstration by students to protest plans to call the new university Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to name the university Southwestern Ohio,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had all of these signs \u2014 \u2018Wright Is Not Right.\u2019 There were too many things that were \u2018Wright\u2019 around Dayton and we wanted something that was totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter from Congressman Brown thanks Skimmerhorn and other members of the Student Senate for inviting him to speak on campus in 1965.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember that because the suit I wore was almost identical to the one his wife wore,\u201d she said. \u201cThe same color and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a photo of Skimmerhorn graduating from Miami University in 1967. (Wright State didn\u2019t have its own graduation until the following year.) The letter to Skimmerhorn from President Golding says it all:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have wanted for some time to offer my congratulations on being the first Wright State student to register and graduate even though officially you have obtained your degree from Miami University. We are very proud of you for not only being our first unofficial alumna, but for finishing school in record time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my hope that you remember Wright State fondly in the years to come and will like me have the pleasure of watching Wright State grow and develop with every passing year. You would be most welcome to return to visit your school and I hope you would kind enough to stop by and say hello to me and members of the faculty whenever you can return.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Skimmerhorn is capping off her career as a Spanish teacher by working part-time at the Dayton Regional STEM School.<\/p><\/div>\n

Skimmerhorn remembers students being able to drop in on Golding at his office unannounced and chat with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were almost on a first-name basis with him,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was so different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skimmerhorn said there were only four buildings on campus when she graduated and that she feels blessed to have been on the ground floor of Wright State\u2019s amazing growth. She returned to Wright State as a student as recently as 15 years ago and continues to work for the university at the STEM school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come full circle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Skimmerhorn said going through the scrapbook was very emotional for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very moving,\u201d she said. \u201cPart of it is a sadness of an era gone by, but there is also a joy. I hope none of this gets lost \u2014 not for my memories, but for the memories of Wright State.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wright State became an independent institution in 1967 and has grown into an innovative leader in the Dayton region and beyond, capturing the spirit of the university\u2019s namesakes, Wilbur and Orville Wright, who invented the world\u2019s first successful airplane from their Dayton bicycle shop. It celebrates its 50th anniversary<\/a> as an independent public university in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheila Skimmerhorn, the first student to register and complete her degree at what would become Wright State, kept a scrapbook of the university’s early days. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":49346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4307,722,733,4309,4299,725,4863,747,715,4855],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-50th","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-alumni-profile","category-home-news-sidebar","category-humanities-and-cultural-studies","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49340"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49361,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49340\/revisions\/49361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}