Selected Student Research from 2009

Women at Bryant : a History, 1863 - Present

Jillian Emberg et al. — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:32:40 PDT

This paper highlights the history of influential women at Bryant and Bryant's contribution to the education of women from 1863 to 2009. Bryant students Jillian Emberg '12 and Jessica Komoroski '11, 'honors’ students in Professor Judy Barrett Litoff’s American Women’s History Class, presented this paper at Bryant's "Celebrate Women" event held November 10, 2009 at Bryant University commemorating the 40th anniversary of Women's Studies programs.

“Johnny Came to College to get an Education – He Found Romance Anyway”: The Unconventional Wartime Story of John and Marie Renza

Julien Dumont et al. — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 08:13:59 PDT

Among the long list of economic, social, and political changes that American society experienced during the World War II era was a trend toward whirlwind romances, courtships, and marriages. The pressures of war, namely the conscription of most able-bodied American men, placed many young couples in precarious positions as they faced a long-term separation, names a “courtship by mail,” or a hasty marriage. Marie Teigue and John Renza, both wartime graduates of Bryant College, bucked the trends of their age. The Renzas were a couple that fell in love, grew apart, grew up, and found each other again on their own terms, against the backdrop of World War II, and not because of it.

`Yours for Victory’: The Wartime Story of Howard Peach

Jillian Emma et al. — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 07:48:57 PDT

This study is based on the World War II experiences of Howard Peach, Bryant class of 1942 and founding member of the Bryant Service Club (BSC), a student organization that supported Bryant alumni during the war years. It is based on letters that Peach received and wrote to the BSC during his service with the Army Signal Corps from 1942 until early 1946 as well as oral interviews that the authors conducted at his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts during 2009. Stationed in Europe during much of the war, Peach participated in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the last major German offensive and one of the bloodiest battles of World War II. After the war, Peach started his own business as a representative for jewelry manufacturers which he ran until his retirement in 1985. He and his wife, Glenna, celebrated their 65^th wedding anniversary in October 2008.

The Best He Could, As Fast As He Could: The World War II Experiences of Wesley Crawley, Bryant College, ‘36

Willard Stanley — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 07:44:16 PDT

This paper focuses on the wartime experiences of Wesley Crawley, a 1936 graduate of Bryant College and one of three Crawley brothers to graduate from Bryant and serve in World War II. In addition to interviews with Crawley that took place in 2009, the paper draws from the letters that Crawley received from the Bryant Service Club as well as the letters that he and his family wrote to the Club. After graduating from U.S. Army Officer Candidate School in Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, Crawley was sent to North Africa where, in 1943, he was briefly captured, but later released, by the Germans. He spent much of the remainder of the war in Italy, France, and eventually Germany. Following the war, Crawley returned to his home in Fall River, Massachusetts where he worked for the Fall River National Bank, retiring as Vice President in 1983.

`I Credit the Girls with Keeping the College Going!’: Bryant Women in World War II

Kelly Donahue — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:36:30 PDT

With the onset of World War II, men from college campuses across the United States were drafted or volunteered for military service in support of the war effort. This left educational institutions, like Bryant College, with a predominately female population. There were only eleven men in Bryant’s 1944 graduating class of 155 and thirteen men out of a class of 154 graduated in 1945. Across the nation, the enrollment of civilian men declined by 68.7 percent between the class of 1940 and 1944, but at Bryant the enrollment of civilian men declined by 92 percent. This study examines the experiences of two wartime female students, Dottie Hines O’Connell and Mary Walsh Fournier, who graduated from the four-year teacher training program and later joined the Bryant faculty. Both women recall their time at Bryant College as being the most positive, memorable, and rewarding experience of their early life.

Bryant Connections: Thomas Duxbury and George Sutcliffe

Meghan Barry — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:18:42 PDT

During World War II, Bryant College created the Bryant Service Club, which sent tens of thousands of packages and letters to Bryant alumni and students who served in military units both at home and abroad. Although the Bryant Service Club tried to reach out to its alumni spread across “far flung fronts,” it was unable to reach every one. For different reasons, Thomas Duxbury, a Navy seaman stationed in the Pacific, and George Sutcliffe, a United States Army Air Force fighter pilot, stationed in England, Belgium, France, and Belgium, did not receive packages or letters from the Bryant Service Club. However, they are forever linked by their Bryant connection. In addition, their extensive wartime travels, both within the United States and abroad, are examples of how America was a nation on the move and in great turmoil during World War II.