Science at Weber College 1933-1974 A great school, a great group of dedicated teachers.Walter R. Buss When Weber College, then a junior college, was transferred from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the State of Utah on 1 July, 1933, it was placed under the direction of the State Board of Education. Charles H. Skidmore had been elected Superintendent of Public Instruction. Aaron W. Tracy was president of the school and had been in that office for several years. Enrollment in 1933 was about 600, all housed in two buildings and three or four houses which had part of their interior partitions removed to increase room size. The Moench Building was a two story building with four class and lab rooms in the basement, nine or ten classrooms on the main floor, four or five classrooms and the auditorium and library on the second, and two or three classrooms in an attic-like third story. The Weber Gym, which served college students as well as the community, had some offices and classrooms. Walter Buss came to Weber State College as an instructor of Geology and Geography in 1933, the year the College became a state school. He retired as a professor from teaching in 1974. At that time, there were, if I remember correctly, only five science faculty. Merlon Stevenson taught most, if not all the mathe-matics and engineering; Ralph Gray, chemistry; Charles Osmond, physics; and A. Russell Croft, biology including botany, forestry, physiology, and zoology. Dr. John G. Lind had taught geology and some of the chemistry, but had broken his hip a year or so before, so his classes were either cancelled or taught by students. During the summer of 1933, four new science faculty were hired, Dean Anderson began the courses in what was then called bacteriology, now microbiology; O. Whitney Young was to teach physiology and zoology; Garnett Littlefield, engineering; and me, for one quarter at a time, geology and a new course, geography. In the fall of 1933 the problems facing the sciences were no different from those of other departments, small budgets, limited equipment and supplies, large enrollments, and heavy class loads. For example, I taught two sections of physical geology, five hours each, and one five-hour class in geography, and thought nothing of it. Everyone had the same kind of load. In checking my rolls for that fall and winter, classes averaged 25-30 students, which was about normal at the time. Chemistry and geology each had one room in the basement of the Moench Building on the north side and physics had two, a classroom and a lab room on the south side. Chemistry and physics may have shared classroom space. Botany and forestry and physiology and zoology each had one room on the south side of the main floor under the Auditorium. Bacteriology was housed on the second floor of a converted house used for the bookstore just east of what is now the Deseret Gym. Mathematics and engineering were taught wherever there was an empty room, though drafting classes were held in one or more of the houses on the north side of the campus used as extra classrooms. As mentioned earlier, funds for equipment and supplies were very limited. For some reason, no visual aids or other materials had been obtained for geography. What to do for this new class with no maps or other helps to teach relationships, particularly place relationships? Do the next best thing, borrow! So I borrowed a globe from physics and was given a U.S. map by the Union Pacific Railroad and managed to get by. The text, The Geographic Factor, had already been selected. This book had many good points and much good information, but the quantity was insufficient for a five-hour class, so on Fridays, we turned to a study of current events of a geographic nature to help the students understand geographic relationships and the part geography plays in our lives. During the 1933-34 school year, the Moench Building was extensively remodeled under a W.P.A. Program, and a new three-story wing for offices, classrooms, and storage, with a stairway to the auditorium was added on the west side. Along with the remodeling, there were some reassignments of space. Chemistry was given the former geology room for additional laboratory space, while geology and geography moved to the southwest corner room and shared an elevated classroom with physics. Field trips play an important part in geology and though we had only limited funds and transportation, we managed several trips. In the fall, many of the geology students and some from other classes found enough cars to go to Mt. Baldy and Mirror Lake in the Uinta Mountains. As we left Ogden, one of the cars developed trouble, so we borrowed another car. As we pulled out of the parking lot at Mt. Baldy, the driver went over a rock and knocked the plug out of the bottom of the gas tank. We found a stick, and wedged it and a rag into the opening, then several of us took turns riding on the bumper holding the stick in as we went on to Mirror Lake. There we found enough containers to finish draining the tank and sealed the plug back in with airplane glue. This lasted for many months until hit by something on a car hoist and then it was soldered back on. At this time there were still street cars in Ogden. Some were little four-wheeled dinkies. Others were regular interurban cars. One line went to 33rd Street and Wall Avenue, so we would ride that to the end of the line, walk west on 33rd to the sandhills, north to 24th Street, across the viaduct, and back to school. Another line went up 25th Street to above Harrison. We rode that to the end of the line, then walked to Waterfall Canyon and back to the street