TUESDAY, APRIL 26. 2005
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SA
AMERICAN ICON
with his grades at KU, he later graduated magna cum laude from Washburn University in Topeka, earning his bachelor's degree and his law degree at the same time.)
Making Ends Meet
"I started waiting tables yesterday, it's kind of hard at first but I guess it will become easier as we get onto it. I guess Bud and I have to start our milk job tomorrow, which I don't like. We never get to bed before 12:00 and getting up at 5:00 is not very easy."
— Bob Dole, in a letter to his parents on the day before school started in 1941
Getting that money was the toughest part of his college career. Dole said.
"It got to the point where you couldn't physically do it and be sharp the rest of the day. My grades reflected that."
Even with two jobs, Dole was almost always strapped for cash.
He woke up at 5 a.m. and delivered milk in Lawrence for a few bucks a day. During the week he waited tables at Kappa Sigma for $12.50 a month plus all the food he could eat.
In all he earned about $50 a month.
Dole eventually changed jobs,
but he never stopped looking for
Images courtesy of the Dole Institute Dole wrote home several letters while at the University. His letters included his concerns about grades, dating and even dirty laundry.
ways to make extra money.
"I asked our treasurer about putting a slot machine on the second floor and he thought it would be a swell idea. He believes I could make around $5 a week. If I could do this I could
quit one of my jobs and have more time for study."
Right before Thanksgiving during his freshman year he came up with an idea and wrote home.
Although a slot machine was technically illegal, "it seemed every store in Russell had one tucked in a corner somewhere," Dole wrote in his book. "My dad even had a slot machine at the egg-and-cream station . . ."
But for reasons he cannot remember today, the idea flopped.
"I never did get around to installing a slot machine in the frat house — it just didn't happen," Dole said in the book.
Whenever he was low on cash, Dole wrote home. He never asked for money he didn't need. But Dole, who was 6 feet 2 inches tall and about 190 pounds, rarely hesitated to ask for extra food.
"Sometime within the next month or two, when you're not so busy, send me some cookies or something." Dole wrote to his mother in the fall of 1941.
It was a request his younger sister, Norma Jean Steele, was very familiar with.
"We had to borrow food [ration] stamps to get enough sugar for the cookies he liked," she said. "His fraternity house got used to getting his cookies."
"I would like to start having more dates. It really helps one get acquainted."
Lady's man
- Bob Dole, in a letter to his parents on May 5, 1942
In a letter to his younger sister his freshman year, he wrote, "I've had 5 dates. One was with a twin and she's plenty cute - I think!"
Dole liked the ladies.
Despite his dark wavy hair and muscular frame, Dole got uneasy around an entire sorority
"It made me sort of nervous eating with 50 girls, and I was scared that I would do something wrong concerning table
dark-haired campus beauty queen" from Hutchinson, according to Dole's book. He dated her for almost his entire sophomore year.
After flowers and dates, things got serious when Grace's parents consented to let Dole "pin" her with his fraternity pin – a first step before actually getting engaged.
But once Dole left the University for the Army, Grace returned it.
Although the breakup sad-dened him, Dole hadn't planned
"I would like to start having more dates. It really helps one get acquainted.
Grace McCandless was a "tall,
One girl in particular kept Dole's attention.
to marry
Grace while in college.
manners, but I didn't," Dole wrote in a letter home.
One time he had so many dates that he couldn't return to Russell for a weekend. Dole wrote his mother to explain.
"I had 2 dates with Virginia McGill last week. She's really a fine girl. . . I have 2 dates with Gloria Brinkman, a blonde, this week-end so if I come home I'll have to break them."
"Grace's mother was in Lawrence Friday. 7. Someone had told her Grace and I
were married and it sorta worried her. I haven't completely lost my mind and I don't intend to for a year or two."
— Bob Dole, letter to his parents in April 1943, about a month before the end of his sophomore year.
"I suppose you, like everyone else, are huddled around the radio listening to war developments in the battle with Japan. . . . There
Off to war
are 3 or 4 boys who are considering enlisting this week in the Army Air Corps. It might be a good thing for me to do; at least it would be better than spending your money at school?"
Bob Dole, in a letter to his parents after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
After Pearl Harbor, things changed for Dole. More and more of his friends and classmates were enlisting in the military. He knew he would too. The question was when.
He stayed at the University for another year and a half until the end of his sophomore year.
But as his academic focus wavered, Dole decided it would be better to enlist than wait to be drafted. He joined the Army Reserve Corps at the age of 19.
Soon Private Dole was off to Fort Leavenworth for Army basic training, and then to Camp Barkley, Texas; Brooklyn, New York; Camp Polk, Louisiana; and Fort Benning, Georgia. From there he headed to Europe with the Allied Forces and fought the Germans in April 1945 on a wartorn hill in northern Italy.
After that, things would never be the same.
Edited by Nikola Rowe