The spring of 1930 was not, perhaps, the best-auspiced time to be a shiny new graduate, off to seek employment, diploma carefully in hand, as the ink was still drying.  Even so, a college degree meant a good deal more at that time than now, when every other Dick and Jane has a degree of some sort, in some field.  What today is merely a pre-requisite for a job not limited to manual labor or retail sales, was in 1930 a trustworthy indicator of a superior general education with a solid specialized basis in some academic field. 

If you have the leisure, I invite you to consider not only the graduate's level of achievement, but its context.  In 1930, the Great Depression firmly established and deepening daily, a small private liberal-arts college in the middle of east central Iowa graduated a class of 137, approximately half of which were female.  Processing this information for presentation forced me to re-consider, and modify, a number of my conceptions of that time. 

One expects students from the locality, and there are a number of Poweshiek county surnames in the list of graduates.  The presence of surnames like Carino, Cohen, dePersia and Saul hints at a wider demographic, and a greater egalitarianism, than I - at least - had expected.  As a genealogist and a jack-leg historian, my curiosity is piqued.  I'd like to know where these then-young people came from, where they went, and what they did.  If you connect with one of these graduates, I'd very much appreciate hearing from you.

Without further ado, then, it's my pleasure to present to you the Grinnell College graduating Class of 1930:

1. Adams, Eva Alberta
2. Allen, Edward Douglas
3. Atkinson, Margaret Ione
4. Barnes, Andrew Thornell
5. Bates, Mary Frances
6. Beck, Malcolm Gerald
7. Berg, Signa Turner
8. Bowlin, Donald Ayers
9. Box, Donald
10. Bray, Henry Marshall
11. Brazelton, Lola Irene
12. Briggs, Charles Walter
13. Brinkman, Geraldine Mae
14. Brown, Edward Trebus
15. Bryan, Charlotte DeEtte
16. Burns, LaVera Ruth
17. Busby, Cora May
18. Carino, Fermin Lauchangco
19. Carley, Thomas P.
20. Carlson, Helen M.
21. Carpenter, Mary Doris
22. Clapp, Jane Alice
23. Cohen, Aileen Bernice
24. Conard, Rebecca
25. Corrough, James Vincent
26. Cox, Arthur Francis
27. Davis, James L.
28. Davis, Mary Elizabeth
29. DeLong, Robert Gibson
30. dePersia, Arthur
31. Dewey, Carroll Martin
32. Disbrow, Mary Ethel
33. Douglass, Donald Wickware
34. Dunham, Harold Grinnell
35. Eckholm, Wendell
36. Edenburn, M. Evelyn
37. Edge, Virginia Evans
38. Fansher, Vivian Nadeen
39. Foval, James E.
40. Fuhrer, Aceneth
41. Gallagher, Wilma M.
42. Gillespie, Katherine Amelia
43. Goodman, Donald B.
44. Goodrich, Gladys
45. Greene, Davis Child
46. Hafkey, Vera Irene
47. Hall, Luella Blanche
48. Hayes, Charlotte
49. Hayes, Douglas
50. Heil, Suzanne
51. Heldridge, Meredith James
52. Hemphill, Martha Gale
53. Hettinger, Edith Lucile
54. Holman, David Odgers
55. Hotchkin, Ralph H.
56. Howard, Mabel Louise
57. Hubbard, Flohill
58. Hulsebus, Blanche Marie
59. Hurder, Marguerite Irene
60. Jay, Edith Margaret
61. Johnson, Al Arthur
62. Jones, Donald Prentiss
63. Jones, Joyce Wilda
64. Kent, John Crossett
65. Klinefelter, Paul Henry
66. Knapp, Merton Howard
67. Knight, Anna Mildred
68. Lark, Mary Webb
69. Laustrup, Charles Platner
70. Liedtke, Edwin Carl
71. Lucke, Theodore Koller
72. Lynde, Elizabeth
73. Lyon, Georgia Madelon
74. MacArthur, Gretchen
75. McCormick, Martha Jane
76. McCornack, Doris Isabel
77. McFarlin, Marjorie Cathryn
78. McIntire, Ernest Eugene
79. McIntire, Ernestine
80. McNally, MiriamE.
81. Madgett, Pauline Helen
82. Mark, Robert Frank
83. Markee, Marjorie Elizabeth
84. Mathews, Billie Norma
85. Matlack, Margaret Westgate
86. Milne, Elizabeth Adeline
87. Morris, Harold White
88. Mutersbaugh, Loretta Ann
89. Napier, Margaret Elizabeth
90. Nelson, Bertha M.
91. Nelson, Dorothy Mabel
92. Noon, Eleanor Marie
93. Nowlen, Annie Martha
94. Parish, Charles Edwin
95. Pelletier, Dyre John
96. Perry, John Edward
97. Peterson, Russell
98. Phillips, Richard Malcolm
99. Pilling, Ida Patricia
100. Porath, Dorothy Phoebe
101. Rathmann, Lucile Elizabeth
102. Read, Alden Arthur
103. Riniker, Virginia Campbell
104. Rose, Harold Fay
105. Rosecrans, Earleen A.
106. Rosine, Carl H.
107. Rutherford, Donald George
108. Sampson, Kathryn Elizabeth
109. Sankey, Ruth Elizabeth
110. Saul, Helen Anita
111. Schroer, Harold Arthur
112. Sharnborg, Orville Edward
113. Shaw, Leslie M.
114. Shelmidine, Lyle Stanton
115. Shields, John Anderson
116. Smith, Florence Dawson
117. Smith, Russell Jackson
118. Snoddy, John Alfred
119. Snyder, Oswald Hammatt
120. Spurlock, Burwell
121. Steenbergen, Adelaide Elizabeth
122. Stephens, Camilla Ellen
123. Stoaks, Mary Elizabeth
124. Swearengen, Carroll
125. Teget, Fern Elizabeth
126. Thiedeman, Lydia Margaret
127. Thompson, Margaret Kathryn
128. Troyer, William Lewis
129. Turner, Catherine Vernon
130. Urban, Arline Lenore
131. Utley, Mildred Eugenia
132. Welton, Claude Riley
133. Wilder, Marjorie
134. Wilhelm, Harold Philip
135. Willard, Ruth Eleanor
136. Williamson, Ruth Ella
137. Wollenweber, Decla Mary

The above content derives from a Commencement Program booklet provided by Mrs. Martha Paul, of Portage, MI.  While finalizing the estate of her in-laws, Mary Opal (Koger) and Lloyd C. Paul, she recognized the significance of historic materials, and went to considerable trouble to find repositories appropriate to their nature.

The booklet is physically archived at the Poweshiek County Historical and Genealogical Society Library.