Page 71 - 1946 VES Meteor

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The
Volume XXXI LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA, DECEMBER 17, 1946 No.3 THE SCHOOL
"Senior Master, Organist, and Choir Director"
Mr. Joseph Kentworth Banks, whose appointment as senior master of the school was announced by Dr. Barton at the beginning of the school year, became at that time only in name what he has been in effect for many years.
Mr. Banks was born on April 3rd, 1898, at Huntman, Tennessee, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Banks. He
attended local schools and had one year at Castle Heights Military Academy. In 1916 he matriculated at the University of Tennessee, grad- uating with o B. A. degree in 1920. The university being o land grant in- stitution, all students are required to participate in two years of military drill, and during his service Mr. Banks was in the last two months of World War I.
In September 1920 Mr. Banks came to V. E. S. The following summer, 1921, he was married to Miss Mar- garet McAnulty of Bolivar, Tennessee,
also o graduate of the University of Tennessee, class of 1920. During the session 1921-22 Mr. and Mrs. Banks lived in the infirmary in the apart- ment where the Dixons now reside. The following year, however, they moved into the house which they now occupy and which had just been com- pleted for them.
The Bankses hove two children, o daughter Margaret, born in 1922, and o son, Jo, Jr., born in 1934. Mor- goret attended R.-M. W. C., where she received a degree in science. On January I, 1944 (see "The Meteor,
1944) she was married in the V. E. S. chapel to Mr. Victor Kehrer of Pitts- burgh, Pa., a former teacher of sci- ence at V. E. S. Since then they have both assisted in work leading to the perfection of the atomic bomb, ot New York, N. Y., and Oak Ridge, Tennessee (see "The Meteor, Oct., 1945). Jo is now attending Robert E. Lee Jr. High School.
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WEST DORMITORY
" ... OPENED FOR THE SECOND SESSION OF SCHOOL ... "
Then and Now
With the opening of the thirty- first session of VES many new voices and the sounds of strange feet echo through the halls of the old West Dormitory. This is its thirtieth anni- versary. It was built in the summer of
1917 and opened for the second session of school in September of the same year to provide for the in- creasing number of students. The building owes its existence to the perseverance and hard work of Bishop Jett. With the aid of eight of the most outstanding business men of Lynchburg a loan of fifty thousand dollars was raised for the project. The job was then handed over to Mr. Burnham, a Lynchburg architect, with a rough sketch which Bishop J e t t had made.
The first few days after the open- ing of school the boys had to go from one floor to the other by ladders. And when the steps were be- ing put in o large iron landing fell and crashed into the concrete floor bdrely miss1ng o boy.
The building has undergone several changes through the years. In 1920 the library was moved from the Main Building to the southeast corner of the first floor. In the summer of
1945 another room was added to the master's quarters on the second and third floors. Last year the li- brary, which is now a living room, and the master's room on First West were converted into apartments for Mr. Milton and his family and ore now vacant following his resignation. The lower end of the hall was then walled off and now includes the li- brary.
In the basement the one room that is vacant now was once o classroom Md last year belonged to the Air Scouts. The recreation room and the radio club's room were used for stor- age. The V-club's room is the only one that has been constantly in use.
The building also includes an ele- vator, scene of many escapades, and an attic storage room for trunks.