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Early Memorial Foundation

Robert Thornburrow, nephew of the late Sen. A.M. Aikin, Jr. and retired from the Paris Junior College faculty, is volunteering in the archives and currently working on a large addendum to the Aikin Papers. He is finding some interesting items in this collection, a few of which concern the history of Paris Junior College.

1. A letter, dated May 31, 1944, from Dr. Imogene Bentley, President, Ex-Students Association, concerning plans for a PJC Memorial Foundation to honor ex-students serving in World War II, which had been presented and approved. The members and board of directors of the Association were inviting Aikin to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Memorial Foundation.

2. A document, dated May 30, 1944, stated that several hundred ex-students were serving in World War II and sixteen, by that time, had already lost their lives.
The Foundation was to be called the Paris Junior College Ex-Students World War II Memorial Foundation.

After January 1, 1945, the membership fee of the Association was to be $1.00, which
included 25 cents for the operation of the Association, 25 cents for the Association’s Student Loan Fund, and 50 cents for the Memorial Foundation. This document was signed by the Association’s Board of Directors: Mrs. Harold Hodges, Louis B. Williams, Harold Hunt (in the armed services), C. M. McWherter, Jr., President, Mrs. Ulmon C. Clements, Vice President, and Imogene Bentley, Secretary.

3. According to the minutes of the Board of Trustees of the PJC World War II Memorial Foundation, dated October 4, 1944, the following trustees were present:
S.W. Wilbor, chair; B.B. Harlan, Maury Robinson, A.M. Aikin, S.M. Weiss, and J.A. McGill. Also present were Dr., Imogene Bentley, President of the PJC Ex-Students Association, and J.R. McLemore, as well as Louis B. Williams. President McLemore presented a brief for the purchase of a small farm as an experimental-demonstration farm for the college. Robinson and Harlan were appointed to work with him to secure an option on land for the proposed farm.

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