After profiling a famous alumnus from UW class of ’99, the most logical step seemed to be to profile a famous alumnus from the class of 1939.
I’m talking about Beverly Cleary. She has written over 30 children’s books and is most famous for the “Ramona” series. I’m sure at least half of us grew up reading her books as kids…probably because they rule.
lol @ outraged “THEY DON’T HAVE IPODS” voiceover, btw.
After attending Chaffey College and UC Berkeley, Cleary headed up our way to earn her library sciences degree. If you haven’t noticed yet, Cleary attended college during the Great Depression. The Great Depression! In a UW Alumni Association article about her, author Eric McHenry writes:
“In 1938, Cleary moved to Seattle to begin her studies at the UW’s School of Librarianship. She lived north of campus in a small, furnished room with a card table for a desk, and walked a mile every day to her classes in Suzzallo Library. “That was during the darkest Depression,” Cleary recalls, “and I was living on $35 a month, which was not easy.” It was an uncertain time and an austere life, one she vividly evokes in her second autobiography, My Own Two Feet: ‘Afternoons most of us studied at our desks until three o’clock, when we were granted the privileges of the faculty room, where we could have tea and two Ritz crackers for 2 cents. I looked forward to that tea and those crackers.'”
Cleary was/is pretty hardcore, you have to admit. How many of us are forced to walk a mile to school every day? Also, $35/mo? Forget coffee and lunch every day, and don’t even think about going out over the weekend!
After graduating from UW in 1939, Cleary was offered a librarian job in Yakima, where she gained her inspiration to write children’s books. After moving to Beverly Hills with her husband in 1948, she finished Henry Huggins, her first book of many to come.
Beverly Cleary will celebrate her 95th birthday on April 12th, and currently lives at her home in Carmel, CA.
HC Washington loves you, Beverly!