Yvonne Anderson Windham, Class of 1952

Yvonne Anderson Windham has seen enormous change at the UA College of Pharmacy since she started attending here in 1948.

“Students now have so much more knowledge,” she says. “That’s partly because more knowledge has become available. When I started pharmacy school, we were taught natural medicines. Then more information about chemical medications became available. Interestingly, now the field is moving back to natural substances.

“The course structure is completely different now, too. We were the last class that finished in four years. The first two years were called prepharmacy, the second two years were spent in the College of Pharmacy. We had to take engineering physics.

“One thing hasn’t changed, though. It’s funny: The courses we flunked are the same courses students flunk now.

“In my class, three women graduated. There weren’t many women going to pharmacy school in the 1940s. It was difficult for some. In fact, after graduation, two of the women in the first few classes committed suicide. The deaths were probably due to personal problems, because both were excellent students.”

When Windham entered the college in 1948, there were 4,800 students at the UA. In 1952, thanks to returning veterans going to school on the GI bill, there were 12,000.

“GIs had the GI bill, but the rest of us had to find other ways. The university was supported by taxpayers in those days. Even though there were no student loans, no one was in debt. Students worked and got help from their parents. The men were indebted to their wives, who got ‘PHT’ degrees: ‘Putting Hubby Through.’”

“There was no dorm space,” says Windham. “The College of Pharmacy was in the old chemistry/physics building. Almost all classes were held in Quonset huts in the parking lot west of Bear Down Gym. By the way, they trained naval officers there. They called it ‘The Good Ship Bear Down.’”

Windham, who was born in 1931, recalls that her class was made up mostly of GIs – the majority of whom were married.

“There were maybe 12 single men,” laughs Windham. “Most of the students had families and had to work. They lived in Polo Village. There was no cohesive school spirit at COP. I started college when I was 17. In order to have a social life, we three girls joined sororities. Fraternities didn’t accept women at that time.

“Women weren’t accepted in retail stores. Remember, prophylactics didn’t hang out on the shelves then like they do now. People didn’t want to ask questions of a woman pharmacist. Many wanted to talk to a man.

“Hospitals accepted women. Many of them were staffed by women. We were paid less. Men thought women could work for less.

“When I graduated, there was only one hospital in Tucson, St. Mary’s, which was staffed mostly by nuns. So I and one of my female classmates went to work for a hospital in Phoenix. At the hospital, I earned $300 per month. Men working in retail stores made $350.

“I wasn’t unhappy with my salary,” says Windham. “Remember that at that time a nice house cost $7,000 and gas was 17 cents a gallon. I made a better salary than my friends who were teachers. In fact, I got married and put my husband through college. I eventually went to work for retail. In my whole life, I never had trouble getting a job.

“My favorite part of being a pharmacist was that I liked the customers. Counseling wasn’t something that was mandated: you knew your customers. You counseled your patients because that was part of the business. There was camaraderie.”