Graduating to parenthood: Welcoming Don and Bruce

Graduation

While Malcolm attended the Utah Agricultural College (UAC) in Logan, Utah, he was active in the college orchestra and band, and served as business manager one year and as editor the following year of Student Life, the college weekly newspaper. 

Malcolm H. Merrill, 1925.

He graduated with a Bachelor in Science (B.S.) in June, 1925. 

Malcolm H. Merrill, Utah Agricultural College graduate, 1925.

Malcolm was the valedictorian of his graduating class (as he had been in grammar school and high school).

Aggie Class of 1925. (Malcolm H. Merrill, second row, center, between girl with white accent and girl in black).  

Thelma didn't quite finish her degree, but she did attend for three years. As she said in Mark Merrill's recordings of "Pearls from the Past: 69 Questions":

I did not finish school.  I went three years, but I had started to major in home economics--that is cooking and sewing--but I got so bored with that that I took a regular history and literature class. So when Malcolm was away, I wrote to him and said, "Why don’t I quit school and go down to the LDS hospital and learn to be a nurse?" That’s where my sister, Marie was taking her nursing course. Malcolm wrote to me and said, "Don’t do that because I will have had enough medicine. So you major in English and cultural things so that you can bring something different into my life." Whew! I was so thrilled! I didn’t want to be a nurse. I would have hated it.  So my major, I guess, was English, but I didn’t graduate.  I only had 3 years of college, and I got married and am glad of it.

Medical School in St. Louis

Malcolm attended the St. Louis University School of Medicine, with the assistance of a teaching research fellowship. He attended for one year before he and Thelma were married, at which point the two of them moved there together.

Malcolm said of this time,

We [lived] for six years in St. Louis, summer and all. I went there on a teaching fellowship in bacteriology, and spent two years getting my master’s degree in bacteriology [in 1927]. And then they offered me a teaching assistantship if I’d stay on and take my medical course. So then I spent five more years registered in the medical school, teaching in the winter and summer and all for those five years and got my M.D. I spread the coursework over seven years, you see. I did quite a lot of research—I published a dozen or fifteen papers during those seven years, and did teaching in bacteriology and immunology. Then in summer school I had took essential responsibility for the course in immunology for the medical students for summer school.

In another of the "69 questions", Thelma was asked, "What was it like—married life with a husband still in school?  Were you poor? And did you have to work?" She answered:

Yes, we were poor.  It was wonderful – getting married with my husband in school.  He would work and I worked at the library.  I think Malcolm got – maybe $35 a month on his teaching fellowship and I made about that much in the library.   

In Malcolm's recorded history, we had this sequence of Malcolm and Thelma telling about making ends meet:

Malcolm: We were first living in a little third story cute little apartment (flat) out in north St. Louis. It would take me about 40 minutes by street car to get down to the medical school. At first, Thelma worked down in the public library of St. Louis, for the first six or eight months, and we had the massive income of $70 a month plus Thelma’s $70 a month so at first we had $140 a month for the two of us to live on. We got along fine when we had two checks coming in. Then when Thelma quit work, it got a little “sticky” with only $70 a month coming in.

Thelma: So Malcolm decided that he couldn’t do that, that he would borrow the money and go to Harvard. So, he applied for admittance to Harvard and got admitted. And then he went to his boss and said, “I have been admitted to Harvard, so I think I’m going to go.” And the boss said, “Why?” and he said, “Because, I am only making $70 here, and I just don’t have time, and I can’t afford to stay here.” So he said, “Well, we’ll pay you more.” So he paid him $150 a month. So we stayed.

Malcolm: And then, of course, all tuition was free then. I got my tuition and the income, and having access to the library I didn’t have to buy very many books, so it worked out. We ended up $67,000 in debt and it took us only 23 years to get that paid back. [Everyone laughs…]

Thelma: Oh, that’s wrong! It was $3000. 

 Don and Bruce

While at medical school, Malcolm and Thelma also welcomed Malcolm Donald Merrill to their family! He was born on 18 June 1927 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Malcolm, Don and Thelma Merrill, c.1928.

And then, a couple years later, on 3 Nov 1929, Bruce was born. (Bruce, Kay and Sharon shared the same birthday!)

Bruce and Don Merrill (late 1929 or early 1930).

Bruce, Thelma and Don Merrill, c. 1930.

Don Merrill in St. Louis, Missouri. 1930.

Baby Bruce, St. Louis, Missouri. 1930.

Don Merrill playing ball with the dog. St. Louis, Missouri. 1930. 

Thelma said that Don loved his little brother and was very protective of him, always having his arm around him.

Bruce and Don Merrill, c. 1930.

Bruce Merrill, c. 1930.

Malcolm and Thelma Merrill.

Thelma Merrill.

Malcolm and Thelma Merrill

Malcolm and Thelma Merrill.

Don Merrill on a tricycle.

Malcolm Merrill, recharging neurotransmitters in medical school.

Malcolm was a member of the Alpha Delta Epsilon "medical preprofessional" honor society.

Alpha Delta Epsilon, the medical student honor society.
(Malcolm H. Merrill, very back, left)

Alpha Delta Epsilon, the medical student honor society.
(Malcolm H. Merrill, bottom, third from left)

Malcolm graduated with his medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1932.

Malcolm Hendricks Merrill, M.D.,
graduate of St. Louis University School of Medicine, 1932.

In our next episode, we travel with the Merrills to Princeton, New Jersey, and hear about Thelma's run-in with Albert Einstein!