1920s Timeline

The Bugle, Its Importance and Its Founder

The Bugle, the campus yearbook, is where the story of our university is best kept – it contains the
memories of Hokies over more than a century andis a cherished keepsake for hundreds of thousands of Hokie families.

In the 1935 Bugle, an author wrote that it intends to “picture V.P.I. life in an attractive and permanent form, valuable to the undergraduate who remembers vividly the incidents depicted, but even more so to him as an old grad, whose dimming recollection of old friendships, old pranks, old forgotten days it may recall.”

And thanks to the work of countless student editors and photographers, the Bugle is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Hokie history. It served as aprimary tool for this history of the Jewish community here in Blacksburg.

Recently, controversy has visited the Bugle because of the student who won a competition to give it its name. The 1895 competition was won by a junior namedClaudius Lee, who became the yearbook’s Editorand Chief for its first volume, published in 1896. Lee was also a member in a campus branch of the Ku Klux Klan and a self-described “father of terror” – and the chapter of the Klan was included in this first yearbook. In recent years, this ugly history has been confronted, and one of the ways in which Lee was previously honored – a building on campus was named after him – was revoked, and the building was renamed after Janie and William Hoge, a local African American couple who hosted African American students who had been denied housing on campus due to racist policies in place at the time.

Armand Hecht

In 1918, Armand Hecht’s father wrote a letter to VT Dean Campbell requesting that his son be granted permission to miss classes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Dean Campbell agreed and wrote back “Our university always respects a man’s beliefs.”

Hecht continued to “pay it forward” and 27 years after graduating, Hecht (‘22) invited Hillel students to his home in Bristol, to socialize together for a “Lost Weekend.” Hecht wanted Jewish students to enjoy the types of social events and dances that were common on the campus and which he cherished as a Jewish student himself. It’s that spirit of giving back that sustains Jewish life on this campus.

Nathaniel Joseph Levy

The 1896 Bugle makes mention of thre Jewish families associated with the university – though the names of these families and studentswere not listed, so we cannot honor their legacy. For the next three decades, Jewish life on campus was small, but grew steadily.

Nathaniel Joseph Levy was one member of this small Jewish population, attending the school after receiving a scholarship from Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.