The Junior College Era
1941-45: World War II
Dean Academy was deeply affected by World War II, with 112 people serving. Of that group, thirteen individuals lost their lives. The 1942 yearbook was dedicated to those who served: "Today the world is in a chaotic state of turmoil, but this is today; yesterday has gone, tomorrow will come. Each day passes like a wave on a mighty ocean."
1945: First associate degrees awarded
In 1945, Dean Junior College awarded its first associate's degree. Some of the degrees given out were Home Economics, Secretarial Science, and Merchandising.
Dean College students 1947
1950s-1960s: Expansion period
Dean College May Queen ceremony 1952
1967: Grace Universalist Church sold to Dean, demolished
After 1941, when Dean Junior College legally separated from the Universalist Church, Dean stepped away from its Universalist roots. Grace Universalist Church was sold to Dean Junior College and later demolished in order to make room for the Green Family Library Learning Commons.
1968: William Garner retires, Donald E. Deyo appointed president
1965-1975: Vietnam War
Dean Junior College was affected by the student protest of the Vietnam War. Dean alumna Margo Heck recalled: "I attended Dean from Fall 1969 until May of 1971. Those were the years that Dean would probably like to forget but they were the most exciting years of my life. They were turbulent years – during the height of the Vietnam War. We had teach-ins, protests against the war, and specifically of the Dow Chemical Co. because it manufactured napalm; street theater; pot busts and many fire alarms were set off in the dorms at all hours of the night, including an actual fire in one of the men’s dorms...The school closed early in 1970 and did not hold a graduation ceremony that year. The yearbook went unfinished."
In 2020, the Class of 1970 was meant to be inducted into Dean's 50th Society and were invited to participate in the formal commencement exercises fifty years after their scheduled graduation. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, commencement exercises were postponed that year and the Class of '70 finally crossed the stage at commencement in May 2021.
