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Did you know?
DePauw University has a wealth of firsts and distinguished graduates who have made substantive contributions to our world. We hope you enjoy taking the following quiz to test your DePauw knowledge. The questions appear first and the answers are listed below.
1. Name three living, best-selling authors who are alumni of DePauw University. (Partial credit awarded for identifying one or two of the best-selling authors.)
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2. What DePauw graduate was the first chemist ever to be depicted on a U.S. postage stamp? And in what year did he graduate from DePauw?
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3. While working as a research fellow in the DePauw science laboratories during the early 1930s, chemist and alumnus Percy L. Julian developed a process to synthesize a well-known drug. What is the name of the drug, and it is used to treat what illness?
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4. Dan Quayle, a 1969 DePauw graduate, served as vice president of the United States under President George H. W. Bush from 1989-93. That made Quayle what number vice president in the history of the United States?
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5. Democratic presidential nominees Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton both considered a DePauw alumnus as a possible vice presidential running mate. Who is that alumnus?
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6. In 1990, FORTUNE magazine ranked DePauw University ______ among all colleges and universities in the nation in terms of the likelihood that its graduates will become chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies. A. first B. eleventh C. 58th D. 112th
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7. Which team was the last unbeaten, untied and unscored-upon collegiate football team in the nation?
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8. America’s first female social fraternity, or sorority, was founded at DePauw University. In what year was the nation’s first sorority founded, and what was its name?
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9. What national, professional journalism organization was founded by 10 DePauw students in 1909?
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10. Who was the first African-American graduate of DePauw University, and in what year did he graduate?
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11. In 1975, the DePauw School of Music established the first program of its kind in the nation, and the program has produced many alumni who are leaders in the field? What is the program?
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12. Before being hauled from a farmer’s field and placed at the northwest corner of East College in 1892, the “Boulder” once was used as a kind of carnival sideshow. How was the Boulder used?
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13. The bell, which rings from atop East College, was placed there in what year?
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14. Who is DEBBIE?
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15. Which DePauw University faculty member was named U.S. Professor of the Year in 1997?
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16. A team of DePauw students defeated five other college teams to win the top prize in a national television program on CBS hosted by Alan Ludden during the 1961-62 academic year. What was the name of the television program?
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17. An American president presented an award in recognition of DePauw students’ community service work and the large number of active volunteer programs at the University. Which U.S. president gave the award, and what was it?
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18. Which DePauw alumnus was named the Business Journalist of the Century? And who were the other two alumni named among the top 100 business journalists of the 20th century?
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19. In 1999 DePauw was the recipient of a gift of $128 million from the estates of Ruth Clark and Philip Forbes Holton, both members of the DePauw Class of 1929. At the time, was it the A. seventh B. 31st C. 76th D. 100th largest single gift ever to a college or university?
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20. The Ballad of the Monon Bell, a song that describes the football rivalry between DePauw University and Wabash College, was recorded by which DePauw alumnus who sang with a well-known band? A. Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones B. Jim Ibbotson, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band C. Alice Cooper D. Mickey Dolenz, Monkees
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21. In what year did the U.S. Postal Service issue a 29-cent postage stamp honoring DePauw graduate and internationally known chemist Percy Lavon Julian?
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22. Over the years, a number of people have reported seeing or hearing a ghost roaming a particular section of the stacks in DePauw University’s Roy O. West Library. Whose ghost is it, and why is it haunting the library?
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23. Which DePauw University graduate was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine and why?
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24. Which DePauw professor was the author of a book that was a Paperback Book Club selection of the month for July 2000?
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25. The only known grave on the DePauw University campus is marked by the only remaining campus object standing from before the Civil War: a white stone monument in front of Roy O. West Library and between Asbury and Harrison halls. Whose grave is it?
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26. Arthritis sufferers benefit from a drug that was made plentiful by Percy L. Julian, a 1920 DePauw graduate who discovered how to produce the drug synthetically from soybeans. What is the name of this well-known drug that previously had been rare and extremely expensive?
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Answers
1. John Jakes, Barbara Kingsolver, James B. Stewart Jr.
2. Percy Lavon Julian, in 1920.
3. Physostigmine, which is used to treat glaucoma.
5. U.S. Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, a 1952 DePauw graduate.
7. The 1933 DePauw University football team.
8. Founded in 1870, the Alpha Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority is still active at DePauw today.
9. Sigma Delta Chi, now known as the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). A metal monument on the lawn of East College is a memorial to the organization’s founding at DePauw.
10. Tucker Wilson was the first African-American to graduate from DePauw in 1888.
11. The music business program, which was the first program to recognize the need to train students in the business of music as well as in music itself.
12. The 5,000-pound granite boulder with ridges of quartz dykes was promoted as a “petrified turtle,” and visitors were charged 10 cents to view it.
14. The DePauw Electronic BlackBoard for Interactive Education (acronym DEBBIE), the world’s first electronic note-taking system that allows the professor to write class lecture notes on a laser whiteboard mounted on the wall, and the handwritten notes are automatically transferred to video tablets at the students’ desks. Students can save the notes for later review and study. DEBBIE was developed by David A. Berque, associate professor of computer science, and his student assistants.
15. David A. Berque, associate professor of computer science.
16. The GE College Bowl National Championship.
17. President George H. W. Bush named DePauw’s student community service programs the “592nd Point of Light” in 1991 as part of his “1,000 Points of Light” program.
18. Bernard Kilgore, a 1929 graduate who was the visionary editor of The Wall Street Journal and longtime president of Dow Jones & Co., was widely credited with transforming the once-small financial newspaper into a national daily. Also named among the top 100 were: Kenneth Hogate, 1918 graduate, who served as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and later president and chairman of the board of Dow Jones & Co., and James B. Stewart Jr., a 1973 graduate, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Page One editor of The Wall Street Journal and a best-selling author.
20. B. Jim Ibbotson (a 1969 DePauw graduate), Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
21. 1993. A first-day-of-issue cancellation of the stamp was provided by the Greencastle Post Office on April 8, 1993.
22. It is supposedly the ghost of James Whitcomb, governor of Indiana from 1844-47, who upon his death donated his personal library to DePauw. Whitcomb apparently is guarding his library collection.
23. Ferid Murad, a 1958 DePauw graduate, received the Nobel Prize in recognition of his work for discovering that nitric oxide functions as a signal molecule in the cardiovascular system. The discovery was key to the development of Viagra.
24. Dennis Trinkle, assistant professor of history, who wrote The History Highway 2000, a guide to history-related research Web sites.
25. The monument marks the graves of Bishop and Mrs. Robert R. Roberts. Bishop Roberts presided over the Indiana Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church that did the planning for Indiana Asbury University, which opened its doors in 1837 and was later renamed DePauw University.
