McCormick family gives $100,000 and enlarges the library.
After the contribution by the McCormick family, the University changes the name from Carnegie Library to McCormick Library. The donation goes towards an expansion and renovations that tear down the dome that topped Carnegie Library.
McCormick Library finished.
1947
June 6th, Mrs. Alfred I. duPont, a major benefactor of the University, receives a Doctor of Humane Letters degree and becomes the first woman ever awarded a degree of any kind by Washington and Lee.
1949
April 12th, President Harold Willis Dodds of Princeton University addresses Washington and Lee's bicentennial academic convocation in Lee Chapel. Presidents of ninety colleges and universities attend. Later in the day, Assistant Postmaster General Joseph Lawler participates in the first-day issue of a commemorative postage stamp, the first ever to honor an educational institution.
June 16th-18th, almost fifteen hundred alumni and their families crowd onto campus to celebrate the bicentennial. Edward R. Leyburn, class of 1887 and father of Dean JamesG. Leyburn, is the oldest alumnus in attendance.
1950
June 8th, the Order of the Coif initiates its first student members at Tucker Hall. W&L is the smallest law school so recognized for the quality of its scholarship.
1954
Pi Sigma Alpha - Beta Omega Chapter - May 21st
(Approximate date) Professor Junkin paints the fresco in the basement of the Commerce School.
1957
The Cadaver Society, a social club dedicated to providing anonymous financial assistance to W&L, forms.
1962
W&L installs its first computer, a 1620 IBM data processor.
1963
Omicron Delta Epsilon - Gamma Chapter of Virginia - May 1st
1970
February: Approximately 120 women from Mary Baldwin, Hollins, Sweet Briar, and Randolph Macon Woman's College become W&L students for one week duringCoeducation Week.
Under a new system, each student notifies the registrar of the three-hour period duringwhich he plans to take his final exam for each couse. The students pledge to keep both the substance and the general nature of the exam in strict confidence under the HonorSystem.
1972
Front campus is disignated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of Interior
Women first admitted into the School of Law - 7 women in first class
1976
University is a charter member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference
The Commerce School relocates to the former McCormick Library.
The Decision was made to move McCormick Library to a new building and relocate the Commerce School, in order to compensate for the growing number of students focusing on business education. On January 10th, 1700 students, faculty, staff, and townspeople hauled 140,000 books in shopping bags into their new home, Leyburn Library. Volunteers proudly supported ‘I Moved It’ t-shirts that night as they partied and danced in the old library. McCormick was renovated as the new home of the School of Commerce. The renovation took 18 months and cost approximately $3.5 million.
James G. Leyburn Library completed