Elaine and Zane Hilman

About me.

I’m Elaine Hilman and I was born in Sheridan on July 9, 1932. My father (Archie Nash) was a ranch boy but he also could write so he was working at the Sheridan Press as a reporter. Ed Moore was working at the newspaper at that time. When Ed Moore sold out, we moved to Cheyenne. My father worked for Ed Moore for a paper supply company. We were there for a year but the grandparents were growing quite old so we moved back to Sheridan and my dad started his own business, called the Rangeland Lithograph Company. In the front of the store, he had school supplies and all kinds of things. The middle part of it was books and then in the back and the basement were printing presses. It was where the BHJ building is now.

Starting a college.

So he (my father), being a businessman, belonged to a lot of different organizations in town. I remember when I was about nine years old; he came home and said he had been appointed to see if Sheridan could get a college. So from the time I was nine until I think I was 16 or 17, when the college opened, he spent most of his time trying to get a college here. And they had all kinds of troubles. Everybody was against it. The University didn’t want any more junior colleges. But anyway, he finally got it started. Carl Roth, the editor of the Sheridan Press, and my dad went down to Cheyenne to lobby for the College. Of course, the University of Wyoming really fought it. They did not need any more and they defeated it. Those two men on the way home…they were so down in the dumps. Then they decided, “We’ll just have one without them.” So then they were really elated the rest of the way to Sheridan and they just had all kinds of plans. So they went ahead and just before they opened, the University of Wyoming said, “Well, if you’re going to have a college, you might as well be with us.” That’s how it happened. They were bound and determined Sheridan was going to have a college.

Family involvement.

(My dad) was Chairman of the Board (of Trustees) for quite a few years. You can’t believe the time he devoted to it. Mother said their business would probably have been much more of a success if he had devoted as much time to it as he did to the College. And then they started having districts and he wasn’t in the college district. So he dropped out. He said he got it started; that was the main thing.

Enrolling at SC.

I went (to Sheridan College) in the fall of ’50. There were 80 of us in the college that fall. It was up at Stolt Hall (the Girls’ School) which was a brand new building. So it was really nice; they had a gym and everything. And of course there were a lot of returning veterans and they were going on the GI bill. They were so much more serious about their education than us high school kids. I think it made us try to grow up a little bit. We had lots and lots of fun. They had dances and canasta was the rage. We had canasta parties. Of course, that’s where I met Zane (husband). (NOTE: Zane Hilman was the fi rst student to register for Sheridan College). My dad had told me if I’d go two years here, because like all the kids I wanted to go away, get away from home. He said, “Why? Go two years here.” I could pick any college I wanted to go to. Well, I didn’t make it that far because I got married, the summer after the fi rst year of college. We moved to Big Horn. I had planned on (going back to college) when the kids got in school. But I had two kids and when they got in school, I had another one. So that was the end of my education.

Starting a rodeo team.

Of course, my dad thought there ought to be (a rodeo team) and there were a lot of rodeo kids so we started one. We put up a notice: Anyone interested in belonging to the rodeo be at this certain place at this certain time, and they organized. They practiced out at Dean Sage’s, which was up Rapid Creek. He had an indoor barn, about the only one in the county at that time. There were probably 15 students and then a lot of the high school kids practiced at the same time. I don’t think there were many college rodeos so I don’t think they really competed. They just had fun. Oh, I was also editor of the college newspaper (The Trail).

Influential teachers.

My favorite class was probably English. Jane Ralston was the English teacher. Dr. Watt was there. Ione McClain was the librarian who everybody just absolutely loved. Oh, Mr. Baxter was there. And the cook was Mrs. Monroe and her husband was the custodian and they lived right there in the building. We had a really good basketball team that year, too. They beat the freshman University of Wyoming team and we thought that was quite a feather in our cap because we had some pretty old players on the team. But they apparently had been good high school players.

Effect of Sheridan College.

Well, I think I spent so many years living with my dad and (his) trying to get it started, I was so proud of (Sheridan College). Elaine devoted thirty years of service as a volunteer 4-H leader. Archie Nash was Master of Ceremonies at the fi rst commencement exercise of the Northeast Agricultural Junior College {Sheridan College}, June 9, 1949 and served on the College Advisory Committee from 1947 to 1951.