AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - Nearly eight decades have passed since Pete Turnham arrived as an Auburn freshman in the fall of 1939, working his way through school as a member of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps.
Now 96 years old, Turnham remembers attending a current events class taught by someone who was an institution at the institution, Dr. George Petrie.
"He was loved by everybody, and he wouldn't take no for an answer," says Turnham, who lives less than two miles from Auburn's campus.
Petrie, then 73, had served Auburn for 50 years, first as a history professor, then as a department head, and finally as graduate school dean.