Class of 1935

Known during his time at Dickinson as Abe L. Hymowitz*, Hymes was born in New York City in February 1914 and graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn. He entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1932 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with the class of 1935. While at the College, Hymes was a member of Sigma Tau Phi fraternity. He then studied medicine at New York University and earned his M.D. in June 1939.

A reserve medical officer straight from medical school, Hymes was called to active service after completing his internship in June 1941; he was assigned to the U.S. Army Air Corps. After service in South Carolina, he left for the South Pacific in January 1942. He lost his life on December 31, 1942, when the aircraft in which he was flying from Port Moresby, New Guinea to Australia was shot down into the sea.

When Dickinson's Alumni Gymnasium was converted into the Weiss Center for the Arts in the early 1980s, Leopold Cohen, class of 1935, donated funds for the dedication of a lecture hall to be known as the Hymes Room in honor of his lost friend and classmate.

* Later alumni lists refer to Abe L. Hymowitz but by 1939 he had changed his name to Hymes.

John Verban, Jr. was born on July 21, 1911, the son of John and Mary Fliszar Verban of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He attended Allentown Preparatory School before entering Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in September 1931 as a member of the Class of 1935. During his time at the College he was a member of Theta Chi fraternity. However, Verban withdrew from Dickinson in June 1933 following the death of his father. He took a job in an insurance company, and in October 1939 he married Matilda Borda of Bethlehem. The couple had a son, John Borda Verban, in 1943.

Verban served his country during the Second World War as a private in Company F of the 337th Infantry. Fighting in Italy in October 1944, he was seriously wounded in combat. Family records indicate that Verban died in an Italian hospital near Castello Fiorentino on October 16, 1944, and was buried there. Some years later the body was exhumed and buried in Bethlehem. Further details of his sacrifice are unknown.