Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Hunchback of Gunter Hall

The following story is based on real events:



If you have ever wandered around campus, you have probably noticed it's exquisite beauty.  From the cutting edge recreation center, all the way to the aged elegance of Snyder Hall, our campus is certainly easy on the eyes; and no building more so than Gunter Hall.  Gunter Hall was built in 1928, the same year that  Ignacy Moscicki became president of Poland.  Gunter Hall is three stories tall, and is the building that houses our School of Natural and Health sciences.  Before that, it's original purpose was our gymnasium.  On the west side of Gunter hall is the Gunter Bell tower, a staggering four-five stories tall.
Legend has it, during a basketball game in 1936, a cheerleader spontaneously went into labor and gave birth to a hideous baby boy.  The game was so exciting, people barely even noticed!  It probably looked something like this...
The cheerleader didn't want to get kicked off the squad for the incident, so she took the baby and dropped it off on the stairs of Roudebush Cottage.  At that time, Roudebush Cottage was a home economics laboratory.  All women who attended the college had to take a home economics class before graduating... these were different times.  Anyway, a home economics professor, Mildred Burns, found the baby in the morning and decided that she would let students raise him as part of her class.  She named him Reuben, which means, found on a doorstep and turned into a teaching tool.  Reuben lived in the cottage until the tender age of 3.  At that time, Mildred decided he was old enough to start work, so she stuck him in the Gunter Bell Tower to be the keeper of the bells.  Oh how Reuben loved to ring those bells.  He figured out how to play the Westminster Sequence all on his own.  Reuben lived until 2005.  He died of a bad Hernia while ringing the bells.  That's probably how he would've wanted to go out... Today there is no more Hunchback ringing the bells.  Just a recording played out over campus every quarter hour.  But to remember Reuben, you can download the Gunter Bells as a free ringtone here...

Okay... so none of that is true.  But the Gunter Bells do have a really neat history actually.  Check that out here!


RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRR!

- Brother Bear

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