1940:
St. Francis Club organized. It opens in a house on Stoepel Ave.
March 28: Fifth Annual Turtle Trudge is held at 3pm in the Chemistry arena. The winner is 'Babe.'
1941:
February 19: Freshman are permitted membership in the Chemistry Club.
October 8: Delta Alpha Sigma sorority is formed to "foster interest in the exact sciences among the women students of the University of Detroit."
1942:
December 10: The Engineering Faculty Council votes to admit women as regular students in the College of Engineering.
1943:
University land south of Florence is plowed up and staked out so that people in the neighborhood can plant Victory gardens.
July: The Jesuits leave the faculty house when the army takes it over as a barracks for its students studying on campus. They are able to return September 1944.
Fall: Football is on hiatus because of the war.
1944:
The Tower yearbook is not published.
June 6: As of this date, 57 U of D sons have died in the war.
June 25: Rev, William J. Miller, S.J. becomes president. He is the first alumnus president. (Class of ’23)
September: Enrollment is 1821 students.
October: Rho Gamma Zeta is the third sorority officially recognized by the university board of social organizations. It is a social and literary sorority.
1945:
Upsilon Delta Sigma, a veteran's fraternity is formed.
Tower Yearbook is not published.
Department of Psychology formed.
Football resumes.
February: The Union House at 16800 Fairfield is sold for $11,500 to a private purchaser. "Fairgrove Hall" had operated at various times as a boarding house for students, a home for the St. Francis Club, and a temporary home for the Jesuits while ASTP was in residence at the Faculty House.
April 18: A total of 104 serviceman from the university have been killed in the war.
September: Enrollment is 2810 students.
December 5: The VN reports that 137 university students ultimately died in the war
1946:
Tower Yearbook not published.
Spring: Groundbreaking for Holden Hall.
March 6: Delta Pi Kappa revives the Traditional Turtle Trudge.
April: The VFW (Post 2269) gives its building, located at 16601 Livernois across from the university, to the St. Francis Club.
May 1: The Six Annual Turtle Trudge is at 2pm. This is a national heat, with 50 turtles entered. Time Magazine terms it turtledom's Kentucky Derby. Vanderbilt University's entry wins.
September: Enrollment is 7489 students. Forty-one new faculty were hired. (30-Arts and Sciences, 7-Commerce and Finance, 1-Engineering, and 4 Dental.)
October 24: Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz addresses the student body in the stadium. More than 8000 students and Northwest Detroiters attend "Pathway to Peace."
1947:
February: The St, Francis Club moves to its new quarters, 16601 Livernois. The first meal is served on Feb. 9th.
April: St Francis Club acquires an old schoolhouse bell.
May 19: Biology Club is founded.
September: Holden Hall opened to students.
Enrollment is 8996 students.
The band reappears on campus at the first football game of the season against Central Michigan.
September: A new light laboratory is constructed in the Science bldg in the room formally used as a gun range by the Gun Club.
Fall: Detroit-Central Michigan Football game is the first in the state to be televised.
1948:
June 30: The University and the High School become separate entities.
September: Varsity News published twice weekly for the first time.
September: Enrollment is 9613 students.
1949:
First Spring Carnival--proceeds go to the Foreign Student Relief Fund.
A marble Predieu is donated to the university by Albert Raisch, president of Brown and Raisch Co. It goes with the Sacred Heart statue which Raisch had donated in 1946.
March 17: First St Francis Club Tug of War.
March 25: Math Club is organized.
June 11: Groundbreaking for the new library.
July 1: ROTC begins on campus.
September: Air Force ROTC comes to campus.
September 8: Rev. Celestin J. Steiner, S. J. is installed as president.
September: Enrollment is 9134 students.
November 4: The Dental School receives a federal grant for the study of oral cancer.
December: A glassblowing shop is installed in the Chemistry Bldg. basement.
