George Cain (C ’42) graduated from Georgetown College in 1942 and Harvard Law School in 1948. His senior year at Georgetown, he served as University Editor of THE HOYA. He currently is Of Counsel to Day at Berry and Howard, LLP, a prominent New England law firm. He also serves on the Editorial Board of Experience agazine and is a frequent contributor.
When were you at Georgetown?
I am a native Washingtonian and graduated from St. John’s College High School, where I served as regimental commander, in 1938. I was a “dayhop” in the Georgetown in the College of Arts and Sciences for two years, and became a resident student in 1940 when my dad moved our family to New York. I received my B.S. in the Class of 1942. We were the “war class,” the first to graduate after the U.S. entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Where was THE HOYA office in those days?
As I recall, the office was in the basement of Copley, on the east side of the corridor. I have a lot of memories of that office – not a spacious place. But most of the editors showed up on Sunday evenings, to see the paper head for the printing plant. When all the rewrite and changing was completed, we sat around to “shoot the bull.” After Pearl Harbor, and FDR’s speech to the Congress declaring war on Japan, most of the talk was what each of us would do. . We all joined up. One of my favorite memories of an exciting day was going to the old Griffith Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 7, to watch the Redskins play the Eagles. As many people I knew in high places in the Army and Navy and in the local media were called out, I knew “something was up.” I wrote a column about that afternoon when we found out that Pearl Harbor had been attacked and our fleet virtually obliterated. The column appeared the following week in THE HOYA. Another memory I have – related to our editor-in-chief, Frank Waters, was the occasion, some weeks later, during a prom weekend, when Frank and I hustled a keg of beer, draped in an army blanket, through the lobby of the Wardman Park Hotel, as it was then known, when our unauthorized supply of the beverage had been exhausted at a sizable party that included a goodly number of HOYA staffers. On another occasion, I wrote an article following a trip home via train to my family home on Long Island. The train back passed the Philadelphia Navy Yard and I observed what I knew was HMS Hood. I casually mentioned that I had seen the battleship which was probably undergoing repairs. The Navy Department called me “on the carpet” and said such information was classified and they would not confirm or deny whether it was the Hood. I was admonished not to publish anything like that again or I would be in trouble. My last column for THE HOYA appeared in mid-April of 1942, and I had great glee in setting forth my schedule for winning the war. I predicted that the allies would defeat the German army by the summer of 1944, and that Japan would fall early in 1945, I was not far off. Allied forces landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944 but Germany didn’t surrender until ay 7, 1945. Japan agreed on Aug. 14, 1945 to surrender. I also made the ghoulish prediction that, of an overseas force of 7 million, the United States would also suffer casualties of 3 million. Actually, the country had over 16 million in uniform during World War II; I don’t recall what the total number overseas turned out to be. Fortunately, casualties, deaths and wounded, were about 1,079,000, and not 3 million. We now have the World War II Memorial to attest to all that happened.
Did you keep in touch with any of your HOYA colleagues over the years?
Indeed, I did. I saw Frank Waters regularly at our class reunions. Frank Prial was an usher at my wedding and we both lived in Greenwich, Conn., for many years. Frank, Julian Carr and I were active together in the Georgetown Club of Metropolitan New York for a long time. Unfortunately, both Frank Waters and Frank Prial, and Julian Carr, have died. After all, these events with THE HOYA occurred more than 60 years ago.
Now, what would you say to anyone thinking about working on the newspaper in 2005? Do you believe your activity back in the 40s helped you in any way?
I certainly do think that it was an immense help to me. It required me, in designing each week’s editorial page, to consider what were the principal issues of the day and to find classmates able and willing to write an opinion about one or more of them that would be stimulating to our readers. For me, it was a great privilege to be able to express my own thoughts on the enormous events then taking place throughout the world. After the war, I went on to law school, and as the profession requires, lawyers do a tremendous amount of writing – hopefully, in a clear fashion. My experience on THE HOYA staff certainly helped me in my writing efforts. Even in the ten years that I have been retired, I have had the opportunity to write some four books and the task was less daunting because of the years I spent as a HOYA editor. Most importantly, I believe that, over the many years of its existence, THE HOYA has lived up to high standards and been an outstanding college newspaper.
– Interview by Hoya Staff Writer Aaron Terrazas
