In the 1930s, American University ran a Memorial Day poetry contest to honor the “American men who were killed or disabled during the World War.” The organizing committee requested that all submissions be “free from all propaganda, either militaristic or pacifistic.” Students submitted their poems under a pen name and the winner won a $10 gold coin. The prize was a gift of Mary Meares Galt, an Assistant Professor of French, who served in France during World War I and lost a cousin in the conflict. A panel of three judges reviewed the submissions. The panel included a member of the faculty, a student and a journalist at least one of whom served in the war.
Here is a list of the winners and the titles of the prize winning poems:
- Helen MacLeod (1928)
- S. Carlton Ayers (1930) In Memorium
- Alfredda Scobey (1931) To H.A. – Dead at Verdun
- John Lee Coulter Jr. (1932) Realization
- Albert George Cooper (1933) White Sentinels
- Natalie Haines (1934) Sonnet
- George Sanderlin (1935) Sonnet
John Lee Coulter Jr.
Natalie Haines
