--- description: A nearly full moon lustered the magnolias blooming along the University of Virginia's esplanade. The air was heavy with honeysuckle. When the commencement german* ended, Virginia men and their... title: Education: Virginia German image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Education: Virginia German by [TIME](/author/time/) Jun 28, 1943 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jun 28, 1943 4:00 AM CUT A nearly full moon lustered the magnolias blooming along the University of Virginia’s esplanade. The air was heavy with honeysuckle. When the commencement german\* ended, Virginia men and their young ladies thought of the traditional 20-mile drive to Afton Gap to see the sun rise. But there was no gas. The german itself had not been very gay. Midway through the evening only 14 couples (their dress informal), several hound dogs circulated in the Jefferson-designed Rotunda. In nearby Lynchburg the sod was fresh on the grave of William G. Suhling, former captain-elect of Virginia’s football team, Marine volunteer killed in California flight training. Also dead were former football captains John Acree (killed in Pacific naval action), Lewis G. Reiss (killed in Army flight training), 57 other fighting alumni. \*All University dances at Charlottesville are called “gentians.” Education: Virginia German ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6781924/education-virginia-german/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6781924/education-virginia-german/"},"headline":"Education: Virginia German","datePublished":"1943-06-28T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T15:58:59.288Z","description":"A nearly full moon lustered the magnolias blooming along the University of Virginia's esplanade. The air was heavy with honeysuckle. When the commencement german* ended, Virginia men and their...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6781924/education-virginia-german/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6781924/education-virginia-german/","name":"Education: Virginia German"}}]}] ```