Carpenters work on the Memorial Dining Hall in Eliot House, which is dedicated to the memory of three of the seven undergraduates who died.

See this story's original coverage in The Crimson.

When James F. Gilligan ’57 enrolled at Harvard as an undergraduate, he was set on becoming either a politician or a writer. He eventually graduated as an English Literature concentrator. But after graduation, Gilligan changed his career path—he decided to attend medical school, became a psychiatrist, and would devote the rest of his life to studying the causes and effects of violence and violence-related injuries.

“I had never identified the accident as the rationalization for my career choice, but when I look back, it is pretty obvious that it was my motivation,” said Gilligan.

Gilligan was one of two survivors of a head-on auto collision during winter break of 1956, which left him with a brain concussion and the other survivor, driver John F. Stevenson ’58, with a fractured jaw and shattered knees. His other two friends in the car, William C. Boyden III ’57 and William S. North III ’58, were killed instantly.

While this car accident and the consequent death of two undergraduates were shocking enough, these victims were only two of seven undergraduates total who died during the winter break of 1956. During the holidays, three other students—Thomas S. Gates III ’56, Myron T. Herrick ’57, and Jedediah H. McLane ’58—were killed in a fire during a ski trip in Canada, and two more—Winthrop P. Smith ’58 and John J. Woodward ’59—were found dead both due to “apparent suicides,” according to a Jan. 5, 1956 Crimson article.

“It was a tragic year...a hard year with many losses,” said Gilligan.

AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY

The collision occurred when the four friends were riding on an overpass near Goshen, Ind. The overpass was only two small lanes, and the car collided with two trader trucks running in opposite direction. At the time, seatbelts were not common yet.

“There was nothing John could do to avoid the approaching truck,” said Gilligan

Through investigations after the accident, the driver of one of the trucks, James Gill, was found to be on amphetamines and was hallucinating at the time of the accident. He was sentenced to two to three years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

“He was taking them to stay awake so he wouldn’t have to stop to sleep,” said Gilligan. “He had no idea who he was, and he was completely out of his head.”

Due to his interaction with the delirious driver and his own experience with post-traumatic stress order, Gilligan dove into a career in psychiatry as a direct result of the trauma of the auto accident.

“The driver was clearly psychotic and delirious with his judgment impaired, and I became interested in pathological behavior and more specifically, in the area of human violence,” said Gilligan.

By examining drugs, mental illnesses, and social factors in the infliction of injury, he has devoted his career to “preventing injuries whatever the cause,” Gilligan said.

FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

On Jan. 3, 1956, two weeks after the car accident, three undergraduates perished in a fire in their cabin during a ski trip vacation at Mont Tremblant, Quebec. According to survivor Marshall M. Jeanes ’57, the fire was suspected to be caused by a fallen ashtray on the living room sofa.

“It was about 1:30 in the morning, and when I woke up I found the couch burning,” survivor Lawrence Coolidge ’58 says. “The flames spread rapidly, and I grabbed a wastebasket, went around the house breaking windows trying to wake everyone up and to let out smoke, but the couch had been smoldering for hours so it wouldn’t put out.”

According to a Jan. 5, 1956 Crimson article, Coolidge returned to his bedroom to wake up Herrick, but had to leave him.

“It was horrible having to leave Herrick there alone,” Coolidge was quoted as saying. “I wanted to leave, carry him out the window, but he was too heavy and I just couldn’t get the leverage. I don’t remember how long it was before I started to feel myself slipping, and I just barely made it to the door.”

His attempts to rescue those left in the cabin were praised nonetheless, and Coolidge was recognized by the Quebec provincial police, according to the article.

“My most vivid memory is watching Coolidge, face brandished, getting up on the ladder with a hose trying to put the fire out,” survivor Peter D. Swords ’57 recalls. “The fire was burning horrendously, and if the roof had collapsed he would have fallen into the house. I don’t think I saw anyone from Mont Tremblant doing that...it was an incredibly courageous act.”

The fourth survivor that escaped the fire was David S. Lee ’56.

MORE SAD NEWS

The Crimson reported that both of the apparent suicides resulted from carbon monoxide poisoning. Smith, who was a member of the Crimson staff, was found dead in his family’s automobile on Christmas Eve while visiting relatives in Radnor, Penn.

Woodward, a freshman, was found dead on Dec. 30, 1955 in an automobile near Los Alamos, New Mexico. At the time, The Crimson noted that he often spoke of the “thin line between life and death.”

BACK AT HARVARD

While the survivors of both the fire and the car collision do not remember an official University response, Coolidge recalled an “outpouring of sympathy” and support from classmates, professors, and House masters and tutors.

“The administration obviously felt horrible, and everyone was deeply sympathetic,” Gilligan says. “I still feel gratitude for the support I received after the event from my class, my friends, and Harvard faculty.”

Eliot House, which was home to three of the deceased—Boyden, Gates and Herrick—dedicated its Memorial Dining Hall to their memory.

At the same time, upon returning to campus, survivors were “stunned...not realizing what was going on with the rest of the world,” according to Swords, and the survivors generally kept to themselves.

“I was aware that there was mayhem, but I was not about to attend to it,” Gilligan says. “I had a general sense of the world coming to an end, but it didn’t.”

50 YEARS LATER

After 50 years, survivors still remember the incidents and remain affected by them.

“The memory is still very much there,” Coolidge says.

For Gilligan, who was in “no shape to continue with school on the usual schedule,” taking a leave of absence for a year proved to be very helpful.

“I just needed a year off to adjust to what happened, read, write, think on my own, and sort out what to make of the incident,” Gilligan says. “[Taking time off] was unheard of at the time, but the College was very understanding and supportive.” Upon his return, Gilligan noticed a “fad, almost, of taking a year off for the next two, three years.”

“Sometimes people need to interrupt, get another perspective to get more out of an undergraduate experience,” Gilligan says. “You don’t necessarily have to do four years without a break.”

The tragedies of that winter stand out as powerful influences for these men, both on their time at Harvard and for the rest of their lives. But they, as well as their classmates, have since faced other deep and formative experiences of the kind.

“After all this time, we’ve lost friends in the Korean War, Vietnam War,” Jeanes says. “It’s a matter of carrying on and not worrying about it too much, you just have to.”

The memorial service for the Class of 1957 will be held at Memorial Church on Wednesday, June 6 at 9:30 a.m.

—Staff writer Marie C. Kodama can be reached at mckodama@fas.harvard.edu.