Five years ago, Thomas Marvin Hill, a matriculant in the Class of 1952, related an experience that he says occurred within a few nights of the fire:
"I had spent the early evening in the building where my Delta Phi fraternity was housed. It was dark when I left that building to walk down Middle Path to my ... room. There were no other students out there. I was alone.
"The first building I approached was the college chapel on my right. As I approached it, from the far corner of the chapel there appeared, silently and expressionless, the spirits—ghosts—of the students who had died in the Old Kenyon fire. They crossed the path in front of me in profile. I approached them slowly ...
"I was on the edge of panic. A voice told me as I passed the chapel: ‘Do not run. Keep silent. Stay calm.' I continued on, shaking with fear. Ahead of me, perhaps 150 yards away, was a street light over the small road that separated the campus from the few buildings making up Gambier."
Hill noted that a voice assured him he would be fine once he passed beneath the light.
"As I passed beneath the light, my panic abruptly disappeared. I felt the burden of my fears lifting. Within seconds, all was well."
—M.H.