The first story in a series about Cornell's Class of 1939 which was admitted in 1935 during the Depression and was at variance with the traditional land-grant culture and priorities of the era. Interviews with remaining class members provide an insight into one of the great transition periods in veterinary medicine supported by the land-grant mission. The class members were older, more urban, and better educated than the college preferred at the time. It also was a very diverse class, with three women, an African-American man, eight Jewish students, and one Chinese man. Part I describes the demographic profile by age, background, and class composition.