On the afternoon of December 7, 1941, the Sam Houston State Teachers College (SHSTC) community and Huntsville, Texas, recieved word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Subsequently, the United States' entered World War II and many students, professors, and administrators, enlisted in the military. While the 1941-42 year had 1,237 students, the following 1942-43 year only had 786 regularly enrolled students, and 1943 only 561, with the large majority being women.

In 1942, SHSTC president Charles N. Shaver died and Harmon L. Lowman, interim president, was officially put into office. As a veteran of World War I, he quickly identified the challenges the end of the war would bring and expanded the college’s mission to support soldiers returning home. The college curriculum was widened to reflect the war, with classes offered in “Ground School” and “Flying” via the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Other courses included machine shop production, secretarial studies, radio and telegraphy, meteorology, and home nursing. Lowan additionally arranged several contracts with the government to train Army personnel at SHSTC, the largest of which was a clerks school, which brought 1,462 men to SHSTC's campus in fall of 1943.

By 1943, the number of SHSTC “Boys in the Service” had risen to 696, which did not include those missing or killed during the war. Keeping with his mission, Lowan opened the Josey School of Vocational Education in spring of 1945 to provide vocational training to returning soldiers.

On September 2, 1945, World War II ended, marking the beginning of an era of postwar growth for SHSTC. The return of those engaged by the war, along with the new G.I. Bill, which provided financial assistance to veterans to attend college, brought a new flood of students to the college. In 1946-47, enrollment broke all previous records, with 1,853 students, 952 being veterans, in attendance.

As a result, SHSTC faced a housing crisis, which caused Lowman to seek an unconventional solution. In April of 1943, the War Department had opened Huntsville Alien Internment Camp, more commonly called “Camp Huntsville.” It was one of nearly seventy POW camps in Texas, which were used in par to fill the labor gap left by the military’s needs. After the end of the war, German POWs were repatriated, and Japanese POWs enrolled in re-education programs on American democracy, civil liberties, and constitutional government taught by SHSTC professors.

After Camp Huntsville was vacated, Harmon “purchased” it for one dollar. The donated 837 acres, 405 structures, and heavy machinery were tranformed into SHSTC’s “Country Campus," which quickly became Walker County’s second most popular center until the mid-1950s.