09 autumn reporter 1-20 - Franklin College

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ALUMNI NEWS Brings back memories By Amy (Kean) VerSteeg ’96 Editor The college’s milestone 175th anniversary inspired a yearlong project dedicated to documenting favorite Franklin memories. Through this magazine, periodic newsletters, the Web site and Homecoming mailings, the college encouraged alumni and friends to share their stories. The result is a treasure trove of college history that anyone with ties to Franklin may enjoy reading. Thank you to everyone who contributed, and especially thanks for keeping the spirit of Franklin College alive! ’40s Rosemary (Chappell) Winters ’40: I fell in love with Franklin when I attended the Indiana High School Press Association conferences. Having gone to a large high school in a city, I found Franklin’s small-town atmosphere and friendly campus very appealing. During my four years, I got to know most of the students, and many of the professors became my friends. I also met my future husband, Robert H. Winters ’38. I especially loved the spring dances at Heflen’s camp and dancing to the jukebox at The Nook. There was also a beautiful pink dogwood that I admired on campus. Margaret Ann Boyer ’44: My favorite professor for all time, and not just Franklin College, was Curtis Kirklin. He was integrity personified. He knew what he expected from the teachers he was training, and he expected them to measure up to those expectations. He gave his last class lecture on the principles of integrity. I’ve never heard a more perfect lecture. After all these years, I still remember it. Robert O. Peckinpaugh ’44: One of the highlights of my years at Franklin College occurred during my sophomore year. I was informed that I should report to the office of the president. I had no idea why I was asked to do that. I dutifully appeared at his office, only to be ushered directly before President William Gear Spencer himself. Much to my surprise, he invited me to be a charter member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity that was being formed on campus. I would not have known how to say no under those circumstances! The Delta chapter of Theta Kappa Nu had been granted a charter on the Franklin College campus in 1925. It became inactive during the Great Depression years of the 1930s. In 1939, Theta Kappa Nu was absorbed by Lambda Chi Alpha. The original charter remained inactive. In April 1942, the Franklin College charter was activated as the Kappa Gamma Zeta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha with the initiation of 20 men who became charter members. I was one of them, Kappa Gamma 13 and the treasurer. The original members of the Delta chapter were given Kappa Gamma numbers following our charter member ID numbers. ’50s Frank H. Knight ’52: During my college years, Miss Edna Agnew, Bryan Hall director and assistant professor of English, was, in my mind, the general in charge of the physical and spiritual welfare of the single women at Franklin! In 1954, I began dating a freshman from Roselle, N.J., a minister’s daughter. We were pinned in the fall of that year. I went on to theological school in Boston while Joyce (Gordanier) ’55 continued her education at Franklin. We married in June of 1954, but Joyce had one year of schooling left, and at that time only single women were allowed to live in Bryan Hall. The dilemma was brought to Miss Agnew’s attention and after speaking to Franklin College President Harold Richardson she got the OK for Joyce to be the first married woman to live in Bryan Hall. Thanks to Miss Agnew and President Richardson for that decision! Joyce and I have been married now for 55 years. Lucille (Dodgson) Mayo ’52: During a spring break around 1950, professor Guy Baker took the college choir to Washington, D.C., stopping at several churches along the way to give concerts. One night in the middle of a song the lights went out, leaving the sanctuary in total darkness. Immediately, the professor began snapping his fingers to keep the tempo, and the choir continued singing without missing a beat. I continue to be amazed at his quick thinking and the students’ composure. Chet York ’52: Franklin College has been a driving force in my success. My cousin, Bob McClain ’48, led me to enrolling. I give thanks to Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity for helping me in my academic and social affairs. The professors were outstanding. I will always remember the good times and good education. Sue (VanAntwerp) Spencer ’55: A very special memory is that of the concert choir performing for Kiwanis International in Miami, Fla. We were so well-trained that I wasn’t even nervous about singing a solo in front of 5,000 people. Tom Quindlen ’56: I loved Franklin and am exceedingly grateful for all it did to prepare me for a life filled with happy and enduring memories. Having grown up in the city of Philadelphia and attended a large high school, I wanted a small liberal arts college. While at Franklin, I experienced many firsts: A ride in the rumble seat of a Model T Ford., milking a cow on a 300-acre farm, watching an Indy 500 race and visiting Cuba before Castro ruled. In my freshman year, the track team was almost extinct, so after an SOS from the coach, my roommate, a Navy veteran, and I volunteered. He was made the only pole-vaulter on the team, and I was made the only mile runner. What a laugh! Another funny memory I have is of helping another member of the Independent Men put a young professor’s VW Bug on the auditorium stage during the middle of the night. What an interesting convocation the next morning! Wayne E. Dunbar ’56: The invitation I recently received for the cheerleaders’ reunion at Homecoming caused some serious flashbacks to when I was a cheerleader. I recall the time I made some “cat calls” about the cheerleaders “spirit” during a basketball game, and the response was, “If you think you can do better then try out.” I took the challenge, tried out and had a great time. I also remember the cheerleaders in those “olden days” were in charge of organizing the Fall Leaf Rake. Helen Jean McClelland Nugent ’56: In days of yore, before the 1985 fires, Old Main was in bad condition. Fourth floor was closed and students were forbidden to enter. Naturally, some defied the ruling. One Sunday evening, three friends went for an early evening walk and stopped to sit awhile on the steps of Old Main. The bravest of the three suggested, 48 FRANKLIN REPORTER WWW.FRANKLINCOLLEGE.EDU
“Let’s go up to fourth floor and see what it’s like.” The second reluctantly agreed, while the third, a confirmed coward, argued that it was a bad idea. Naturally, the coward was chosen to lead the group up the staircase. Upon reaching the door, the coward proclaimed it was locked and started back down. The leader, however, tried the door and found it unlocked and easily opened. The trio found a treasure trove of Franklin College memorabilia: A large slate board in a former classroom with names and initials of those who had visited the forbidden area before, old cane chairs with sagging seats and deflated basketballs with scores of Grizzly wins over larger and betterknown schools, during the years of Griz Wagner’s teams. Finally, the coward announced she was leaving and started down the stairs. The other two followed, grumbling about scaredy-cat spoil sports. When they were halfway down the stairs, a gust of wind from the forbidden fourth blew the door shut with a slam. The coward, who had been in the lead, was nearly knocked down the steps as the other two rushed to exit the building. This is a true story. I should know. I was that coward! William C. Legan ’57: I was against going to Franklin College because I lived in town. With the persuasion of my parents, who were paying the tuition, I finally enrolled. One great memory is that of meeting my future wife, Zana McKeny ’59, at Franklin College. We were married for 43 years and raised four adult children before she died. It took me several years to focus and graduate. Actually I did not understand the significance of my education until I was near retirement age. If it had not been for the professors at Franklin College, especially Dwight Heath, I would not have done well in my teaching career of 38.5 years in public school education. I am now remarried to a wonderful lady and living in New Albany, Ind. I thank Franklin College for giving me a wonderful education, friends for a lifetime and memories to savor. Lloyd “Buzz” Spencer ’57: A favorite memory of mine is when professor J. Daniel Kocker directed Our Town and chose me for the role of George, a major character in the play. There were two performances, and I made it through without forgetting my lines. A lifelong interest in theater was started by that role. Constance Richardson Van Valer ’59: There are so many memories, including Dr. Mary Owen’s excellence as a professor. She turned me into the student (in her classes) that I should have been. It wasn’t until many years and four children later in medical school that I became the kind of student she was looking for. Looking back over the many years since I think it probably was much harder on my dad, Harold Richardson, to be president of the institution I graduated from than the other way around. I remember after a particularly rebellious episode in my junior year, he wrote me a letter about two hats he wore, one as president of Franklin College and one as my father. He expressed such understanding and pride in me that I couldn’t have had more resolve to do better if I had been taken to the woodshed. I would give a great deal to have kept that letter. I am now privileged to march at commencement with the college board of trustees. I wear dad’s mortarboard, which fits me perfectly but which I modified slightly to be appropriate for a doctor of medicine. Then, there was meeting Joe Van Valer ’59 and our next 50 years together . . . ’60s Marjorie (Cooper) Geho ’60: One evening near the end of my sophomore year, I sat alone in the dimly lit Zeta Tau Alpha sorority suite and reflected upon the past two years before entering Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, to complete the final three years of my nursing degree. It was a nostalgic time with another sorority down the hall singing softly and our lilting song, “I Hear the Call of Zeta,” drifting through my mind. When invited to share a memory of Franklin, I found that, indeed, Franklin College is the memory. College is a tapestry of memories: The sense of belonging to a special campus community, meeting classmates who would become dear, lifelong friends, sitting under the tutelage of a knowledgeable, caring and accessible faculty who nurtured my Christian faith and did not seek to undermine it, helpful staff members, the privilege to be among Elsey Hall’s first residents (even removing sanding equipment, etc., from our room before my roommate and I could move in), congenial camaraderie in the dorms gracious family-style dining with an upperclassman as the hostess at each table, growth through participation and leadership in organizations, Privy Council, working on Homecoming floats, May Sing, Christian Fellowships, the East Coast spring choir tour, gathering around the stairwell between classes in Old Main and the gracious welcome I know is always waiting for me, to name a few. I have been asked why I feel an enduring loyalty to Franklin College when, although I returned in 1961 to receive my diploma, I was only on campus two years. The answer is in my tapestry of treasured memories and “Hearing the Call of Franklin,” my alma mater, forever echoing in my heart. Revenna Singleton Richardson ’60: Some of my most precious memories from my FC years include standing in line for food at the cafeteria, which was an old army barracks, while ironically “Canadian Sunset” played over the speakers. I also remember finding the painter’s ugly shoes in our room at night (they were left in a different room each day), Bible study in the housing area for married students, College Fellowship meetings and meals at the Presbyterian church, wearing hats, white gloves, dresses and high heels to church and walking from the dorm to the Baptist church, raking leaves on campus, building floats for the Homecoming parade, working in the library and being privileged to know Hester and Robert Coward, baby-sitting for Dr. and Mrs. Bullington, standing around the railing in Old Main while waiting for classes to begin and making friends that have lasted for nearly 50 years. Michael Alexander ’62: One morning in October 1961, several SAE fraternity members awoke to find that the large moose head that hung in the hallway leading to the dining area was stolen! All year we searched and asked classmates if they knew the whereabouts of our beloved moose. Nothing turned up. Then, sometime in May 1962, a mysterious phone call was received. The caller told where our moose head could be found. Several of us WWW.FRANKLINCOLLEGE.EDU AUTUMN 2009 49 1950s
Page 1 and 2: FRANKLIN COLLEGE autumn 2009 R E P
Page 3 and 4: 48 Alumni and friends share favorit
Page 5 and 6: 4 3. Split end Adam Mellencamp ’1
Page 7 and 8: 5. Class of ’74 reunion attendees
Page 9 and 10: 5 6 1. Class of ’89 reunion atten
Page 11 and 12: 5 WWW.FRANKLINCOLLEGE.EDU AUTUMN 20
Page 13 and 14: College earns governor’s award PH
Page 15 and 16: Girls in Power Camp participants br
Page 17 and 18: Jamie Bromley, assistant professor
Page 19 and 20: Franklin College coach, athlete hon
Page 21 and 22: 2008-09 Annual Report 42
Page 23 and 24: ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents .
Page 25 and 26: OLD MAIN SOCIETY Recognizes alumni
Page 27 and 28: James M. Frische Robert Garton Alic
Page 29 and 30: Blue and Gold Club Phyllis Taylor A
Page 31 and 32: Paul F. Gray Samuel G. Hicks Donna
Page 33 and 34: Meredith W. Price Judith M. Roscoe
Page 35 and 36: Luann Williams Colin Robert L. Coli
Page 37 and 38: 1989 President’s Circle Lisa Comb
Page 39 and 40: Wellhouse Society Brett Michael Haw
Page 41 and 42: Frank Hutcheon Bill and Margo Marti
Page 43 and 44: Mr. John Peter Sohn Dr. David Wantz
Page 45 and 46: Mr. Matthew Joseph Prusiecki Ms. Do
Page 47: 2008-09 Franklin College Executive
Page 51 and 52: professor Sam Hicks, a group of ded
Page 53 and 54: moments, but mostly as I think abou
Page 55 and 56: Trisha Taylor ’04: It’s hard to
Page 57 and 58: Minister leads parishioners in knoc
Page 59 and 60: “When I go into a supermarket, I
Page 61 and 62: Higher education seems to be the fr
Page 63 and 64: The ’50s Don Dilmore ’50 and hi
Page 65 and 66: special education teacher at Macona
Page 67 and 68: Tiffany Henderson ’07 and Jason F
Page 69 and 70: Applied Spectroscopy, and he was a
Page 71 and 72: Pauline DeVore Crump ’38, Horizon

09 autumn reporter 1-20 - Franklin College

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?