The Eleventh Decade

CHAPTER I

The Centennial

BONG. BONG. BONG. It was the familiar sound of Old Main's bell, that had once proudly rung from the tower of Old Main. Bong. Bong. Bong. Now it pealed forth from a low framework of steel and masonry behind the flagpole and to the right of the Lincoln pine, planted the day the martyred president's funeral train had passed through Normal. Bong. Bong. Bong. Once the old bell had daily awakened housewives and boarding house keepers and an hour later hustled students off to classes. Occasionally it pealed forth the joyous news of an athletic victory or tolled the death of some illustrious citi­zen as it had for Jesse Fell in 1887. Bong! Bong! Bong! The tones were strong and mellow. It was eight o'clock on the morning of January 8, 1957, and President Robert G. Bone and Robert Leach, President of the Student Council, were officially ringing in the Centennial year of Illinois State N or­mal University. Each rang the bell five times, a bong for each decade.

For five years a faculty steering Committee of Ten,! and a Committee of One Hundred composed of alumni, friends and students of the University had been planning a series of events to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Illinois' first institution for higher education. Each month throughout the year there would be significant convocations, institutes, exhibits, dedications of three new buildings, class reunions, a religious emphasis week, an around-the-world geography tour, a pag­eant-drama, a motion picture of campus life, and the inaugura-

l The Centennial Committee of Ten consisted of President Raymond W. Fairchild (deceased 1956). Harold Gibson, Gertrude M. Hall, Arthur H. Lar­sen, Helen E. Marshall, Laura Hayes Pricer, Francis Wade, Arthur W. Wat­terson, Chairman, L. Wallace Miller, and Chris A. De Young, Executive Sec­retary.

1

2 The Eleventh Decade

tion of President Bone as the University's ninth president. Thousands of persons would visit the campus, tribute would be paid to a distinguished past, and plans projected for a greater future.

Just before the Christmas holidays, Grandest of Enterprises, the History of Illinois State N ormal University, 1857-1957, had been released from the press and three hundred fifty per­sons, a copy of the book in hand, had braved the winter's first snow storm to attend the autographing party in the Faculty Lounge of Hovey Hall,2 The large attendance and the fact that 1551 copies had been sold in advance of publication, au­gured well for interest in the Centennial.

Throughout the year the Vidette, the student newspaper, featured articles on Centennial events and the history of the University. One of its projects was a one page insert, the Chronicle, with accounts of historic events written under date lines of their occurrence; another project was a reprint of the first issue of the Vidette in February 1888 when it was a monthly publication. The University yearbook, The Index, used the Centennial as its theme. Newspapers in Chicago, Peoria and other cities of the state paid tribute to "Old Nor­mal" by special articles. Educational magazines, state and na­tional, took cognizance of the University's contribution to edu­cation, and the secretary of state issued motorcar licenses in the University's colors, red and white.s There was also a joint resolution offered by Senator David Davis and passed by both houses of the General Assembly in February 1957 and signed by John William Chapman, President of the Senate, on Feb­ruary 20 and by Warren L. Wood, Speaker of the House on February 26.

"Proud Thy Halls," a thirty minute film written by Mrs. Gertrude Hall, narrated by Dick Noble, an alumnus on the staff of NBC, and produced by Nelson R. Smith and J. Russell Steele, brought the message of the Centennial to hundreds of alumni, and to social and civic clubs. In the movie William

2 Helen E. Marshall, Grandest of Enterprises (Normal: lllinois State Normal University, 1956).

3 By preregistration staff and faculty members were issued license numbers reading "1957" plus house or telephone or some other number of their choos­ing.

The Centennial 3

Harris, Normal reporter for the Bloomington Daily Panta­graph, interviewed members of the Administration, Centennial Committee, and student body, about the history of the Uni­versity, the book being written, plans for observing the anni­versary and the contemporary scene from Metcalf Elementary School and University High School to graduate school. Bruce Washburn, a red-haired, freckled lad of seven, introduced the story by laboriously printing on a blackboard the words "Proud Thy Halls" and then faced the audience with a proud and captivating grin, and later concluded the film by adding to "Proud Thy Halls" the letters ISNU and flashing again the broad and happy smile that made the film seem all too short.4

The festivities began with a grand all-University ball in Victorian decor on February 9, followed by a public Lincoln Day dinner in the University ballroom on February 12. From the days of Jesse Fell, and of Presidents Hovey and Edwards, who were proud to call Abraham Lincoln their friend, the name of Lincoln had special meaning for students and towns­people. Lincoln had drawn up the subscription bond for the school and with the passage of time, this simple legal document took on almost unwarranted importance. At this observance, Willard King, Chicago attorney and biographer of David Davis, spoke on the friendship of Davis and Fell and Lincoln and the role of these McLean County friends in helping him secure the Republican nomination in 1860. Three busts of Lincoln were presented for display in Milner Library, Univer­sity High and Metcalf Elementary schools,5 and one of Jesse Fell, for Milner Library.

The next week Founders Day commemorated the signing of the Legislative Act establishing the Illinois State Normal Uni­versity by Governor William H. Bissell on February 18, 1857. The Daily Pantograph, which had been publishing articles on the University since it was proposed at the organization meet­ing of the State Teachers Association in Bloomington Decem­ber 26, 1856, hailed the one hundredth anniversary by publish­ing a special edition with thirty-two pages featuring historical

4 Bruce Washburn in 1967 is a freshman at Illinois State University. 5 The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, illinois), February 13, 1957 (Herein­

after cited as Daily Pantagraph.).

4 The Eleventh Decade

sketches, cartoons and illustrations. The cover page bore the caption "A Century of Teacher Education." A red border strip carried the subtitle "ISNU Centennial Edition." In the center in red was the University seal with date 1857, a torch and the motto adapted from Chaucer, "And gladly would he learn and gladly teach." Radiating outward were eight cartoons depicting the special events in the history of the University: the inspection of the site May 18, 1857; Lincoln drawing up the bond May 15, 1857; J esse Fell turning the first spadeful of earth August 5, 1857; Major's Hall, where classes began Oc­tober 5, 1857; the first graduation, 1860; the departure of Hovey and the Normal Rifles to the Civil War, 1861; the arch erected by students for Lincoln funeral train May, 1865; and the hanging of Governor Altgeld in effigy in 1895. Radio Station \VJBC Bloomington gave a special morning salute. Telegrams and letters of felicitation poured into the University from all over the nation and hundreds of alumni and friends returned to the Campus. In the morning there was a special Convocation for students in Capen Auditorium at which Presi­dent Bone presided, members of the Teachers College Board were introduced, and representatives of the student body, the alumni, and the Centennial Committee spoke. In the evening there was a banquet in the Union Ballroom. Governor William G. Stratton made the principal address and there were greetings from graduates of the twenty fifth, fiftieth and seventy fifth classes as well as the class of 1957.6

The new president and his wife, Karin, seemed to enjoy every minute of the festivities. They shook hands, smiled, and greeted everyone. Mrs. Bone showed a remarkable ability for remembering names. John and Chip, although only 10 and 9, were out-going and fun-loving. There was something infec­tious about the friendliness of the Bone family, and towns­people, faculty, and students alike took the Bones right into their hearts. As the big white stucco house at 2 Clinton Place took on a new gracious and hospitable look, people no longer wondered if Mrs. Bone would grieve for the newly built home

6 Mrs. Louisa Scott Campbell (1882); Mary Frances Keyes (1907); Tom Barger (1932); Don McHenry (1957); Tbe Vidette, February 13, 1957; Found­ers Day Program, February 13, 1957; Daily Pantagrapb, February 18, 1957, February 19, 1957.

The Centennial 5

in Urbana and the hundreds of tulips and jonquils that she had planted. John and Chip liked Metcalf School, although at first it was hard to convince their classmates that being sons of the president gave them no reason to expect favored treatment and that on the contrary much more might be required of them. The Bones placed their membership in a Normal church. They were here to stay and they quickly found their place in the community.

No one questioned Dr. Bone's sincerity, his friendliness, and his willingness to listen to both sides of a question, but would he carry on in the tradition of Fairchild, Felmley, Tompkins, Cook and Edwards, men who had made Illinois State Normal Uni­versity known throughout the world as a great teacher training institution?

The previous week, at a meeting of the American Associa­tion of Colleges of Teacher Education in Chicago, Karl W. Bigelow, Teachers College, Columbia University, sounded a note of warning, forecasting that within another eighteen years the name "state teachers college" would have passed into ob­livion, calling the institution a temporary phenomenon, a way­station between normal school and state university, a multi­purpose institution for which teacher education is one of several functions. "The prospect is very clear. We shall have to make our calculations and plans accordingly." Already state schools at Carbondale, Charleston, Macomb and DeKalb, con­ceived as institutions for preparing teachers, had changed their names and broadened their purpose. Tom Gumbrell, preparing copy for the Centennial edition of the Pantagraph, posed the question of Illinois State Normal University's future to Lewis M. Walker, President of the Teachers College Board and an alumnus of "Old Normal." "I believe I can speak for the Board," replied Mr. Walker; "we intend that ISNU shall con­tinue to be a school of quality in teacher education." 7

What was Robert Bone's thinking on the question? He had had his undergraduate work at a liberal arts college, and the rest of his academic life and most of his teaching had been in a large university. When he first addressed the faculty on May

7 Tom Gumbrell, "Teacher Training Still Primary Goal at ISNU," Daily Pantagraph, February 18, 1957.

6 The Eleventh Decade

8, 1956, he asked for time to study and to know the school before embarking on sweeping changes. Immediately after ac­cepting the presidency, he had set about saturating himself with the history and traditions of the school. He was aware of the mantles of Edwards and Hewett, of Cook, Felmley, and Fairchild that had fallen upon him. "We must dream and hope," he said: "We must plan and work; we must at times dare and try." He quoted Jonathan B. Turner. "Let us all take hold and strive toward the future, in such form as we think best." 8

The Centennial year hurried on into March with a "State Convention of the Student Branch of the Association for Childhood Education," a "Century of Dance" observance by Orchesis, a "School Public Relations Conference," an Exhibition of One Hundred Years of Painting" 9 sponsored by the Art Department, and on into April with "Convention of the Illinois Teachers of English,"a mathematics conference, a "Convention of Illinois Future Teachers of America," a meeting of the "Illi­nois (Junior) Academy of Science," a "Convention of the Illinois Association of Supervisors and Directors of Curricu­lum," and a Centennial College Day with a special awards as­sembly for students and parents, faculty and visitors. Visiting high school students were given a tour of the campus with upper classmen as guides, a box lunch in McCormick gym­nasium, brief talks by the deans and president, and an oppor­tunity to meet department heads and ask questions. Even at the close of April there was still time in 1957 to apply for ad­mission if one wished to choose a teaching career and to enroll at Illinois State Normal University.

With the month of May, calendars were marked for meet­ings of the Illinois Academy of Science, the Illinois Section of the Mathematical Association of America, a Centennial Honors Day, dedication of the Student Union, and the long anticipated pageant-drama.

The Student Union was the fulfillment of an 1891 dream of the Philadelphian and Wrightonian debating and literary so­cieties that had shaped much of the social life of the campus

B Robert G. Bone, "Address to the Faculty, Illinois State Normal Univer­sity," May 8, 1956. Quoted, Marshall, op. cit., p. 328.

9 This collection of 34 works of art shown in the Union Building, March 17 through April 15, 1957, was valued over $500,000.

The Centennial 7

since 1857. Early in 1891 plans were drawn for a fifteen thousand dollar structure of brick and stone which combined the dis­tinctive features of half a dozen styles of architecture. Con­struction would begin as soon as twelve thousand dollars had been subscribed and paid. Subscription terms stipulated that none of the pledges were to be paid until twelve thousand dollars in bona fide pledges had been secured, and if that amount had not been reached by July 1, 1893, all subscriptions would be null and void. There was an enthusiastic response from stu­dents, former students, faculty, and townspeople, who sub­scribed from fifty cents to a hundred dollars; the societies each pledged $2,000 and President Cook volunteered to obtain $2,000, and the class of 1892 pledged $1,065. All seemed to be going well until the Panic of 1893 engulfed the country and W. H. Schureman's bank in Normal, where most of the students, faculty, and townspeople had their money deposited, closed its doors. Not a cent had been paid on a single subscrip­tion, and with the failure of the bank the scheme collapsed.10

Although the gymnasium built in 1895 was a weak palliative to the disappointed students, it served as a center for all school parties, reunions, and catered banquets, as well as for athletic activities until Fell Hall with its grand drawing room and dining hall was completed in 1918.

When President Fairchild came in 1933 he was distressed to note how many times the residents of Fell Hall had to give up their dining room and parlors for some University function in which they had no part. With the State of Illinois engulfed in an economic depression, all construction had to be set aside. In 1940 President Fairchild announced that the University budget to be sent to the Legislature would include, among other improvements, not only the completion of the south wing of Fell Hall but a student union. Before the Legislature could act in 1941 the war in Europe and the requirements for national defense restricted the use of structural steel, and again union plans had to be scrapped. After the war the passage of a bill authorizing self-liquidating projects on Teachers College campuses opened the way for future residence halls and a stu­dent union that would not be tax-supported.

10 Marshall, op. cit., pp. 181-182.

8 The Eleventh Decade

Plans for the Georgian edifice of the 1940's that replaced the plans for a rustic retreat on South Campus in the 1930's, now gave way for a modern structure of brick and stone, glass and steel. It was now possible to combine gifts and loans in launching this enterprise. As in 1893, pledges would have to be solicited from alumni, faculty, and businessmen before a bonding company would provide funds. This time the goal was $150,000, and $101,000 had to be cash in hand before con­struction could begin. On May 14, 1953, the students voted 1305 to 28 favoring the levy of a ten dollar Union fee. Dr. Harold Gibson, Director of the Placement Bureau, mapped the campaign for fund raising. In the course of the next few months, 2,383 persons contributed money for the building. Construc­tion began in 1955 and in September 1956, the building was opened for use. ll

Bruce Kaiser, director of the Student Union at Indiana State Teachers College, Terre Haute, Indiana, was invited to take over the position of director. On May 18, 1957, after almost nine months' operation, the Union was formally dedicated. A band concert on the lawn at 3: 30 p.m. was followed by cere­monies in the ballroom. Lewis Walker, President of the Teach­ers College Board, presented the building to Dr. Bone, who accepted it on the part of the University and expressed appre­ciation for those who had labored and contributed in any way to translate the dream into reality. Jack Fischer, student presi­dent of the Union Board, spoke in behalf of the students, and Bruce Kaiser spoke for the management. There were tours of the building from the Student Council quarters, the Vidette and Index offices, the conference rooms and recreation lounge on the third floor, down to second with its ballroom, private dining room, spacious reception lounge, foyer, director's office,

11 Proceedings of the Teachers College Board, Normal, February 21, 1954, p. 342; The Vidette, May 5, 1954; Daily Pantagraph, May 5, 1957, May 15, 1957.

A plaque in the foyer of the Union bears the following inscription: The University Union

owes its being as a part of the academic community beyond the classroom to the intense effort and vision of Dr. R. \Y. Fairchild, eighth president of the University. Because he conceived a dream, this building has be­come a place where the parts of a cultural community could be fused into one to mutual benefit, where students and faculty and town share op­portunities and responsibilities and exchange attitudes, views, and resources to produce a sophistication of education, which supplements the academic and enriches the social.

The Centennial 9

alumni headquarters and checkrooms, then to the ground floor where the cafeteria, dining rooms, kitchen, game room and snack bar were located. This popular resort of student and fac­ulty who hungered for a hamburger or a mid-morning cup of coffee was styled "The Cage," after the snackbar previously located in the west addition to Fell Hall. A redbird in a large gilded cage and huge letters of wrought iron spelling out the name decorated half of the north wall. The white chairs and white tables and the bright drapes were a far cry from the old boarding house days.

A dinner dance, unheard of in 1893, rounded out the day's festivities. Two hundred attended the dinner. George L. Dono­van, President of the National Association of College Unions, spoke, and Mrs. R. W. Fairchild was presented with a framed photograph of the building for which her husband had labored so hard.

How handsome, spacious and accommodating the building appeared. The art students beamed with pride at the huge mural which they had painted for the large stairwell, although visi­tors were perhaps inclined to be more critical.

Another highlight of the Centennial year was the pageant­drama "With Faith in the Future," written and directed by Mabel Clare Allen, of the Department of Speech and Dramatics. In the preface to the script which was later published by the Centennial Committee, Miss Allen wrote:

To those who teach, the significant drama of academic life is seldom spectacular. The founding of an institution may be fraught with adventure but the long struggle to build and maintain ideals and to adjust educational theory and practices to the needs of society is worked out day by day in the classroom, the faculty or administra­tive councils and in legislative assemblies. The effectiveness of these ideals and practices sometimes may be recognized only long after­ward in the lives of students.12

The pageant was staged in front of Cook Hall with its grey towers outlined against the sky and the great elm spreading its leafy branches high above the actors. Over a thousand persons crowded into the seating area while others stood to watch the

12 Mabel Clare Allen, With Faith in the Future, A Pageant Drama (Normal: ISNU Centennial Committee, 1958), p. ii.

10 The Eleventh Decade

drama unfold. In a prologue, eleven scenes and a brief inspir­ing epilogue, simple incidents of the past became dramatic in retrospect. Three narrators impersonated Jesse Fell, a founder; Flora P. Dodge, secretary for five of the University's presidents; and Carter Harris, the beloved janitor of Cook Hall. There were thirty-five title roles and a supporting cast of one hundred fifty. The University Concert Band had barely finished its overture of "Tap Roots" when out of the darkness came a group of dancers dressed in buckskin brown of the pioneers and blue green of the prairie grass, and a voice out of the tree came loud and clear singing the first stanza of "Illinois." A verse choir from the ivy-covered balcony chanted a response telling of In­dians, explorers and pioneers. Then into the spotlight came Jesse Fell, who told the story of his own westward trek. As he stepped back into the shadows the play began.

Scene 1. Free Schools and Good Teachers

A Conestoga wagon drawn by a team of oxen slowly ap­proached from the right and halted in front of a harness shop where a German boy stopped playing his harmonica to greet the strangers. They introduced themselves, Harry Cook and his wife Joanna, and their two boys Frank and John, roles played by Robert and John Bone, sons of President and Mrs. Bone. The Cooks fell into conversation with the villagers: the harnessmaker, vVilkins the schoolmaster, Fell, the town's first lawyer, a country boy by the name of Enoch Gastman, and a visitor to the town, Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer from Spring­field. They spoke of education and Lincoln told how Jonathan Turner was pushing for a university that would train farmers, mechanics, and school teachers. When young John Cook, who liked to sing, begged the harmonica player for a song, Lincoln asked for his favorite and they all joined in singing "The Blue­Tailed Fly."

And so the story moved along. The teachers of the state at a meeting in Chicago demanded a normal school and Jonathan Baldwin Turner capitulated, saying that if both an agriculture and a normal department could not be obtained it was high time they had their normal school. The Legislature passed the act creating Illinois State Normal University in February 1857,

The Centennial 11

and in a contest for subscriptions for building funds, Blooming­ton won over Peoria. Charles Hovey was chosen principal, a cornerstone for the new building was laid in September and classes began in Major's Hall in October. The school weathered a panic through the valiant efforts of Fell, Hovey, and others, and the first class graduated in June 1860. The building was barely dedicated when the war began, and President Hovey and his Normal Rifles, as his student volunteers called them­selves, joined up to save the Union.

The postwar years were not without their vicissitudes, but the faculty was strong, the students were loyal and serious, and the reputation of the school grew. The administrations of Ed­wards, Hewett and Cook were long and fruitful. Arnold Tomp­kins stayed only one year but he laid plans which David Felm­ley would spend his life implementing and strengthening.

The tenth scene was a rollicking and affectionate celebration of one of President Felmley's later birthdays, which had come to mean so much to him and to the students. The last scene de­picted a meeting at Homecoming 1955 of some old grads in The Cage, the snack bar then located in Fell Hall. Beneath the gay chatter ran a warm current of respect, admiration, and affection for President Fairchild for his abiding interest in stu­dents and alumni, the changes he had brought about in the Uni­versity and his steadfast determination over a period of twenty­two years to keep the school a professional college for teacher education. He had been gone nearly a year.

In the epilogue, Robert Gehlmann Bone, the ninth president, clothed in academic robes, stood forth. About him clustered a group of students from Metcalf, University High and Univer­sity graduating classes. At either side, fading to the edge of the circle of light, were the characters of the past scenes. The President spoke:

In this important year 1957, we look back on a century of glorious history of Illinois Normal University. We pay honor to the many men and women who hoped and dreamed and planned and worked and gave of themselves that this institution might develop and prosper. We can honor them by recalling this connection with this University, with educational development, with the community and the State of Illinois. However, we would negate this honor if we

12 The Eleventh Decade

did not join with one another in continuing to hope and dream and plan and work, and give of ourselves in furthering and developing this institution. As we look toward the future, it is essential that we prepare more and adequately trained teachers for the educational task ahead. To help maintain the structure and philosophy of this country, with faith in the future, we must all work together to do our part in maintaining and improving an active educated citizenry in this great country of ours.

As the lights faded on the finale there came the ringing words of the Centennial Hymn, "Long live, strong live ISNU." 13

A week later President Bone would give the "charge" to 320 members of the ninety-seventh graduating class at Com­mencement exercises in the amphitheater and the next day, June 9, Professor Arthur W. Watterson, head of the geography department, and thirty-five students enrolled in geographical survey would board a transcontinental plane in Chicago for Ireland on the first lap of the University's most pretentious tour, "Around the \Vorld in Sixty-four Days." Stops for sight­seeing would be made in Scotland, England, Scandinavia, France, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Hawaiian Islands, where final exams were to be given.

Nor was eight-week summer school less crowded with events. The 1526 students who were enrolled had many recreational choices to make; in addition to the week's movie there was the Paul Christiansen Choral School, the annual Educational Con­ference and Educational Exhibit, and the Convention of Illinois Association of Student Councils. For those who had a yen for more learning there was a post session with a concurrent con­vention of Homemakers of Illinois.

The second century of classwork began September 13 and three days later the University dedicated Schroeder Hall and the new Metcalf Elementary School BuildingY Schroeder Hall

13 The words of the Centennial Hymn were written by Dr. Katharine C. Turner, an alumnus of the Class of 1930 and Professor of English, Arizona State University, Tempe. The musie was written by Dr. Irwin Spector, Pro­fessor of Music and later named composer in residence, Illinois State Univer­sity at Normal. He also composed the music for "Bugles" featured in the Civil War sequence, which was written by Richard Hovey, the poet and son of Charles Hovey, the first president of Illinois State Normal University.

14 Herman Henry Schroeder was born in Iowa in 1873. He began his teach­ing at the age of eighteen in a rural school in Clayton County, Iowa, and ad-

The Centennial 13

provided 49 classrooms and office space for 89 faculty members in the departments of English, mathematics, foreign language, geography, social science and education, most of which pre­viously had been located in Old Main and North Hall and temporary federal buildings, frame structures salvaged from abandoned army barracks. The dome and the third floor of Old Main had been removed in 1946, and now the second floor was condemned and the first floor could be used only for offices. North Hall, the second oldest building, was also in a precarious condition and before the decade passed both structures would be razed.

Friday, October 4, was selected for the inauguration of Dr. Bone as ninth president because it was the last day of the first hundred years of Illinois State Normal University. On October 5, 1857, the first class had enrolled in Major's Hall, Blooming­ton. From a rented building and nineteen students the Univer­sity had progressed to a modern campus with twenty-five buildings including a library with 178,912 volumes, a student union building, a 68-acre campus and a 192-acre farm with a complement of twelve buildings,15 3001 undergraduates and 210 graduate students, with a faculty numbering 286.

vanced to rrincipal and superintendent. Between positions he completed his Bachelor 0 Arts degree at Cornell College where he was a member of the faculty, 1898-1900. Later he took a Master's degree from the University of Chicago, and studied at the University of Minnesota and at Teachers College, Columbia University. From 1901 to 1913 he was Professor of Education, at Whitewater Normal in Wisconsin. In 1913 he became Professor of Educa­tional Psychology at Illinois State Normal University. He became Dean in 1928 upon the death of O. L. Manchester, and was Acting President from January, 1930 until July, 1930, and again from July 1, 1933 until October 16, 1933, and served agam as Dean until his retirement in 1943. He was the author of The Psychology of Conduct and The Public School as a State Institution. As an intellectual liberal, he believed in a broad general education. He died in 1950.

Thomas Metcalf was born in West Wrentham, Massachusetts in 1826. He attended country schools in winter, worked on his father's farm and braided straw for bonnets. At sixteen he taught a rural school for eleven weeks at $3.00 a week. At the age of twenty-one he studied for a year under Nathan Tillinghast at the Bridgewater Normal. After seven years as a principal of a grammar school he moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to take a position in the high school. In 1862 he gave up a $2,000 job to follow his friend, Richard Ed­wards to Illinois State Normal University and took a position paying $1,300. In 1874 he became the special "training teacher," a position which he held for twenty years. He died in Chicago in January 1894.

15 Buildings on campus in October 1957 included Old Main (1859), North Hall (1892), Administration later known as Hovey Hall (1950), Schroeder Hall (1956), Milner Library (1940), Metcalf Elementary School (1956), Uni­versity High School (1912), Cook Hall (1896), Felmley Hall of Science (1930), Fairchild Hall (1951), McCormick Gymnasium (1925), Industrial Arts

14 The Eleventh Decade

The sun shone bright and clear and the inauguration cere­monies were held in the amphitheater. By nine o'clock visitors and honored guests began to arrive. VVhile some took their reserved places in the amphitheater, members of the President's party assembled at the Administration Building, and other mem­bers of the academic procession gathered at University High School where the line formed. Among the special guests were state officials, representatives of the General Assembly, dele­gates from radio, press and television, city officials of Bloom­ington and Normal, Dr. Bone's family and the relatives and descendants of five of the eight presidents who had proceeded him, the University Advisory Council, alumni officers and club presidents, and student representatives. In the colorful aca­demic procession there were representatives from seventy-nine institutions of higher education and fifty-nine learned societies as well as members of the University faculty.

At nine thirty the University Band struck up the Inaugura­tion March by Moritz Mosykowska and the procession led by student marshals in scarlet caps and gowns proceeded down the broad walk past Administration Building and Milner Library to the stage of the amphitheater and to the sections reserved for academic representatives. Brilliant satin hoods, velvet bands and gold tassels glistened in the bright autumn sunshine.

Following the national anthem, The Reverend Harold R. Martin, Minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of Bloom­ington and Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, gave the invocation. Lewis Walker, Chair­man of the Teachers College Board then introduced the speaker of the day, Dr. J. W. Maucker, President of Iowa State Teach­ers College, who chose for his address on teacher education the title "A Vigor Whose Uncoiling." It was a phrase taken from Horace Mann, who had averred at the dedication of the normal school building at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, August 19, 1846, "Coiled up in this institution, as in a spring, there is a vigor whose uncoiling may wield the spheres." 16 In tracing the his-

(1908), heating plant (1916); five dormitories consisting of Fell Hall (1918), Dunn Hall (1951), Barton Hall (1951), Walker (1955) and Smith Hall (pur­chased in 1941); farm buildings (the first constructed in 1913), and several unnamed federal surplus frame buildings serving as temporary classrooms.

16 Frontiers in Education, Proceedings in the Inauguration of Robert G. Bone, Ninth President of Illinois State University, October 4, 1957 (Normal: Illinois State Normal University, 1957), p. 34.

The Centennial 15

tory of teacher education, Dr. Maucker made repeated refer­ences to the role of Illinois State Normal University in the development of present concepts and procedures, especially through the Herbartian movement and the formation of the National Society for the Study of Education, and such educa­tional leaders as Frank M. and Charles A. McMurry, Charles de Garmo, and Charles C. Van Liew who had studied in Ger­many before coming to Normal.17 Dr. Maucker traced the evo­lution of normal schools into teachers colleges and the subse­quent changes of names. In 1920, 98 per cent of the 164 teachers colleges had been classified by the U.S. Office of Edu­cation as "primarily teacher-preparatory but thirty-six years later the figure had declined to 38 per cent. Meanwhile more and more liberal arts colleges were assuming the function of teacher education and other types of professional training. Dr. i\1aucker noted that the necessity of changing names with the evolution of function had been avoided when the founding fathers in 1857 had selected the name of Illinois State Normal University and quoted Charles Harper's succinct explanation that "To the New Englander the term normal university might be an incongruous jumble of words but in Illinois it meant a teacher preparation institution elevated to college rank." 18

Basically teachers colleges have broadened educational oppor­tunity, upgraded public education and professionalized teach­ing. The weaknesses, said Dr. Maucker, have been first, financial support; second, inadequate recognition of scholarship, save in some institutions such as Illinois State Normal University; and third, insufficient emphasis upon research-a weakness which is being rapidly overcome as these institutions develop gradu­ate programs.

The vigor of schools such as Illinois State Normal University he attributed first to the fact that they were indigenous insti-

17 Members of the staff during the administration of John W. Cook: Charles A. McMurry went to the new Northern State Normaf at DeKalb when Cook became its first president; Frank M. McMurry was Professor of Elementary Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1898 to 1926; Charles de Garmo later became President of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Penn­sylvania; and C. C. Van Liew went to California where he played a significant role in teacher education.

18 Charles A. Harper, A Century of Teacher Education (Washington, D.C.: National Education Association, 1939), p. 80.

16 The Eleventh Decade

tutions close to the people, filling a basic need in a unique society and a primary agency in fostering a reasonable degree of equality of educational opportunity, a characteristically American ideal; and second, while the aims have been idealistic, the approach has been essentially pragmatic with no feeling that these efforts should be confined within ivy covered walls. Consequently their staffs have gone into the surrounding schools and worked with teachers and pupils alike in improving public education. Although the teachers colleges have cast off many of their earlier characteristics and strengthened academic offer­ings they have not lost sight of the principal objective, the improvement of the common schools.

Dr. Maucker challenged Illinois State Normal University to

retain the vigor of its past and to work for qualitative improve­ment while serving greater numbers of students in the increas­ingly complex times ahead. He challenged the new president to keep the function of the institution clearly defined to secure continued effective support and above all to work with the fac­ulty in welding scholarship and service, declaring it to be his high calling to reach out for new insights and new knowledge and bring them to the people through their common schools.

The impressive ceremonies reached their climax when Lewis M. Walker, acting for the Teachers College Board for the State of Illinois, installed Robert Gehlmann Bone as ninth president of Illinois State Normal University. In a few simple and well­chosen words he invested Dr. Bone with the responsibilities of the chief executive office, reminding him of the long history of the University and its commitment to teacher education:

Each president has been put to the test to branch out in other di­rections, but each was an administrator who has steadfastly clung to teacher education as the primary objective of this institution. At this moment, there is no thought in the minds of anyone in position of authority to change our course in this our centennial year.

Dr. Bone had been the unanimous choice of the faculty com­mittee and the Board; much would be expected of him.lB In

19 Robert Gehlmann Bone was born in Springfield, Illinois, June 2, 1906. He attended Springfield public schools, and graduated with honors from The College of Wooster, Ohio, in 1928; later he received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Illinois. From 1928 to 1931 he taught in the

The Centennial 17

officially and publicly declaring Dr. Bone president of Illinois State Normal University Mr. Walker charged:

You inherit its traditions and its policies. We intrust its future to your guidance with full confidence that you will expand its serv­ices and will exalt its purposes and make them more widely known throughout the land.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the University. A rising ovation and thunderous applause was the audience

salute to President Robert G. Bone. In a voice that was clear and confident Robert Bone re­

sponded:

Mr. Walker, I will do my best to take this responsibility, this charge, and this challenge with the aid of God, and the faculty and the Board, will do my best as we start this second century, to continue this school as an important source for preparing people who can teach our youngsters in the future.

Thank you very much.20

For his own address, Dr. Bone had taken the title "Let us all take hold." It was a phrase written by Jonathan Turner, a hundred years before when Illinois had faced the decision of which to establish first, a school for training teachers or a school for training farmers, and a phrase that Dr. Bone had used in his first address to the faculty on May 8, 1956.21

In his brief address the new president revealed an unusual and intimate knowledge of the school, its founding, the person­alities and principles that had shaped its long and distinguished history. He outlined three time-honored aims of education which he believed still valid-first, that a man should be edu­cated in a skill or skills which will bring in a living wage for

American School, Alexandria, Egypt, and from 1932 to 1934 he was professor of history and speech at Lincoln College, Lincoln, Illinois. In 1934 he became a member of the history staff of the University of Illinois, attaining the rank of full professor in 1950. While on the faculty at the Universiry of Illinois, he served successively as Director of the Division of General StudIes, Director of Education, and Assistant Provost.

During W orId War II he served in the Army Air Corps. In 1944 he was sent overseas to become a member of the Headquarters Staff of the United States Forces in Europe. He aided in the creation of the American Universities at Biarritz, France, and at Shrivenham, England, where he headed the history department. He was separated from the service as a Major in July 1946.

20 In 1944, he married Karin Levanius of Springfield, and a kindergarten teacher in Springfield. They have two sons, John L. and Robert G. "Chip."

21 Frontiers in Education, p. 8.

18 The Eleventh Decade

his family, trained in the 3 R's, able to communicate properly, and able to reason and to think.

Second, a man must be educated to participate in and find satisfaction in the affairs of the culture in which he lives. He must be educated to live, not in a horse-and-buggy age but in an atomic age, in an era of speed, in suburbia. He must be edu­cated culturally and humanistically. He must be conversant not only with the sciences but also with the humanities and the so­cial sciences. In our one-world in which the actions of every man and every group of men affect everyone else, man must understand other people; he must believe in and practice toler­ance; and he must be sensitive to beauty.

Third, a man must be educated so that he will be an active, intelligent, and effective citizen in a democratic society.22

Dr. Bone was concerned over the need for more teachers, and the need for more capable teachers to meet the demands of a burgeoning population. On all levels, elementary, high school and college levels, there was an increasing demand for teachers. How to secure and prepare the necessary supply of teachers was a matter of great concern. Dr. Bone proceeded to discuss seven suggestions proposed as an aid toward serving the prob­lem. He cited first the need for increasing salaries comparable to those of other professions. "Most people," he said, "never consider the fact that many teachers have subsidized and still do subsidize American education with their low salaries and dedicated spirit."

Second, Dr. Bone asked whether the student-teacher ratio in schools and colleges could be safely changed as costs and num­bers increase, through the use of master teachers on television. Although TV cannot decrease the need for capable teachers, it appeared to be one means of easing the teacher shortage of the future.

Third, there was the possibility of bringing into teaching persons, such as housewives and retired military personnel, who are qualified but not certified.

Fourth, Dr. Bone asserted there must be less piracy of teach­ing staff by business and industry through enticements of bet­ter pay.

22 Marshall, op. cit., p. 328.

The Centennial Year

Opening the Box from Old Main's Cornerstone

The Leaden Box and its Contents

President Bone and President Hovey Autographing the Grandest of Enterprises

Act I. "With Faith in the Future"

"On with the Dance" Around the World in Sixty-four Days

A Madrigal Dinner

A Homecoming Float

To Commemorate the Founding

The Centennial 19

Fifth, to improve graduate education of teachers, there must be better educated teachers as well as research specialists.

Sixth, there must be a planned recruitment of teachers. Both higher salaries and the actual demand for teachers will help. Greater use must be made of healthy competent retired teach­ers, wives and mothers with teaching experience whose chil­dren are grown. Greater inducements for young people to choose teaching as a profession must be sought and well-pub­licized.

As for the seventh-the lowering of certification standards, Dr. Bone was adamant. "A mediocre teacher," he said, "infects his students with his mediocrity."

Teacher education must be professional and it must include suffi­cient subject matter courses; it must have a broad base of general education, and it must provide adequate instruction in the humani­ties and the social sciences. Parents and citizens should demand this just as much as they demand professional education for their doctors, dentists and engineers.

Reiterating the need for more teachers and more capable teachers, Dr. Bone concluded:

Just as the founding fathers of this University hoped and prayed and planned and worked, so we today must hope and pray and plan and work so that our educational system, properly staffed, will teach our youth to continue our democratic way of life and teach them to work with one another and for one another. And so I say in the words of Jonathan B. Turner-Let us all take hold.

When Lewis Walker raised his hand and the applause stopped, the Reverend Gerhard E. Sennewald, pastor of St. Luke's Evan­gelical and Reformed Church of Bloomington stepped forward and gave the benediction, and then the Concert Band began playing the postlude "With Honor Crowned" by Edward Ketelby, and the President's party began the recessional.

The ninth president had been installed but the day's festivi­ties were not over. The inaugural luncheon in the ballroom was attended by 550 guests. Richard G. Browne, executive officer for the Teachers College Board, presided. The invoca­tion was given by Howard Lowry, President of The College of Wooster, an Alma Mater of President Bone. Greetings fol-

20 The Eleventh Decade

lowed from the various Universities, the Teachers College Board, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Edu­cation, of which Dr. Bone was national president 1956-1957, Illinois Wesleyan University, and the Illinois State Normal University Alumni Association. David D. Henry, President, University of Illinois gave the major address. Dr. Henry paid high tribute to President Bone's leadership, predicted new and significant developments at Illinois State Normal University, and stressed the need for greater emphasis on teacher educa­tion and of the need for an institution to be singularly con­cerned with this high objective. "To be a teacher," said Presi­dent Henry, "is to accept a way of life honored and rewarding in human values." 23

Following the luncheon a symposium on "Frontiers in Teacher Education" was held in Capen Auditorium. Dr. Arthur H. Larsen, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty, presided and addresses were given by three distinguished alumni. Dr. William S. Gray (I 910), Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Chicago, spoke on "Frontiers in Education of Teachers of Reading"; Dr. S. Ralph Powers (1910), Professor Emeritus of Natural Sciences, Teachers College, Columbia University, on "Frontiers in Education of Teachers of Sci­ence"; and Dr. Walker D. Wyman (1920), Professor of His­tory and Chairman of the Department of Social Sciences, Wis­consin State College, River Falls, on "Frontiers in Education of Teachers in the Social Sciences." All three suggested cur­ricular innovations at elementary, secondary and college levels which still provide inspiration and direction for those con­cerned with the improvement of teacher education.24

The students of the University wished to have a part in the inauguration and sponsored a reception for President and Mrs. Bone in the late afternoon, and in the evening the Junior Class sponsored a formal dance in their honor.

The inaugural was over and the first hundred years had passed into history but there would be more observances be­fore the Centennial Year was over.

On October 11 and 12 the Illinois Historical Society held

23Ibid., 89-93, 100.

24 Ibid., 45-83, 100.

The Centennial 21

its annual meeting on campus and the VISItorS were given a weekend of University and local history and a dinner featuring roast buffalo.

The following weekend was Homecoming which followed the pattern of other years: a homecoming queen and court, a parade, band contests, reunions, a football game, club banquets, and a dance. For most of these events the centennial and his­torical motif was used.

In November the Illinois Speech Association met on cam­pus; the University held a special commemoration of American Education week, and observed the anniversary of the found­ing of the first college YWCA at Illinois State Normal Uni­versity.25 The Centennial Conference on Religion and Life, a triennial conference which began in the 1930's was held No­vember 17-21. On November 22 a ground-breaking ceremony for the Centennial Arts building took place.

The .December Centennial Activities began on the first Sat­urday with the Twenty-fifth Administrators Roundup. Presi­dent Fairchild in the first year of his administration had in­stituted this annual conference of superintendents, principals and faculty. It was designed to find out what these adminis­trative officers thought of the University's product of young teachers, and how the University could better assist and advance the work of the schools. The faculty was cautioned to listen and take notes, and to speak only when called upon. There was always a greeting from the president, a keynote address, a large number of discussion meetings, a luncheon, with a pro­fessional-oriented inspirational address, and a summary of the various buzz sessions. Later these were carefully edited, refined, and printed and distributed to educators throughout the state. The roundups did much to develop rapport between the Uni-

25 On November 12, 1872, Lida Brown invited six of her friends to come to her room, 520 North School Street, for an hour in prayer and hymn singing. In 1874 the group then meeting regularly each week adopted the name "Young Ladies' Christian Association." In 1883 the name was changed to "Young Women's Christian Association." For many years the organization held its meetings regularly in "The White Room" in the basement of Old Main. As other religious organizations appeared on campus in 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, they took over many of its functions and activities and in 1963 the Y.W.C.A. was disbanded. The founder, later as Mrs. Uda Brown McMurry, played a distinguished role in teacher education, teaching at Illinois State Normal Uni­versity and Northern Illinois Normal at DeKalb.

22 The Eleventh Decade

versity and those who looked to and employed its graduates. On December 15 at 6 p.m. the Madrigal dinner was observed

for the second year. This delightful event originated by Bruce Kaiser, director of the Union, was a combination of an English court feast replete with fanfare, wassail, roast beef, boar's head, and flaming plum pudding; and a concert of Christmas Carols sung a cappella around a festive board by a select group of music majors dressed in resplendently beautiful costumes, the women in jewels, farthingales and ruffs, the men in knee-hose, satin breeches, velvet doublets and plumed hats. The ballroom, tables and canopied stage were even more handsomely deco­rated than the year before with holly and mistletoe, myriads of candles and sparkling crystal. A fanfare of trumpets and four pages in green Robin Hood breeches, doublets, and hats marched in bearing aloft the great steaming wassail bowl. As they paused in front of the singers, the court jester in motley with cap, bell and bauble, leaped from his perch and called for a toast. And so the merry evening began. So popular did the affair become that on the occasion of its eleventh celebra­tion the dinner was repeated twelve times between December 1 and December 17 and attended by more than 3000 persons.

The last event of the Centennial Year was the opening of the cornerstone of Old Main on December 17. The leaden box was chiseled from the foundation of Old Main where it had rested since September 29, 1857, and brought to the ballroom of the Student Union. Dean Arthur Larsen presided. Clarence Ropp, member of the Teachers College Board and prominent McLean County farmer, told of "Early Days in Illinois," and Helen Marshall, professor of history and a member of the Centennial Committee, gave a brief documentary account of the original laying of the cornerstone. Then came the moment for which all had been waiting. A representative from the Acme Roofing Company stepped forward with goggles and acetylene torch but the old solder refused to yield. Aften ten minutes' struggle with hacksaw and torch, the lid was finally pried off the badly mutilated box. Mrs. Nellie B. Fairchild, widow of the late President Raymond W. Fairchild, was in­vited to take the treasures from the box. The audience sat awed and breathless as she lifted thirty-three items, one by one

The Centennial 23

from the box. Among them were seven issues of The Illinois Teacher, a copy of the architect's sketch of the building as it would look when completed, a copy of a St. James version of The Holy Bible printed that year in London, a handwritten list of names of the county officials and those persons who had made subscription toward the construction of the building, three species of prairie flowers, and copies of the Daily Panta­graph and other Illinois newspapers. Everything was there just as enumerated in the Pantagraph a hundred years before. For an hour the visitors milled about the table marveling at the perfect preservation of the contents, even to the color of the flowers, the legibility of the handwriting and noting the jour­nalistic style of an era long past; then the treasures were taken to the University vault for safekeeping until the time came to place them with similar twentieth century documents in the cornerstone of the new Centennial Building for which the ground had been turned on November 22.26

After the students and faculty departed for vacation, the Illinois Education Association moved in for its annual post­Christmas convention. Illinois State Normal University was indeed an appropriate place for meeting-just 104 years before at its organization meeting in Bloomington, Illinois, teachers had pledged their support for an institution to prepare teachers for the common schools. What a wondrous thing their vision and the labor of subsequent generations of educational leaders had wrought!

The Centennial Year was at an end but it had not been de­voted entirely to nostalgic reminiscence. Behind the scenes, beyond the classroom, in the early morning and late at night, the faculty, administration and Teachers College Board had done a terrific amount of educational soul-searching, evaluating, and planning. One sensed it everywhere- "a vigor uncoiling."

26 Daily Pantagraph, December 17, 1947.