USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > New London > Mirror to America : a history of New London, New Hampshire, 1900-1950 > Part 17
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a properly accredited hospital for one additional year, were allowed to receive the baccalaureate degree from their alma mater. Each year at Commencement time a number of young women were so graduated.
To the faculty and administration of Colby the twin curricular objectives of the College were these: (1) to furnish carefully worked out vocational courses for students who knew precisely what they wished to do with their lives; (2) to present a Liberal Arts training that would fit other graduates for advanced work in a senior college, for adult responsibili- ties, or for pre-professional work in various fields. In 1950 Colby offered three vocational curricula: secretarial science, medical secretaryship, and medical technology. In the two last-named fields Colby played a truly pioneer role in the growth of the junior colleges in the United States. Based upon an extensive study of what medical men wanted in their secretaries, the medical secretary program was launched at Colby in 1934; preceded by the same methodical preparation, the medical technology work was begun in 1940. Liberal Arts courses were likewise evaluated to meet the needs of rapidly changing times. In 1950 about 59% of the students were en- rolled in the Liberal Arts curriculum, including music and fine arts' majors; 19% were registered in Secretarial Science; 13% were in Medical Technology; and 9% were in the Medi- cal Secretarial field.26
From the day it began as a junior college Colby was fortunate in the caliber of its Trustees. By its charter and by-laws the Board was divided into three classes of eight per- sons each, or twenty-four in all. There might also be as many honorary trustees as the Board should designate. Presidents of the Board during the period of the Junior College were Clarence E. Clough, William A. Hill, and Samuel M. Best. Many prominent business and professional men and women gave devoted service to the Board, some of them like the late Wilfred E. Burpee and the late Josiah E. Fernald for more than forty years of continuous membership. In 1947 the Board of Trustees agreed that one member should be chosen
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as a representative of the College alumnae, and two of these younger Board members served faithfully in the years since the innovation began. The Board confronted many problems as the College grew, but always retained a spirit of confidence and faith in the future of the institution.27 Under their guidance and with the able leadership of President Sawyer, Colby Junior College since 1928 consistently maintained a balanced budget; acquired much additional property and campus area; carried out a remarkable building program; and earned for itself a reputation as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the nation.
5. Two Noteworthy Celebrations
In 1936 and 1937 there were a number of significant anniversaries in American history. Among these were the Ter- centenary of Harvard, the centennials of the University of Michigan, of Mount Holyoke, and of Oberlin, a celebration honoring the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Horace Mann's work in Massachusetts, and the centennial ex- ercises of Colby Junior College. Preparations for the latter began in the autumn of 1935 when the Trustees appointed some of their number to make preliminary plans for the cele- bration. The next year the faculty chose a committee to carry out its part of the program.28 Working in close cooperation with other groups, the Centennial Committee prepared an elaborate schedule of events for the spring of 1937, and especially for the days between Friday, June 11, and Monday, June 14. Dr. Henry K. Rowe of the Andover Newton Theo- logical School, a one-time faculty member of The Colby Academy, was engaged to write a full-length history of Colby Junior College and its antecedents from 1837 to 1937. Miss Marion D. Brown and her associates prepared a stirring pageant entitled "The Strength of the Hills," which vividly depicted the story of the last century at Colby. Special public- ity men did preliminary work for the celebration by a care- ful cultivation of the press, of alumni, and of the general public.29
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The objectives of the Colby centennial were three-fold: (1) to give to Colby a new stature among the educational in- stitutions of the nation; (2) to stir in the hearts of Academy alumni a sense of pride in the institution from which in a previous incarnation they had come; and (3) to establish a working partnership of effort among faculty, administration, students, and trustees. All these goals were creditably attained. Sixty-five academic delegates from as many institutions throughout the nation who attended the programs in June came to a new understanding of the meaning of a junior college. Five hundred people, mostly alumni of Academy days, lunched at long tables in the "Centennial Auditorium," a tent erected for the occasion on the campus in front of Burpee Hall. Governor Francis Parnell Murphy of New Hampshire attended the exercises, and spoke appreciatively of Colby's place in American education. The pageant, beautifully pre- sented on the rear campus with Mt. Kearsarge as a backdrop, touched the hearts of all who saw it. Dr. Rowe's history was fittingly summarized by the author himself in an inspiring address. The sealing of the "centennial box" with the admoni- tion that it was not to be opened until June 10, 2037, and the adjournment of the exercises to the same date, vividly im- pressed all with the growth of Colby. The whole program was a sincere salute to a century that was past and a fine omen for a century to come. As one guest wittily put it: "Colby took off its hat to the past, and its coat for the future."30
Best of all summations of the one hundredth birthday of Colby was the Centenary Ode prepared by Miss Marvis Clare Barnett of Colby's Department of English. It is fitting to include it here:31
"One hundred years upon New London Hill, One hundred years of learning that today We gather here, where there is learning still, To honor it this way.
"Gone is that early schoolhouse with no trace, Unused long since that first academy; One hundred years of learning in this place, And around us now we see
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"New towers upon the Hilltop, and new names, New generations, youth forever new; Unchanged alone are still those ancient aims, Those truths we still pursue.
"For well they built upon this height, Builders with beauty ever in their eyes, And still we have those mountain peaks in sight Across this sweep of skies,
"Bearing the well-loved names still: Sunapee, And Cardigan, and Kearsarge, close at hand; These are unchanged, and so shall ever be - The landmarks of this land.
"Who has not seen them in the autumn days With the red forests rising on their slopes, And stayed to dream here in the sun-warmed haze, Full of his own warm hopes?
"And in the autumn nights who has not seen Those distant purple crags, how dark they are Against the darkening sunset, and between, The new moon and a star?
"Who has not seen them when the winter snow Whitens these valleys, through the whirling storms Caught some impermanent glimpse, and smiled to know Those old, sure, permanent forms?
"And when the year has come again to spring Who has not gone, who shall not go, like us Among their dry oak-thickets gathering The first pink arbutus?
"This is no poor, unprofitable memory That makes us part and portion of the past, But in the years to come these still shall be The memories which last.
"For truth may change her fashion and her text, Her books may double half their weight in dust; One set of scholars may deny the next In eloquent distrust.
"And beauty even may be brought to task For threadbare phrase, for old and outgrown rhyme, And newer generations rise to ask A word for their own time,
"But in these hills such wranglings must desist, Before such quietudes, in such retreats, Where truth is more than any scientist, And beauty more than Keats.
"This is our own, our able heritage Here on this Hilltop; this they had at heart Who built this school here in another age And set this place apart,
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"Who in their serious faith identified This town with learning through a century, That we today should honor it with pride, That looking backward we
"Today should praise the past by what we do, One with it still by all that time endears, And in a faith as high look forward to A second hundred years."
The second of the notable celebrations in the history of the College came just a decade after the centennial exercises. It was the elaborate program of 1947, built around the twenty- fifth anniversary of the coming of President and Mrs. H. Leslie Sawyer to Colby. The preparations began more than a year before, and were carried out with the same atten- tion to detail that had characterized the anniversary of 1937. Purposes of the celebration were three in number: (1) to pay a tribute to the Sawyers for the remarkable record they had made in the development and growth of the College: (2) to stimulate interest in a Twenty-fifth Anniversary Fund; and (3) to give the College publicity throughout the nation.32 As the event showed, all these objectives were substantially attained.
Several events marked the progress of the celebration in the spring of 1947. Among these one of the most impressive was the publication of a brochure of anniversary tributes to President and Mrs. Sawyer. Those contributing to this were Samuel M. Best, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the College; U. S. Senators Styles Bridges and Charles W. Tobey of New Hampshire; Mr. Justice Harold H. Burton of the United States Supreme Court; Bradley Dewey, noted in- dustrialist and war-time Director of the U. S. rubber program; Melville B. Grosvenor of the National Geographic Society; four college presidents, Roswell G. Ham of Mount Holyoke, Ernest M. Hopkins of Dartmouth, Henry Noble McCracken of Vassar, and Charles F. Phillips of Bates; Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt; Lessing J. Rosenwald of the Rosenwald Founda- tion; Luther Wesley Smith of the Board of Education and Publications of the Northern Baptist Convention; and John
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L. Sullivan, Under Secretary of the Navy.33 On Friday morn- ing, May 16, the student body presented a heart-warming program in honor of President and Mrs. Sawyer. That noon delegates from fifty-one colleges and universities sat down to the Anniversary Luncheon in Colgate Hall. In the afternoon Dr. Henry M. Wriston, President of Brown University, ad- dressed the academic delegates and the Colby community in impressive exercises at the New London Baptist Church. At this service President and Mrs. Sawyer were given a volume of letters from friends and admirers throughout the nation. On Saturday, May 17, alumni and alumnae flocked into the college gymnasium for a memorable occasion. Climax of the affair came in an address by Margaret Marsh Steele, chairman of the Alumnae Fund; at the close of her talk she presented Dr. Sawyer with a check for $52,000, raised by the friends of the College for this event.34
6. The Outreach of Colby Junior College
One of the most difficult tasks in the history of any insti- tution, educational or otherwise, is to attempt an evaluation of its influence on society as a whole. Campus activities and strict- ly college affairs are relatively easy to enumerate and assess. But Colby, like all other vigorous colleges, had an influence which reached far beyond the campus. In this section an esti- mate of this influence will be made from three viewpoints: (1) the outreach of students and alumnae; (2) the outreach of faculty activities and influence; (3) the general impact of the College on American life.
The most obvious outreach of the College, so far as stu- dents were concerned, lay in the fact that in the academic year, 1949-1950, undergraduates were coming to Colby from thirty of the forty-eight States, and from many foreign countries. Indeed, over the entire Junior College period there were fewer than half a dozen States which had not been represented on the roster, while students had journeyed to Colby from more than a dozen nations in Europe. Asia, Latin America, and the islands of the seas. Colby developed a cosmopolitan
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atmosphere, where Protestant, Catholic, and Jew worked and studied happily together; where the pigmentations of skin meant little or nothing to most students; and where young women from countries once at war with each other lived in friendly companionship. Likewise girls from the American West rubbed shoulders with students from the Deep South; while New Englanders shared experiences with those from the great farm and industrial areas of the Mid-West. In order to facil- itate this process, the College offered many scholarships to deserving students both from this country and abroad.
In other important ways Colby students made their presence felt over areas much greater than the College campus itself. The apprentice work of the medical secretarial curricu- lum each spring carried selected seniors to doctors' offices all over the East, while the fourth year of the medical technology program saw Colby girls serving in hospitals across the country from Cape Cod to Pasadena.35 Each spring, beginning in 1937, the Colby Glee Club was proud to present a "Pops" concert in Boston under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. In 1938 the Social Studies Department sent a regional survey party on a three-week bus trip to the T. V. A., and for a decade there- after carried out similar reconnaissance studies in other por- tions of the United States and Canada.36 Beginning in 1937 Colby annually sent delegates to the famed New York Herald Tribune Forum, meeting each fall in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Perhaps most significant of Colby's outreach was the re- markable alumnae organization built up by Mary C. Barrett, Genevieve Millar, and their associates. Alumnae interest originated in undergraduate days with the activities of the Student-Alumnae Fund. It was stimulated by the Colby Junior College Bulletin, which began publication in 1933, appearing six times a year thereafter. This magazine's style and format won repeated honorable mentions in its class among all the college publications of the United States. In 1950 Mary C. Barrett was named Chairman of District I of the American Alumni Association. Colby's system of alumnae clubs and of
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class agents after graduation produced a giving record from its graduates outstanding among the women's colleges of the country. In 1950 eighteen alumnae clubs were functioning vigorously as far west as San Francisco. An alumnae directory of Colby Junior College issued in the spring of 1948 showed graduates living in forty-two of the States, in Washington, D. C., and in twenty-one foreign countries or overseas ter- ritories of the United States.37 Among these alumnae by 1950 were women who had won professional success in the law, in public office, in journalism, in business, in librarianship, in nursing and vocational therapy, in literature, and in higher education.
Faculty outreach was similarly widespread. Because of the position of leadership which came to Colby after 1928, its administrative heads were active in the junior college develop- ment throughout the nation. Both Dr. Sawyer and Dean Meinecke served terms as presidents of the New England Junior College Council, and Mrs. Meinecke was active in the national association also. In their several fields of specializa- tion faculty members often played distinguished parts in their professional groups; for example, members of the Art Depart- ment showed pictures in New Hampshire exhibits, and in similar exhibits in Boston and New York. Some faculty mem- bers wrote for professional magazines and published mono- graphs and books in their fields. The Colby Library sponsored a remarkably interesting little quarterly called The Book Pedlar, which had a wide circulation through the country.38 Faculty members served Town, and State, and nation in various roles through the years, making thereby a substantial contribution to civic and public affairs.39
The whole field of Colby's public relations was cultivated following the centennial of 1937, and by 1950 an office, direct- ed by Miss Lois MacFarland, handled this important aspect of college life.40 On January 10, 1944, Colby was honored by having a 10,000 ton Liberty Ship, the SS SUSAN COLBY, launched at the South Portland, Maine, yards.41 From 1942 to 1947 inclusive Colby sponsored each summer a forum series
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which attracted wide attention, and brought many distin- guished speakers to the campus.42 Beginning in 1947 the Gor- don Research Conferences of the American Association for the Advancement of Science were held at Colby, attracting to the campus able scientists from all over the nation, and indeed from many foreign countries.43
An important aspect of Colby's outreach was the economic contribution it made to the life of New London and the sur- rounding community. No one has better summed this up than has Wayne K. Wheeler, Business Manager and Bursar of the College:44
"Yearly studies have been made by the Business Office of the College to find out how much money Colby brings into the Town of New London. Only figures which the College can sub- stantiate have been used. No estimate can be made of money spent by parents and friends of students, while visiting in Town, but we are sure that these amounts will aggregate a goodly sum each year.
"So far as ascertainable items are concerned, in the last academic year, 1948-1949, it can be shown that the students them- selves spent approximately $80,000 in Town. To employees who own or rent homes in New London the College paid salaries aggregating $167,000. To forty-eight (48) business establishments or local individuals the College paid out of its own funds $88,000. Upwards of $12,000 in taxes and precinct assessments were paid to the Town of New London.
"These figures total approximately $348,000 for the one year in question. Each time that a study of this kind has been made we realize that the amount of money brought into the community by the College and its activities is increasing with the passage of every academic year."
Perhaps most important of all in Colby's relationship to American life was the spirit of pioneering and the call to new thinking which was so characteristic of its growth. The leaven of originality, the willingness to try new ways and undertake unusual projects, the daring to adventure where others had not trodden before, - these were the attributes which gripped the imagination and stimulated the thinking of all who came in contact with the College. For example, Guy F. Williams and his associates in the Department of Science in 1936 en- visaged the possibilities of a nature sanctuary, and within a few months it was a reality.45 In 1940 the Colbytown Camp already mentioned began its efforts toward inter-race and
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inter-faith understanding.46 In 1945 Colby entered into re- lations with the U. S. Weather Bureau by which a sub-station was established on the campus.47 The new Library-Commons building, begun in 1949, represented an innovation in college architecture, and the hundreds of people who visited it after its completion in 1950 could only admire its practicality and originality. It was this bold spirit of "Let's try it," which stirred the loyalty of students, faculty, alumnae, and all con- cerned with the College. By its actions no less than by its words, Colby held aloft the torch of freedom. To do that was to make a significant contribution to the life of the nation.48
NOTE TO CHAPTER TEN
The Buildings of Colby Junior College, Their Origins, and Names
1. Colgate Hall
Year of Dedication: 1912. The North Wing was added in 1940. Origin of Name: The building was named in honor of the Colgate family. Funds for its construction were provided by Mary Colgate (1856-1936).
Purpose: Colgate Hall contains the administrative offices; the college post office; the principal laboratories; most class- rooms; an auditorium; and is the residence of 75 students.
2. The Gymnasium
Year of Dedication: 1927
3. Mckean Hall
Year of Dedication: 1930
Origin of Name: The building was named in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Horace G. Mckean. Dr. Mckean had been head of The Colby Academy from 1899 to 1905.
Purpose: A residence for 31 students.
4. Colby Hall
Year of Dedication: 1931
Origin of Name: The building was named in honor of the
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Colby family, one of whose members, Susan Colby Col- gate (1817-1919) had been the first teacher in the New London Academy in 1838.
Purpose: A residence for 49 students.
5. Shepard Hall
Year of Dedication: 1932
Origin of Name: The building was named in honor of a long- time New London family, two of whose recent members, James Eli Shepard and Charles E. Shepard, served as Trustees for a combined tenure of more than forty years. Purpose: A residence for 50 students.
6. The Colby Lodge
Year of Dedication: 1934
Origin of Name: The building was named in honor of the Colby family. The original Town Meeting House was built in 1788 on Old Main Street (a bronze tablet on a boulder in the Old Main Street Cemetery today marks the site). In 1854 it was rebuilt on the present Main Street, and used as a boys' dormitory for many decades. In 1934 the structure was razed and its timbers used for the exist- ing recreational Lodge on Little Lake Sunapee.
Purpose: A place for picnics, informal social gatherings, and the site of the Colbytown Camp since 1940.
7. Burpee Hall
Year of Dedication: 1934, 1935, 1936
Origin of Name: The building was named in honor of an- other historic New London family, which, like the Shepards, has over the generations produced many civic and professional leaders. The building was erected in three stages, a new wing being dedicated each year from 1934-1936.
8. Page Hall
Year of Dedication: 1938
Origin of Name: The building was named for the Rev. Dr. Charles L. Page, alumnus of The Colby Academy, Class
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of 1880. He served as a Trustee of the Academy and Col- lege for more than forty years.
Purpose: A residence for 39 students.
9. The President's House
Year of Dedication: 1937. The funds for this beautiful home were provided by Miss Mary Colgate, the last in a long series of benefactions by this generous lady.
10. Abbey Hall
Year of Dedication: 1940. The new wing was added in 1947. Origin of Name: The building was named for Mrs. Emily Frances Lombard Abbey Gill (1856-1950), philanthropist and friend of education, who provided $50,000 for its con- struction.
Purpose: A residence for 61 students.
11. The Music Studio
Year of Dedication: 1940. This building was the reconstruc- tion of an older structure which had once housed the pumping equipment for the private water supply of The Colby Academy.
12. The Library-Commons
Year of Dedication: 1950
Purpose: To provide an Alumnae Lounge for social affairs; a dining room capable of seating 500 persons; and com- plete Library facilities for books, magazines, recordings, pictures, and Colbyana. The library portion of the build- ing was named the Josiah E. Fernald Library on October 15, 1950. Josiah E. Fernald (1856-1949) was a Trustee of Colby Academy and Colby Junior College for more than a half century, from 1893 to 1949.
Other buildings owned by Colby Junior College in 1950 included the original Town Academy of 1838, located on Main Street and used as an apartment house; the Infirmary, the old Frank Andrews blacksmith shop, on Seamans Road; the Dean's house, across the street from the Infirmary; Faculty House, a faculty residence across the street from the New
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London Baptist Church; and the former Shepard stables, office building, and two-family house, adjacent to the post office on Main Street.
NOTES FOR CHAPTER TEN
The quotation at the head of this chapter is from an article by Dr. Sarah W. Briggs in The Educational Register, June, 1950, p. 15.
1In 1850 New Hampshire alone had 107 academies.
2Eleven local men on July 4, 1837 secured a charter from the New Hampshire Legislature to found the New London Academy. It was opened in May, 1838. In 1853 the school accepted the proffered help of the New Hampshire Baptist Convention, and became the New London Literary Scientific Institute. A year later the final noun in the title was changed to Institution. In 1878, as a token of appreciation to the family whose support has been indispensable to its existence, the Institution was given the name, The Colby Academy. On all phases of the story from 1837 to 1900, see Rowe, First Century, pp. 1-195.
3Susan Colby (1817-1919), daughter of Governor Anthony Colby and original teacher in the New London Academy in 1838, married James B. Colgate of New York. The Colgate benefactions to the institution on New London hill between the Civil War and the beginning of the twentieth century totalled more than $125,000; Rowe, First Century, pp. 114, 128, 137-138, 150, 175-176.
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