Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

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William S. Kent On a University Birthday by Don Webb Fifty years ago a great thing happened, remarks President Bowman to 18-year-old Laird Brown, a freshman journalism major from Twin Lakes. They pause near a large oak tree by a driveway outside the Hub. A man who has devoted his Hfe to training and guiding young people into maturity gazes across a shady green campus filled with oaks and pines. Let ' s imagine it ' s May 19, 1910, he continues. That ' s when Governor Judson Harmon signed a bill passed by the Ohio General assembly to authorize the building of two new teacher training schools in Ohio. It ' s a rainy Tuesday morning the following September, President Bowman tells Laird, and a commission of five men stand alone near the Erie depot in downtown Kent. Damp and wet, they ' re completing a tour, including 14 north- eastern Ohio towns, to pick sites for the state normals. They choose finally a magnificent natural park at Bowling Green, and because of its favorable location and its beauty, they choose a farm donated by William S. Kent, local bank president and publisher of the Kent Courier. Downtown Kent in 1909 is a scene of activity. A slogan calls it the home of hump and hustle. Davey Tree men clear the woods to make way for Kent State Normal School m 1911

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Developing Human Resources The choice of our theme for this, our Semicentennial Year, was not made by me; but I would not know how better to express the philosophy which has guided and inspired me during almost 16 years of service on this campus. I have no doubt that our human resources — people — are our most important and valuable assets and that the future of our country depends on how well we develop these resources in their earlier years. That is the chief responsibility of an institution such as ours. There are many different kinds of activities scheduled in this, our Semicentennial Year. Noted scholars are speaking at convocations and conducting seminars which will enrich and stimulate the intellectual life of the students, faculty and staff. Noted artists in the fields of music and art will bring pleasure and inspiration. During this year a faculty committee has conscientiously selected some of our distinguished alumni for special citation and recognition. I believe that these are the occasions in which I take the greatest pleasure and satisfaction: These times when we honor our sons and daughters who have distinguished themselves in so many different and important professions. There are teachers, scientists, physicians, leaders in many walks of the education professions, including the Christian ministry. For more than a decade and a half, I have watched with affection and deep interest thousands of young men and women who have come and gone from these halls. My interest is in human beings, in the young people whose trained talents and whose development are so important in our society. Size of the institution and the consequent responsibilities have pushed the President farther and farther away from the individual student; and this I continue to regret. If I were asked to describe the change I see in young people, it would be largely in their favor. I have been pleased to observe the almost uniform courtesy and respect the student body has shown me and my office. It seems to me that in the last two or three years, in particular, there has been a renaissance of interest in intellectual achievement and in efforts to solve the many moral and spiritual questions with which youth is increasingly confronted in our complex world. I have been heartened by student interest in the scholastic standards of the University, their concern about cheating in examinations, their interest in eligibility regulations, examinations, and a dozen or more other facets we associate with quality in education. I have said many times in these years that it is men and women who make an institution of this kind effective and efficient. Bricks and mortar, essential as they are, are only necessary adjuncts to the human elements. When I speak of human elements, I am thinking of the faculty and staff which must be strong, able, courageous and working in harmony; I am thinking of the student body; of the governing Board; and of our graduates and the contribution they may make by their continuing interest in their alma mater. Although my tenure as your President is nearing its close, I can assure you that as long as there is life left in me this University and its progress will continue to be the major concern of my life.

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Merrill and Lowry halls are erected in 1912 to become the first buildings at Kent State Normal. Elsewhere, in 1910, another philanthropist is establishing the Carnegie Endowment for Inter- national Peace. Irving Berlin is composing Alexander ' s Ragtime Band. Stoves, electric fans, irons, vacuum cleaners and hair driers are invading the American home. Now workmen up on Kent ' s Normal hill are chopping, digging, sweating. Kent State Normal! Kent State Normal! Finest school in all the West! yells a chorus. Kent State Normal! Kent State Normal! Then a professor of Kent State meets some friends from Bowling Green one evening. You should see how Kent State is rising, he boasts. Yes, I was there only yesterday, replies one of his Bowling Green friends. Ah, says he, you should have seen it this morning! Finally the corner stone of the classroom- administration building (later known as Mer- rill hall) is ready to be laid. It ' s Tuesday, June 18, 1912, and in another year the institution will be in operation. Striding along a worn path to the special flag-bedecked platform is a man of medium height, with keen, deep-sunken eyes and a kindly, strong-lined face; these things make him handsome. He displays a confident charm that makes the people he passes know without being told that this is Dr. John E. Mc- Gilvrey. He was selected by the first Board of Trustees, appointed by Governor Harmon, as the first President. President McGilvrey, age 44, glances at the classroom-administration building under con- struction and then at a partially complete resi- dence hall (later Lowry hall). The buildings must excite him. Each will be two stories in height, with a basement on the ground level. Principles of teaching, history of education and psychology will be taught in the building on McGilvrey ' s right. This building will have 30 rooms for offices, classrooms and laboratories. The largest room will be a chapel-auditorium on the top floor. The building will house all depart- ments and administrative offices, as well as the training school. The dormitory on the Presi- dent ' s left will be constructed in suites of three rooms. Each suite will accommodate four young women with a study and two bedrooms, for a total of 80 persons. A kitchen and accompany- ing dining rooms, capable of serving 250 stu- dents, will be included. McGilvrey mounts the platform, and in a few moments he delivers the principal address. The Normal school, President McGilvrey believes, is not limited by a narrow profes- sional aim. In the classroom and even in the actual work of training the ultimate aim is to broaden and deepen, to quicken and refine the life of its students. It is dripping rain when he concludes his speech, a baptism of the infant school, Mc- Gilvrey says. Then, Frank Merrill, board mem- ber, drives the corner stone into place, not guess- ing the building will one day bear his name. Normal School Subscription. The ulidersigned hereby agrees to pay the sum o ' ' u. ' C s -i ' - ' Dollars to The Kent National Bank Trustee to be used in fuljllling obligations made by The Kent Board of Trade to the State of Ohio in the matter of securing in Kent the location of The North- eastern Ohio Normal School, which amount I agree to pay on or Itefore February 1, 1911. Kent.O., K y 191 ' , ' , ' . - - Local merchants and townspeople pledged sums of money to secure a normal school in Kent.