Lambuth College - Lantern Yearbook (Jackson, TN)

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The Growth Of A College (Continued) interviewed faculty members, board members, and students of its own se- lection. Finally, at a meeting at 450 Roland this committee announced that it was impressed with what it had seen. In fact, one committee member stated, Such progress has been made that you ought to be shouting and singing. Lambuth College was accre- dited a year sooner than expected. Once, Dr. Gobbel ' s efforts to gel money for Lambuth quite literally sent him to the dogs. When asked about this accusation Dr. Gobbel re- plied, I went to the dogs with the Reverend F.A. Flatt. The Reverend Flatt had heard that Mr. Carl Duffield, a wealthy Texan, planned to enter his dogs in the field trials at Ames Planta- tion. Since gentlemen are naturally in- terested in the hunt, the Reverend Flatt and Dr. Gobbel decided to join the chase. They went to the field trial, rented horses and rode just as close as possible to Mr. Duffield. Dr. Gobbel and Mr. Duffield became friends. Vis- its and dinner engagements were ex- changed. Mr. Duffield was driven by Lambuth College and was shown the plans to increase the seating capacity of the M emorial Chapel. Mr. Duffield

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utable in Dr. Gobbel ' s words to team work and hard work. The team con- sisted of several groups. A fund-rais- ing organization, headed by Ward, Dreshmon, and Rinehart, was con- tacted before Dr. Gobbel ' s arrival to lead the Memphis Conference in its money-making campaign. On Febru- ary 2, 1953, the program of this orga- nization was unanimously adopted by the Memphis Annual Conference. From that point on other groups and individuals joined the team efforts to raise money for Lambuth College. Each district and each church had a quota. With hard work and dedica- tion, the leaders and members of indi- vidual congregations raised the mon- ey between February 2 and April 14, 1953. When Dr. Gobbel presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies for Sprague Hall that year, it was raining and Dr. Gobbel had influenza, but the ground was broken. Construction was begun. By January, 1954, the Hubert M. Owens Construction Company had completed Sprague Hall, the greatly needed dormitory for women. The completion of this dormitory was the beginning of the miraculous transformation of Lambuth College. The Miracle of Lambuth cannot be fully depicted without mentioning its accreditation by the Southern As- sociation of Colleges and Secondary Schools. In the minds of many, the only requirement that Lambuth did not meet was a financial one. This idea, however, was not true. There were other requirements that had not been met. Dr. Gobbel had the difficult task of convincing the board that in addition to an endowment of $300,000, the college also needed to increase its faculty and to renovate buildings and dormitories. The appli- cation for accreditation was submit- ted; a self-study was conducted; and a committee appointed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secon- dary Schools came to Lambuth. The committee observed the campus and

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liked Lambuth, and he promised to contribute to its endowment — later. One evening Dr. Gobbel called Mr. Duffield and asked once more for a contribution to Lambuth. Dr. Gob- bel ' s last words on the telephone that evening were, Remember the uncer- tainty of life and the certainty of death in Texas. Not long after that conver- sation Dr. Gobbel received a call from Mr. Duffield ' s daughter. Mr. Duffield had taken his dogs to a field trial in Canada and on his way home had died of a heart attack. In his will he had left Lambuth $10,000. This gift, Dr. Gob- bel felt, was only the beginning of what Mr. Duffield might have done for Lambuth College had he lived. Not only did Dr. Gobbel go to the dogs for Lambuth College, but also was he humorously accused of matric- ulating dead beats to increase its en- rollment. This accusation was made because the students needed an athle- tic field. In order to procure from a The campus as it looks today: FAR LEFT TOP - The Luther L. Gobbel Library. LEFT - Jones Hall. TOP LEFT — Sprague Hall for women. TOP RIGHT — Shannon Wilder studies in the Common Room of the College Union. RIGHT — The Memorial Chapel, located at the heart of the campus. A