Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

Page 12 text:

The year was 1952. The location was somewhere in the southeastern part of America’s Dairyland. It had been a year like any other—filled with the exigencies of life that are not often remembered by all those who come after. Everything is exactly as it was then, except for one exception: You are there.” Jamie Olsen is on the scene to cover this historic event in the Midwest’s least progressive city in the country’s most progressive state. She has just sat in on a meeting between the Marquette University plantagenets and the university board of directors. Rumor has it that this meeting was held to discuss the possibility of coeducational housing. Jamie, are you there? Yes. Can you fill us in on the details of the meeting? No. Can you tell us anything about what happened in the board room,? No. Why not? I was sworn to secrecy. Well, ah, thank you Jamie. Somewhere in the archival-minds that fill Johnston Hall a secret has been kept for the past 20 years. O’Donnell Hall had originally been planned as a coed dormitory for the Marquette community. It seems almost inconceivable, in this present age of permissiveness, that in the daze of Joe McCarthy such an idea could even be contemplated. But, perhaps this explains O’Donnell Hall's remote location on 18th street. Very few people know who the man behind the building is. Father Edward J. O'Donnell, SJ. was named chancellor of Marquette in 1962 after serving thirteen years as president of Marquette. He was then the youngest president the university ever had. Both town and gown had cause to rejoice when Father O’Donnell was called home from sunny tropical weather of the British Honduras in 1948, to become president of Marquette in blistering cold Milwaukee. This priest, who had taken a vow of personal poverty was needed to direct a multi-million-dollar university expansion program in the heart of Milwaukee. The work of Father O’Donnell can be seen in the concrete, steel, brick, mortar and marble which we call Marquette. It was during Father O’Donnell regime that the mismatched modern-structures and the renovated apartment building and hotels, were planned as the “new Marquette.” In November 1960, he announced the ‘‘Marquette Plan. Unlike Phase II, people immediately understood its merits. The plan called for a broad $45 million development and expansion program which included new buildings, land acquisitions, faculty salary increases, student aids and research. Whenever there’s trouble brewing in the air you can bet your combat booties that O’D girls are sure to be there. If there's a heavy happening on campus look around and spot the O’D coeds. These O’D girls have formed their own female review handled with the reputation of being wildspirits. But the man behind the name they carry is still somewhere in Milwaukee continuing to champion his energies to the university’s unending fight for peace, justice, money and the American way. 8

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Did you know that Tower is the only dormitory in the nation which has Murphy beds? Or that Mrs. Palmer’s swinging placement office in Tower's basement was once a swinging bar? Or that the Catholic Knights Insurance Company sold it to MU in '52 because it needed a bigger place? Or that one could draw the conclusion that, if history is true to its reputation, future MU-ers will be enjoying the swimming pool of the present Knights Tower building? 7

Page 13 text:

 Marquette's newest and largest residence hall for women, the former LaSalle hotel now being remodeled at 729 N. 11th St., will be named in the honor of the late Charles T. Cobeen, an alumnus and longtime student union and business manager of the university, who died about a year ago. So began a Marquette press release dated 12 December 1964. Cobeen Hall, the largest, most luxurious women’s dorm, was once a hotel with quite a reputation. As a local policeman reminisced, Yeah, that was the place to stay—the old LaSalle Hotel. The show biz people who came to Milwaukee refused to stay at any other place. We were always getting calls to go there .. . pretty wild times . .. yep.” Purchased in 1965, Cobeen Hall is named after Charles T. Cobeen, an alumnus who worked for 43 years as a business and union manager for Marquette. Of course, most residents don't have the slightest idea of who he was, and in the past few years, the dorm council has sponsored a tea to honor his widow and hopefully enlighten the residents. But teas are no longer fun, and Mrs. Cobeen hasn’t been able to make it to the last couple anyway. Mr. Cobeen retired in September of 1963 after being named alumnus of the year by the college of Business Administration. He died shortly afterward of cancer in Clearwater, Florida on December 10, 1963. His being given the Pere Marquette award was the first time the honor ever went to a member of the university staff.