Marquette University - Hilltop Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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.

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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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As the shadow cast by the smoke from the industrial valley shrouded zip-code-area-53233, a light was created as a memorial to a man. A monolithic structure appeared Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam and was quickly recognized by the masses for what it represented. It was three years ago, while the grounds-keeping crew was tossing dirt on the mire that moats this particular camelephanto-potomean structure that someone decided it was critical to find a sponsor for this daedalean labyrinth. Students came; students went; some passed; and so did time. The answer was so simple, who other than a former president of the school should have his handle on the sculptured white cement edifice? And then with the sudden quickness of providence, the revelation came—the former Modern Language Building became Lalumiere Hall. The Rev. Stanislaus P. Lalumiere, S.J. has always been considered one of this institution's more revered founding fathers. He gave 25 long, laborious years of his life to the development of Marquette University. Fr. Lalumiere bought the land on 10th and State Street, the area now crowded by neon-Schlitz-Pabst-signs, and patronized by Marquette rejects. It wasn’t until 20 years later, after periods of financial adversities, that Marquette College was officially dedicated. As one of the founders of the college, Father Lalumiere became president of the college in 1887. Due to bad health, he was able to retain the position for only a year. Fr. Lalumiere was born in the small, Midwestern town of Vincennes, Indiana in 1822. He attended St. Mary’s College and later practiced law in Illinois and Missouri. Old honest Abe was one of his examiners and signers admitting Father Lalumiere to the bar. We can thank Fr. Lalumiere for the Jesuit influence permeating Marquette, along with his commitments to moral and intellectual excellence. So by way of the former Language Building, Father Lalumiere’s efforts are saluted by one of our finer architectural triumphs.