Morehead State University - Raconteur Yearbook (Morehead, KY)

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it happened! Who is our President? Steve Hamilton, Athlete, Athletics Director Concert workers SociaUServicdReligious organizations More that a Sorority Sister The Whole Story Features 57

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Features 56 Most universities not just ours have a parking problem. Students may find that by ignoring the violation it will go away. See Parking story on pages 64-65. PHOTO BY.- jdf Colquhmm

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Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce . . . The President of the University harles Nelson Crote was inaugurated as president of the University October 30, 1987. nMy number one priority would be to do something to increase both faculty and staff salariesf Pres. Grote said. uWe are falling further and further behind in being competitive. You cant have a first class operation without a first class faculty and stalf. You have to have enough money to attract them, enough money to keep them, and enough money to pay them fairly? Pres. Grote believes a lot of the Universityis facilities need to be upgraded also, like Lappin Hall, which was built in 1 936. Student housing, such as Thompson and Fields Halls, built in 1927, have never been renovated. Pres. Crote also hopes to get money for new equipment. uThe strength of the University is the strength of the peo- plefi said Pres. Grote. 71 think its the most caring environ- ment I,ve ever known. I really do think most ' people here care. They care about each other, they certainly care about the students. It has to be beneficial to the students. Pres. Grote said students should take ad- vantage of the resources here. They are miss- ing something if they do not get involved in activities and events, he said. iiThe University is more than going to classes. You need to think in terms of develop- ing the whole person, the whole individual. We need to develop them socially, intellectu- ally, spiritually, and physically.oThis is a place to make some mistakes, an environment where mistakes are understood. Students just need to roll up their sleeves and become a full part of the University? Pres. Crote is originally from Illinois. He was born in a farmhouse in the middle ofwinter, Ian. 6, 1928. He came unexpectedly and his mother had no idea that she was going to have twins. There was no time for her to get to the nearby town of Oconee. Unfortunately, Pres. Groteis twin sister was born dead. He was the baby of the family with two older sisters and an older brother. Pres. Groteis father was pure German. uThatis important because he had a lot of very traditional German traits and strengths? Charles Edward Grote was undereducated, only having completed the eighth grade. He dropped out of school to help his father on the farm. He later passed his Realtoris Sales exam and sold farm real estate. uHe was a very smart man. live often said he had more common sense than a lot of PhD,s Iive worked with. He could figure in his head faster than I could figure on a piece of paper. Mr. Grote was very well-read on current events, his son said. He read the newspaper and listened to the news every day. Pres. Grote said his mother, Anne Elizabeth Luce, was just the opposite. She had been to a finishing, or boarding, school for girls. There she learned the finer things of life, from social graces to how to ride. She earned her Bachelors degree, but did not complete her Masters She was a very well-educated woman for the pre-World War I era. Luce would teach for a year, twhich could be done with even less than a bachelofs degreel and then go to a university for a year. She earned her way through by teaching. She did all of this before she married Charles Grote. uShe had a photographic memory. She could quote poetry that she had not studied for 30, 40, 50 years. She could just pull it Out of her head. It was perfectly amazing. A lot of times she would tell me, iItis in my old red English book and you,ll find it on the right hand ofthe page about halfway through the book, It was absolutely amazing, she was always right. Pres. Grote went to grade school in a two-story building which held 11 grades. There were two classrooms on each floor and a biology and science lab in the basement. Each classroom held three grades and the entire high school was in one room. Pres. Grote went to Oconee Public School for 10 years, and then went to Pana High School for two years. He graduated in 1945. History, government, industrial arts, and physics were his favorite subjects. II did something unusual, but it was wartime remember. I graduated from high school and about 10 days later I entered college. My strategy was to get as much of my college in as I could before I had to go to the Army. Pres. Grote went to summer school in 1945 and the fall and winter quarters in a university much like our university was at that time. Pres. Grote was notified that he was going to be drafted. In lieu 0fthis notice, he enlisted in February 1946 and served in the Army until July 1 947. While attending this school, he met his fu- ture wife during class registration in the fall of 45. I met Wilma because my roommate just happened to be a classmate of hers from the same town, the same school. In fact he had dated her a few times as a high school student, and he introduced me to her. She wouldnit have a thing to do with me that fall. Itried my best to get a date with her, but she refused? iiShe,d talk to me on the telephone and we,d see each other but I didnit have a single date with her. Then, ironically, when I left to go to the Army that Spring, she dropped out of school and she taught that school year, 1 946-1 947, back at her home school in Illinois? She taught all eight grades in a one-room school house during the year Pres. Grote was in the service. In the fall of 1947, she had earned enough money to return and he had finished his time in the Army. iiWe met again the first week of school and I had a date with her within just a few daysfi Pres. Grote said. On New Years Eve, he proposed to Wilma. They were engaged for one year and six days. The Grotes have two daughters, Jan and Carol, and a son, Mark. One other son, Steve, is deceased. One daughter gradu- ated from Breckinridge High School, the other daughter at- tended for 10 years and the son was born at the hospital in Morehead. iiHeis a true Kentuckian, my daughters are im- ports? Both daughters now live in Seattle, about 30 minutes apart. They each have a daughter and a son. Mark is enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Washington. iiThe university boy lives about five minutes from one of his sisters and he drops in regularly to do his laundry and to raid the cookie j ar and the refrigerator, and to get a good meal. The other sisteris too far away to drop in on, but he goes to see her on weekends so they see a lot of each other? Pres. Groteis two older sisters both reside in Illinois and