Northeastern University - Cauldron Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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HE ORIGINS 1898-1973 N 1989, WHAT WAS TO BECOME [Northeastern University was embodied in a series of night courses in law sponsored by the Boston Young Men ' s Christian Associa- tion, and Lowell Institute; and in the person of Frank Palmer Speare. Head of the YMCA ' s education division since 1896, it was Speare whose imagination, per- serverance, and work enlarged the scope of course offer- ings and directed the organizational development which culminated in the incorporation of Northeastern College in 1916. With his major objective being the promotion of edu- cational opportunities for young men, in his capacity at the YMCA and later as Northeastern ' s first president, Speare led the educational institution through years of growth and experimentation in an effort to offer unique and beneficial opportunities for the development of the community. Northeastern is not an old institution. Some of the men who have devoted their lives to helping the university get off the ground are still alive. The university is not a dust- encrusted hand-me-down from a bygone era. Instead it represents the attempts and failures, the strengths and weaknesses which result in any effort conceived and nur- tured by a group of men. Some of the university ' s pro- grams have eventually proven to be weak and have died. But the ideas of men sometimes require many tests and much use before they can be recognized as either suc- cessful or unsuccessful. Many of the things the university now does may prove in time to have been based on faulty reasoning. Then improvements will follow. No one is om- niscient and able to institute a program secure in the knowledge that it will succeed and continue to be rele- vant forever. In spite of occasional failures in specific situations, the basic philosophy and structure of the in- stitution as established by Speare seems to be a stable one. The university ' s three presidents have carried the in- stitution through different phases: Speare ' s era was one of experimentation and formulation; Ell ' s administration was one of personal rule, in spite of rapid growth of the campus and the ever-increasing student body; Knowles ' administration has had to respond to the monumental growth and pressure exerted by the sixties, with more students than ever, and with the impending Diamond An- niversary closing in on a cramped, suddenly inadequate campus. The philosophy of Northeastern has always been to of- fer unique educational opportunities without overly du- plicating the efforts of other local institutions. In 1898, the Evening Law School was started, which in 1904 was in- corporated with degree privileges. The Law School was on of the mainstays of the developing university for 55 years. The first formal program of the university, it of- fered working men the chance to study law at night. In

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Table of Contents The Origins, 1898-1973 8 1998 NEWS 72 The President ' s Message to Seniors 74 TAR 76 Student Activities 82 Distinguished Speaker Series 98 Silver Masque 103 Varsity Sports 112 The Seniors Liberal Arts 142 Engineering 173 Business Administration 209 Education 230 Boston Bouve 241 Pharmacy 248 Nursing 251 Criminal Justice 259 The Administration Student Affairs 263 University Administration 264 The Trustees 266 The Faculty 268 Index of Seniors 278

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:v ' i l ' J48 ' i sm - THE HOME OF NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE 1953, the Law School was phased out for 17 years because it seemed to duplicate unnecessarily the efforts of many local law schools which had been established during the first half of the twentieth century. This philosophy of unique opportunities without du- plication of effort sprang from the fact that the Evening Institute course offerings were entirely dependent on community interest for their success or failure. To be- come just one more in a large number of institutes offer- ing duplicate programs would have spread the public too thin. The Evening Institute thus offered unique opportu- nities, thereby procuring the entire segment of the com- munity interested in its particular programs. The favor- able response to the Law courses offered in 1897, encouraged the YMCA directors to approve Speare ' s plans for more advanced law courses to be offered begin- ning in 1898. This more formal program was to become the first school of Northeastern, and thus its inauguration is considered the birth of the university. With Speare ' s perseverance and initiative, the Evening Institute grew from an eraser and two sticks of chalk into a viable organization. Early success was achieved through the teamwork of its organizers and the enthusi- asm of its students. In the early years of the Evening In- stitute, Speare inaugurated many courses, some of which populated, others of which died for lack of interest. The unsuccessful course is exemplified by one called Knots and Splices which Speare initiated simply because he knew a retired sea captain available to teach it and be- cause he thought it would be useful and intriguing. No one shared his interest enough to enroll, and the course was never taught. The process of experimental offerings and the resulting expansion of the courses was carried on in a very infor- mal and spontaneous fashion in the early years of the Evening Institute. As the twentieth century began to as- sert itself in the fields of automobiles, business adminis- tration, and engi neering technology, programs became more formalized, giving the Institute substance enough to become a chartered college by 1916. In 1903, the YMCA ' s Education Division opened the world ' s first Automobile School, offering three courses: a general coarse in motor transport; a course for those in- terested in the industry of automobiles; and a course in maintenance. In many ways, the Automobile School is in- dicative of future Northeastern philosophies. The estab- lishment of the school reflected a community need: that of absorbing the new phenomenon of the automobile into existing social patterns. The school offered garage work, carried on in the Vocational Building (now known as the Botolph Building), which placed a value on practical ex- perience later reflected in the philosophy of Co-operative Education. Some of the automotive courses were opened to women, thus setting a precedent for the later adoption of co-education.