Stephens College - Stephensophia Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

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A we A f A. A ,.,....--. v1f,,,s,,gf.1. . rl Thi., ,,. i iff, up ff, mg, A fi, 4, L1 I, g5,i,,,fW,M A N ' li JAMES MADISON WOOD Behind any rapid growth or unusual progress, there must be a momentum either from circumstances or from personality. In the case of Stephens College, the vital force has been from one man, Presidentilames Madison Wood. James Madison Wood was born in Hartville, Mo., in 1875. He received his early education in local schools and upon finishing his high school course attended the State Normal School at Warrensburg, Mo. Later he studied in Missouri Uni- versity, receiving the degrees B. A. and B. S. in Ed. He took his Master's degree at Columbia University. In 1912 he came to Stephens College as president. The school at that time consisted of the three central buildings, Main Hall, the audi- torium and the conservatory, and numbered about 50 pupils. The history of Stephens College in the next ten years presents the story not only of the phenomenal growth of a tiny school to one of the largest women's col- leges in the country, but also miarks the beginning of a new type of education for women in the United States. President Wood has made Stephens College what it is today, almost as literally as though he had taken a handful of dustand fashioned from it a type of education and the school wherein to develop it. In the ten years that he has been here the enrollment has increased to 550. He has built VVood, Columbia and South dormitories and Science Hall, and purchasedthe library and the Price estate. The swimming pool and dining room have been added to the old buildings, they have also been completely refurnished. The faculty has increased ten times in number, and their salaries have been increased five-fold. Mr. Wood has established the Department of Research, which is contributing so much to the solution of national educational problems, and secured as director of this department Dr. VV. VV. Charters of the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After a long search he has brought Miss Jessie Allen Burrall to lead the religious life of Stephens College as he wished it to bei carried out, from the standpoint of broad minded practical Christianity for young women. . The reasons for the fulfillment of his ideals are found entirely within his per- sonality. T en years ago he set up for himself the ideal. With remarkable foresight and clearness of vision he has built steadily towards the goal. Nor is the Stephens of today only the ideal he set up when he first began. It is rather the school he would have visualized could he have seen the trend that education was to take. President 'Wood is an original thinker in problems of education. He has taken the first two years of a woman's college life, and made from it a type of education not to be found in a university nor a four year women's college. As president of the American Association of Junior Colleges, heis able to give the results of his work and experiences in Stephens to similar institutions throughout the country. All who have come in contact with Mr. Wood, either as a student, faculty member, edu- cator or merely as an acquaintance, realize that his success is due to his enthusiasm, which he- imparts to everyone with whom he works, his kindliness, his ability to read and understand human nature, his clear vision, and above all to the fact that he is first and always a true friend. Page 21 --- f- M' ' A '-W-W-vw--fqgg-gggzarevgzg-.5-WY'-----A -f f' - -- --- -, v....,...--. .:,..-,,,v. , ,,,,,,m- ,. .-............ .M A ..r..,-...-......,,a... ,.,,......,.,, . .,, ..r..., - ..,-.-,g1.:'r: .z:'::-..--'--r.'.....M :'p. '1.:z':'. ..al. .f,qg-5913:--uuzn, L. ,.

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