Union College - Stespean Yearbook (Barbourville, KY)

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Ed de Rosset

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How The Stespean Got Its Name If you ' re not listening carefully, the first time you hear someone say the name of Union College ' s yearbook, you might well think they ' re talking about the drama department. Stespean sounds suspiciously like thespean — at least the first time you hear it. And if you ' re of a vaguely curious na- ture, you probably wonder, once you figure out that you ' re not talking about the drama depart- ment, where in the world the yearbook came by such an un- usual name. Wonder no more. In 1920, Union College students published their first yearbook, ap- propriately titled the Fledgling. As you know, a Fledgling is a newly born bird. The yearbook received its name with great hopes that it would grow into something, per- haps ' a Cardinal or Mocking Bird, according to a history of the col- lege entitled Union College 1879- 1979. The following year, the 1920-21 yearbook staff was faced with the responsibility of coming up with an appropriate, permanent name for their charge. It was Violet Humfleet, that year ' s associate editor, who hit upon an idea that garnered wide support and, eventually, became the book ' s permanent name — Stespean. The 1920-21 staff realized that its choice of a name for the year- book should pay tribute to those people whose early contributions made Union College possible. At Miss Humfleet ' s suggestion, the staff chose the name Stespean, which is a combination of the first three letters of the two 1920 dorms with an-an suffix thrown in for good measure. In 1920, Ste- phenson was the men ' s dorm and Speed Hall was the women ' s. Just think — if we renamed the annual today, following the 1920 prece- dent, its name could be Pfeste (pronounced fiesty!). So that ' s the scoop on how the book got its name. Early copies of the yearbook are available for viewing in the library, and the 1987 Stespean staff commends those books to you, as well as this one.

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To The Man Without Whom This Enterprise Would Not Be Possible Ed de Rosset Dean of Students Quite literally, the 1987 Ste- spean would not be with us today were it not for the support and assistance giv- en by Dean of Students Ed de Rosset. He helped us solve the problem of what to do about a darkroom that stayed nearly 100 de- grees too warm to keep chemicals good by helping us design and build a new darkroom in cooler quar- ters. He helped us deal with personnel problems by leading cooler heads to prevail. He ' s saved many a layout by having that photo one of us blew or forgot to take. He offered encouragement and a smile when there seemed to be no hope and even less reason to smile. He used wit to diffuse tense situations. He cared and nurtured us throughout the year. We believe this dedication is a fitting tribute to a man who has been here but two short years, yet has made all of us wonder how we ever got along without him.