Valparaiso University - Beacon / Record Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY Valparaiso University was founded September 16, 1873, by Henry Baker Brown, who was president of the institution until his death, September 16, 1917. President Brown was born October 6, 1847, at Mount Vernon, Ohio. At the age of fifteen he began to teach. From his small salary he saved sufficient to continue his education. After a course at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, he entered the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, where he was graduated. Early in his teaching experience the realization came to President Brown that many young people are prevented from attending institutions of higher learning by the great expense and in many instances the impractical courses of study. It became his purpose to establish a school in which work, not wealth, would be the standard and every person would have an opportunity to obtain a thorough and practical education at the least possible expense. To the fulflllrnent of this resolve he gave his energy, his means, his talent, and his life. There was a school building at Valparaiso which had been occupied until 1870 by a Methodist college. Mr. Brown came to Valparaiso in 1873, made arrange- ments to purchase this property, and in September he opened, in what has since been known to generations of students as llThe Old College Building, the North- ern Indiana Normal School with three instructors and thirty-five students. The Northern Indiana Normal School soon- began to express the purpose of its founder. Students gathered in increasing number from near and distant states and from foreign countries, and President Brown called about him an able and devoted corps of instructors. The names of W. A. Yohn, Miss Mantie Baldwin, who is still living, M. E. Bogarte, Miss Lillian Chamberlain tMrs. BogarteL H. N. Carver, and other teachers of this period are held in grateful recollection by hundreds of men and women who sat under their instruction. The duties of management were many and the work heavy, but President Brown carried the burden alone until 1881, when Oliver Perry Kinsey joined him and assumed the duties of Vice-president. Mr. Kinseyls learning and zeal for teaching, his practical sagacity and business acumen, his indefatigable indus- try, his devotion to the ideals of the founder, which were and are his ideals as well, are ineradicable factors in the upbuilding of the institution. Together, these two remarkable men, friends and associates in the work of human better- ment, made the school one of the largest institutions of learning in the United States. The influence of the men and of the institution which they built has radiated to every state and to every country. More than one hundred twenty-five thousand men and women in all parts of the world have derived some of the elements of their success from the educational opportunity given them at Valparaiso. Twenty-eight

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OLIVER PERRY Kl NSEY Prcxt'dcnt Enmritus 'I'wentysweu

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Even in its earlier period the institution outgrew the limits of a normal school. Departments of music and hue art existed from the flrst. Commercial, collegiate, Civil engineering, and law departments were soon added. In 1892 the School of Pharmacy was established. In 1900 the name of the institution was changed to Valparaiso College, and after the addition of other departments the institution was incorporated in 1907 as Valparaiso University. In 1920 the University with all its property was transferred to a self-perpetuating board of trustees as a gift to the cause of educationj The institution is not operated for proht, but in trust for the people. For nearly half a century the characteristic principles of the institution have been those laid down by Henry Baker Brown at its beginning-hard work, 10w cracy, and the combination of cultural educa- cost to the student, complete demo The present management and the tion with deflnite preparation for a vocation. entire faculty are united in the support of these principles and the desire to perpetuate them. In this way the University will remain an enduring monument to the men who made it and an instrument of service to humanity. Twentynin e