60 Years Ago at Babson Institute

Sixty years ago the student newspaper at Babson Institute was called the "Babson Beaver." As it happens this year has the most complete run of newspapers of any year before the Institute became College. In those days there were three terms per academic year and the year started later (mid-September) and end later (early June). I am adding a new issue each Monday and they can be found at the Babson College Archives News. If you are interested in getting the updates as they come out there is a syndication feed avaialble, too.


R. C. (Rip) Rybnikar
Babson College Archives

The Walter H. Carpenter Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Babson College

In 1981 Babson established the Walter H. Carpenter Prize for Exceptional Contributions to Babson College. The prize is an annual award presented to an employee of the College who personifies those qualities which were so characteristic of Walter: a commitment to high standards in professional and personal life; outstanding service to the College over a period of years; and sensitivity and concern for students and colleagues.

Winners:

1982 Frances Dalton

1983 Clinton A . Petersen

1984 Edward H. Sullivan

1985 Norman A. Govoni

1986 Mary C. Keyes

1987 Willian C. Wrenn

1988 Joan Koehler

1989 John A. Saber

1989 Evelyn A. McIntosh

1990 Henry N. Deneault

1991 James J. Tuohy

1992 William L. Casey, Jr.

1993 Susan A. Roskey

1994 Diane Coryell

1994 Robert J. Eng

1995 Annette Robinson

1996 Michael L. Fetters

1997 Mary Rose

1997 Richard Bishop

1998 Jean Collins

1999 Gordon Prichett

2000 Jerry Kanter

2001 Rick Echlov

2002 Frances Nilsson

2003 William Lawler

2004 William Bygrave

2005 Melissa Shaak

2006 No Award

2007 Kathleen Kelly

2008 Allan Cohen

R. C. Rybnikar

Less Well Known Women of Babson College

Less Well Known Women of Babson College

Babson Institute was founded to train men in business. While the earliest instructors were usually colleagues of Mr. Babson, men he knew from his own business experience, not everyone associated with the Institute were men. And while the original intent was to train men for executive roles there were exceptions well before Babson became co-ed. In the following post I hope to acquaint readers with several women who may be unknown to you.

Eleanor Hayward

From its founding in 1919 until 1937 Ms. Hayward held many simultaneous positions at the Institute. Her primary title was as Registrar where she was responsible for the day-to-day academic affairs of Babson Institute. She sat on most campus committees from the academic to the social. She always co-produced Commencement and all of the activities around it. Before the building of the Babson Institute Library (the current Tomasso Hall) she was also the first Institute librarian (for the library housed in a wing of Coleman Hall.) She built the collection and reviewed new acquisitions for the alumni bulletin. If one needed permission to do almost anything on campus, her signature seems to have been the required one. She had more formal education then all but a few of the male faculty and staff (BS, MS, and MBA.) After 18 years at the Institute she left to join the WPA. Unfortunately where she came from and where she ended up are unknown to me. But this “jack-of-all” trades had an impact on the early development of this place. In the absence of documents I have spoken with members of the pre-WWII classes and every man who knew her has stated that she was the person who made sure that things got done.

Teresa Gubellini

I don't know when Ms. Gubellini started at Babson. While her obituary says that she started in 1946 it appears that she may have been one of the workers hired to complete the Great Relief Map formerly housed in Coleman Hall. The map was declared finished on December 30, 1940. The Institute was closed to civilians during WWII and the windows to Coleman Hall painted black while the campus was given over to the U. S. Navy Supply School. When the Institute reopened after the war Teresa was hired (at $0.75 per hour) to give talks and tours of the Map.

Coleman Hall was built to house this map which had a catwalk above which allowed visitors to view the continental US from approximately 700 miles. In 1955 the Babson World Globe was built adjacent to Coleman Hall and these combined exhibits became a destination for thousands of “Baby Boomers” on school trips. Teresa retired from Babson College in 1978 and died shortly thereafter. What makes her special to me is the wonder that because of all of these school groups over the years there must be many, many men and women for whom the name Babson brings to mind an enthusiastic, short, dark haired woman whose talks had even the most recalcitrant children “eating out of her hand.”

BSO “Girls” and others

While it is true that before the 1960s women were not usually welcomed as students at Babson Institute, that doesn’t mean that no woman was allowed to be a student there. In the years before Mrs. Babson founded Webber College for women in Florida, there were several women who attended the Institute in a variety of forms.

Dorothy Boal Brierly 1923

In the 1922-1923 academic year there were three women in attendance. One was Dorothy Boal (Brierley) who had a BA from the Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University.) She completed the years work after paying full price even though she was told that while she could attend but she would not receive the certificate for her work. After leaving the Institute she ran a hotel a few miles from the Babson's winter home. Without explanation she was awarded a certificate in 1932.

Edith Babson Webber Mustard 1923

With the understanding that she stood to inherit a small fortune, Roger and Grace's daughter Edith was given a place in the class of 1923. I understand (but cannot document it) that Edith wanted to study geology at Boston University. In a way not too different from that of many of her male classmates her parents decided that she needed to learn about money and its protection. As if being one of the few female students wasn't enough being the founder's daughter must have had complications of its own. She received her certificate with her class in 1923. Edith married Winslow Webber (Babson 1922) and was involved with the running of Webber College in Florida, among other things. The Archives has an endowment which is a gift from her and her children.

Selma Eversole Henley 1923

In its earliest days the Babson Institute and Babson Statistical Organization were connected at many levels in many ways. Employees of Mr. Babson's business were occasionally allowed to take a term's worth (3 months) of work at the Institute. Several of the early female students were BSO students. Some BSO students had to pay for their coursework while others received scholarships. The third student of the 1922-23 academic year was a woman from Illinois named Selma Eversole. She appears to have been one of the scholarship students. Selma had a Bachelors degree from the University of Illinois (and was a junior Phi Beta Kappa) and a Masters from Simmons College in Boston. She worked at Prescott Street headquarters for about a year before returning to Illinois. In an amazing example of serendipity I have been carrying on a correspondence with her daughter Dr. Mary Henley Rubio, University Professor Emeritus, Department of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph.

Mary Ives Dole 1924

Mary Ives was a BSO student who was from Delphi, Indiana. She seems to have gone to work for the BSO after graduating from Wellesley College. I don't know how long she she worked for the Babson Statistical Organization but she remained in the area working for some time at the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston.

Charlotte Reed Marbut 1924

Ms. Reed was from Denver and graduated from Mount Holyoke College before going to work for the BSO. She was one of the BSO staff who paid for her three months at the Institute ($700 tuition.) She returned to Denver and then moved to Montana where her address was a ranch. She and Ms. Ives get paired together in my mind because their pictures are featured in the 1924 Babsonian. It seems that they were not here together.

Harriet Ellison Rogers 1927

Harriet Ellison was a personal friend of Mr. Babson who asked her to take a class at the Institute. She was from Newton and stayed in the area participating in many civic organizations. In her later years she and her husband moved into the North Hill extended care facility which is on land owned by Babson College. She appears to be the last woman to take courses at Babson Institute until the part-time MBA began in 1961. Babson Institute became co-ed in 1968.

In the earliest years of Babson Institute evaluations included a letter grade and a brief written description of the student's work. The women in this group, for the most part, had written evaluations which were across the board better than their male classmates. Each must have had a story about their time here—and afterwards. It is worth noting that even if the Institute didn't offer them all certificates (and most had college degrees when they arrived) their classmates seem to have considered them classmates. This may not be the place to wonder “What if?” but what if...

Rip
Babson College Archives

Dean of Faculty

Babson College is currently searching for a new Dean of Faculty to replace Professor Fritz Fleischmann who will be stepping down this summer after five years as Dean.

The position of Dean of Faculty was resurrected in 2002 when the position of Provost was created by dividing of the responsibilities of the position of Vice President of Academic Affairs.

In the earliest days of Babson Institute the President was also the Chairman of the Faculty. After 1935 the position of “Dean” was created, one which seems to be responsible for both students and faculty. When the Institute reopened in 1946 until 1953/4 John K. Horner held the title of Dean of Faculty as well as chairing the Finance Division. The Dean of Faculty from 1954 until 1958 was John D. Montgomery who also chaired the Department of Government and Law. After Montgomery left the Institute, Henry A. Kriebel was first Acting Dean and then was Dean of Faculty while also chairing the Accounting Division. He held these positions until being named President of the Institute in 1961. Wallace P. Mors chaired the Finance Division while Dean of Faculty from 1961—1963. In 1963 Walter Carpenter became Dean of Faculty, a position he held until the 1969 reorganization which created the Vice President of Academic Affairs a position he held until illness side-lined him in 1979. Following VPs of Academic Affairs included: Melvyn R. Copen (recruited from off-campus) 1980—1987; Gordon Prichett (Math/Science) 1987—1992; Allan Cohen (Management) 1992-1997; and Michael Fetters (Accounting) 1997—2002.

The position of Provost began in 2002 and was first held by Professor Fetters carrying on from his role as the VP of Academic Affairs. In 2006 Patti Greene (Entrepreneurship) was promoted into the position after being Dean of Undergraduate Programs.

R. C. Rybnikar
Babson College Archives

Grace K. Babson Collection of the Works of Sir Isaac Newton

Greetings,
Sorry to be so far behind in my posting.
During the time that the GKB Collection was at the Burndy Library several of its books and manuscripts were scanned to PDF. Since the library closed and the Collection has been loaned to the Huntington Library I have become the holder of these scans. It has taken more time than I expected to make them available from a Babson server but they are up. They are hosted by the Archives website and can be found from this link. Aside from adding various metadata to the PDFs I also took the opportunity to scan the original printed catalog.
One of a great features for me is that this new capability will allow me to continue scanning Babsonians from 1921 through 1960 and I'll be able to share them on the Archives website. Check back there for updates.

Rip

Happy 88th Birthday Babson

On October 2, 1919 the Babson Institute held its first classes at Roger and Grace Babson's Abbot Road home. Twenty-seven men, mostly related to subscribers of Babson’s Reports, had signed up for “training...to become business executives.” Mr. Babson announced the founding of the Babson Institute in a Special Announcement inserted in the August 5, 1919 issue of his weekly Babson’s Reports. The catalog for our first year shows the high-hopes and ambition visible at the foundation.

Rip

Babson Football Ranked 10th in 1985 Pre-Season Poll.

Christine Drew, a great librarian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), passed along this wonderful gem. It seems that in a 1985 preseason poll published in the Boston Globe Babson was ranked 10th in New England Division III football.

At my institution the freshmen students are required to take a course where they form a business. A great item developed by one of those businesses a few years ago was a football jersey celebrating Babson Football as "undefeated since 1919." That is a big hint to the humor of the story.

Rip
[Originally posted elsewhere November 2005]

Honors Day

May 19[2005] will be the 50th anniversary of the first Honors Day at Babson. In its earliest years Babson Institute had few honors or awards. (The Royal Order of the Goat will be discussed another time.) Babson's earliest academic program, the Certificate in Business Administration, was expected to be completed in one year by a student who had had some college experience. By the early 30s the program was available in a two-year course for men right out of high school. By design the Institute didn't offer many of the usual collegiate activities. This was certainly not your typical college.

After WWII the new three-year Bachelor of Science in Business Administration combined with Babson Institute being selected as a school where veterans could apply their GI Bill benefits caused the size and diversity of the school to change dramatically. Varsity sports and student press were among the earliest post-war developments at Babson Institute. In 1948 Babson began giving the Roger W. Babson Achievement Award. By the early 1950s there were many other awards. From 1955 through 1973 a separate ceremony was developed to recognize these award winners. It allowed the campus community to recognize its own on a day that was for the Institute. The Honors Day was usually about a month before Commencement.

Rip
[Originally posted elsewhere April 2005]

Babson World Globe

Roger W. Babson speaking at the dedication of the Globe on June 18, 1955.

June 18^th is the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the Babson World Globe. The idea for the globe came from Mr. Babson's grandson Roger Webber during his first days as a student here after WWII. Roger Babson (RWB) thought it was a good idea and would complement the large relief map of the United States that was already in place in Coleman Hall on the Babson Institute campus. Initial planning was begun and $40,000 was allocated toward the project. George Izenour was hired as principle designer and ground was broken on May 30, 1953.

The linear scale was 1"=24 miles. The surface is 28' in diameter with an 88' circumference. The total weight is 41 tons.

The carriage and shaft was built by Bethlehem Steel. The shaft was 25' long, 22" diameter and weighed six tons. The combined weight was 16 tons.

The sphere was built by Chicago Bridge & Iron Company. The sphere was made of 28-3/8" steel plates each weighing almost a ton.

Originally the globe and carriage were capable of independent motion.

The skin was designed and created by Bettinger Corporation's husband-wife team of Kal Kubinyi and Doris Hall. The skin was made of approximately 580 16 gauge curved steel plates. The plates were hand-painted with porcelain enamel paint and each fired at least four and as many as nine times. They were then bolted to the sphere and sealed with caulking. The globe was dedicated June 18, 1955. I have attached a photo of RWB speaking at the dedication. The final cost was $200,00.

The original plan called for an amphitheater to protect it and to allow class use of the globe but the contractors convinced RWB that the roof wasn't necessary. By the late 1970s rust began to appear around the edges of the plates. The seals were beginning to fail and the plates were rusting from behind. In 1983 the plates were removed. In 1988 the Trustees voted to take down the globe. The student curator of the Map and Globe museum spread the word and soon there was a "Save the Globe" committee. They were successful.

In 1993 the Delorme Company of Freeport, Maine was hired to design and build a new skin. The "new" globe was dedicated on October 2, 1993. The new skin cost over $225,000. Delorme went on to build their own Globe which I believe is the current largest capable of both rotation and revolution.

Our globe is available to visit during the daylight hours. Feel free to contact me or check the current campus map for directions. You can find the map in the list of links.

Rip

[Originally posted elsewhere June 2005]

Campus Hill Location Dial

The campus has gone through many changes in 80 plus years. The original campus layout had its center where the upper athletic fields are today (where Commencement will take place on May 21st.) In 1926 the Pacific Coast Sales Force for the Babson Statistical Organization (Harrison C. Hall, Harry L. Grubbs, and Anna H. Dart) contributed $300 toward the Location Dial which would mark the center of the campus. George F. Marlowe, the architect who designed most of our early buildings, designed the dial which was built by contractor Edward Pomeroy. The outer ring has compass directions and in small metal letters local landmarks of the day are identified.

Rip
[Originally posted elsewhere May 2005]

The Hospital and Convalescent Home for Children

One of the repeated questions that come my way have to do with the past life of the building we know as Forest Hall. As part of the question there is almost always a comment regarding the existence of either a morgue or an "asylum." I will discuss the first feature in this post and save the latter feature for another day.

In 1874 the directors of the Children's Hospital of Boston founded a Convalescent Home for Children in Weston. The two institutions were officially linked but were funded and operated separately. Early in the 20th century (c.1904) the Convalescent Home for Children was moved to 251 Forest Street. For the purposes of subsidy funding its name was changed to the Hospital and Convalescent Home for Children. My records on this hospital/home are very skimpy. But it seems that by the 1940s the convalescent home was divided into a nursery, a center for children with cerebral palsy, and a respiratory section for children with polio-related problems (called the Mary MacArthur Memorial Respiratory Unit.) It seems that the initial treatments would occur at the Children's Hospital in Boston and recovery would take place out here.

There were several buildings that were part of the home. The main building which we call Forest Hall was the headquarters building for the home. The building we know as the Sullivan Building was used for open air wards for patients. The Annex which currently houses the offices of Babson Public Safety was a 14 room unit. The existing floor plans and appraisal records of these buildings do not designate any room as the "morgue." That said, this home housed children with a deadly disease. Children in this home certainly died. It is hoped that the families were able to recover their children's remains quickly.

The Salk vaccine made polio almost non-existent in the United States. The hospital/home was closed in 1958 due in part to the polio vaccine but also due to the distance to Children's Hospital which made monitoring other patients difficult. Babson Institute purchased the buildings and land in 1959. The main building was renovated for classroom use, renamed Forrest Hall, and opened for use in the fall of 1960.

Rip
[Originally posted elsewhere April 2005]

The Ancient Royal Order of the Goat

Motto: Any Idiot Can Fire a Man.

In my time at Babson only the prospect of a morgue in Forest Hall has generated more questions from undergraduates than the Ancient Royal Order of the Goat. Without Greek letters, Latin mottos, or other chapters, this was Babson’s homegrown “secret society.” According to a note in a 1941 Babson Institute Alumni Bulletin the “Order” was founded before 1926. Dean John E. Millea was the “Most High and Exalted Goat” or “Imperial Goat” whose fertile mind came up with this society. “The privilege of membership in this organization is limited to the desires and whims of the Imperial Goat, thereby making our membership very exclusive.” The newly initiated received a blue and white badge or ribbon. Any more details about the group seemed to have stayed with the members. (I should say here that I would be delighted to speak with any former member of this august group.) It is an odd secret society that identifies its members in the Babsonian and the Babson Institute Alumni Bulletin. But members were not identified every year. Whether there were years when no new person was selected or whether these people simply went unnamed is not clear. Since Millea was involved in the alumni association insertion of new members names into print would have been relatively easy. The order ceased when John Millea was commissioned at the beginning of WWII and he left Babson for the duration of the war. After the war he took a position at Northeastern University.

The questions remain “What was the purpose of this organization” and “What was the criterion for selection.” The earliest reference I have is from the 1927 Babsonian where men are named and an example of why they were selected is offered. One wants to know “if we get a holiday when we don’t go on a factory trip.” Another is selected “for trying to sell Millea a casket.” A third was selected “for insisting that Los Angles has a harbor and a big 600-foot map.” The men at Babson before WWII were slightly older than students here today. Many had been at other schools before coming to Babson Institute. They had a sense of humor about themselves. I believe that the name says it all. These were men who, in some way, got Millea’s “goat.” Through some audacious or silly action or for reasons known only to Dean Millea, men were picked for his particular attention. Whether it was a complete goof or whether it was a way of keeping an eye on those who he felt needed more attention is not known. I have been told that to be selected was an honor, however, the alum who told me this said that he was not chosen for membership. It is known that the last members were selected in 1942.

Many of the questions about the “Goats” suggest an interest in forming a current group. This was a personal project of one man. It was not designed to exist beyond him. To those looking to recreate the “Goat Club” I would ask: Why not form your own “secret society?” I have heard that there have been a couple of groups here in recent years. Care to tell me about them?

One last thing. While researching this group I found a photograph of something called “Skull and Dagger” from 1928. It lists 16 members and is not mentioned again. Who the heck were they?

Rip
[Originally posted elsewhere April 2005]

Founder's Day

Founder's Day was first celebrated November 14, 1947 as a way of honoring Roger W. Babson. It should be noted that until her death in 1956, Roger's wife Grace Knight Babson was included in the ceremony befitting her position as virtual co-founder of the Babson Institute. The Founder's Day activities discussed the development of the Babson Institute as well as Babson's Reports, Utopia College, Webber College, and the Babson Statistical Organization.

After Mr. Babson's death Founder's Day was re-organized as an all-day discussion of the management of a specific industry. Guest speakers came to campus to discuss and debate Television News, Professional Football, and the Automobile Industry, among other things. In 1978 it focused on Entreprenuership and with the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs it became Babson's annual celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit.

Rip
[originally posted elsewhere March 31, 2005]

The Charles D. and Marjorie J. Thompson Visiting Poet

Since 1983 there has been a Thompson Visiting Poet reading on the campus. The Charles D. & Marjorie J. Thompson Visiting Poet was an expression of love and as such the readings come on or near Valentine's Day. The following are the readers with the best current link I could find for them.

1983: Esther Buffler.
1984: David McCord.
1985: Kathleen Spivak.
1986: Martin Robbins.
1987: John Hildebidle.
1988: Jody Aliesan.
1989: William Cohen.
1990: Mary Oliver.
1991: Galway Kinnell.
1992: Marge Piercy.
1993: Martin Espada.
1994: Joy Harjo.
1995: Mark Doty.
1996: Li-Young Lee.
1997: Sonia Sanchez.
1998: Robert Pinsky.
1999: Marie Howe.
2000: Edward Hirsch.
2001: C. K. Williams.
2002: Alicia Suskin Ostriker.
2003: David Ferry.
2004: Ellen Bryant Yoigt.
2005: Paul Muldoon.
2006: Marjorie Agosin.

Rip
[Originally posted elsewhere January 2006]