The Graceland College Book of Knowledge
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The Graceland College Book of Knowledge By David Goehner The Graceland College Book of Knowledge By David Goehner AND CO L DENS FUT U UR L E PR I L C E A G R E G L AM 1895 A ONI, IOW Graceland College 700 College Avenue Lamoni, Iowa copyright stuff To all the educators. ...Especially Mrs. Marion Thies, my sixth grade spelling and English teacher, who told me back at Peshastin-Dryden Junior High School that she wanted to be mentioned in my first book. Cover artwork by David Goehner, computer colorization by Steve Edwards Front cover legend: Higdon Administration Building, Closson Center, RLDS Church seal, Presi- dent Pro Tem Joseph Smith III with President Dave Clinefelter, Graceland cheerleader with Crescents symbol, President George N. Briggs with Graceland Tower, first graduate Frederick M. Smith with The Hilltop Where, 1939-1972 fountain, t.d.f. Club logo, graduate (with a “ring by spring”), Phileon Club logo, Closson House logo, circa 1912 women’s basketball player, Yellowjacket mascot, circa 1995 football player. Back cover legend: Marietta Hall, The Shaw Center, Big G Lake, water tower, Aaron House homecoming sidewalk climbers, Win Inslee, J.C. Bergman with Allover 6 Club symbol, Marietta Walker with Graceland flag, Ramblers, Paloma House symbol, L.E.A.D. logo, Graceland Engineers Club logo, Victory Bell, Audentia House mascot, Nursing seal, Tess Morgan with Acacia, Sherri Kirkpatrick, Velma Ruch with Through The West Door, Athenian Federation of Literary Societies symbol, Roy Cheville, Bill Gould, and Roscoe Faunce. Therefore, verily I say unto you, my friends, Call your solemn assembly, as I have commanded you; and as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning even by study, and also by faith. —Doctrine and Covenants, 85:36a • O remember my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God; yea, and cry unto God for thy support. — Alma 17:68 • But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. — Timothy II, 3:14 Introduction Maybe you’ve only seen Graceland College during a 20-minute stopover while touring Interstate 35. Or maybe you’re one of the people to spend your entire college career as a Grace- lander. Either way, your visit can’t help but to spur some questions about the place. How did the campus develop? Who is this person who shares a name with that building? When did that student organization begin? How did that campus tradition get its start? What changes occurred during the time I wasn’t here? Well, hang on to your blue and gold socks, because you’re about to find out almost everything you ever wanted to know about Graceland College. It’s like freshman orientation all over again. And then some. The Graceland College Book of Knowledge was designed as a commemoration of the college’s centennial, but it actually had its roots way back with the celebration of Graceland’s 50th anniversary. During the 1940-41 school year, a student honor society called the Lambda Delta Sigma Society initiated research on the backgrounds of the myriad of stuff that had become a part of campus life in its first five decades. Completed by librarian Cleo Hanthorne Moon and mimeographed into 14 copies in 1945, the result was an encyclopedia-styled work called Graceland Firsts. Flash forward to the early spring of 1995. I had returned to campus a few months earlier as the editor/writer for College Relations and discovered one of my shelves a pink three-ring binder with “Graceland Firsts” written on an adhesive label. The inside of that plastic binder contained a copy of that half-century-old work that had been retyped by the Alumni Office just a few years earlier. Since 1995 marked Graceland’s centennial, I figured it would be a good idea to update the thing during my spare time, creating a handy in-house reference work for those occasions when questions need to be answered about campus facilities or the college’s background. At the time, I didn’t know that Alumni Programs coordinator Marvel Hansen and College Relations director Mary Kay Kenworthy would suggest a few months later that this would be an ideal project to publish as The Graceland College centennial book. (This necessitated correcting and significantly rewriting the material in Graceland Firsts, even eliminating several entries. For some reason, Cleo had a whole lot of stuff in there about every minor detail about the library.) I also didn’t know that it would take 2 1/2 years to complete, overshooting the actual centennial mark. So now, this project joins a small collection of other published works that have recorded the history of Graceland. Among that group, much acknowledgment is hereby given to Roy Cheville for writing Through The West Door (the definitive, detailed, and never-to-be equalled account of the college’s first 50 years) and to Paul M. Edwards for updating the college’s history to the 75- year mark with The Hilltop Where. Thanks also go to the people who didn’t realize at the time that they were recording history: the student staffs of each Acacia yearbook and the reporters for each volume of The Graceland Tower. Dozens of alumni also helped provide details on previously unpublished portions of the college’s history by responding to questions that were issued in the Graceland Horizons magazine. (There are more gaps to fill, and undoubtedly more corrections to make. If The Tower got it wrong way back when, odds are I repeated the mistake.. Anyone whose memories or scrapbooks can make Graceland’s collected history more complete are officially invited to mail your additions in care of Graceland’s Alumni Office.) Further acknowledgements go to people who were closely involved in helping produce this book. Thanks to the Graceland proofreading team, who reviewed this massive text for accuracy, be it spelling, historical, or a better word (Marvel Hansen, President Emerita Barbara Higdon, Mary Kay Kenworthy, grants coordinator Jeannie McKinney, PPC director Myrna Morris, and the indispensable aide to seven Graceland presidents, Clara Morrell). Thanks to PPC photographer Mike Jaeger, who had to copy so many old photos and shoot a few new ones. Thanks to PPC graphic designer Steve Edwards, who helmed the technical side of the layout work. Thanks to Ron Romig and the folks at the RLDS Church archives for supplying several rare photographs. Thanks to a pair of my student assistants, Anne Williams and Brooke Nelson (both from Arizona — what are the – iv – odds?), who retyped some lists and helped with a bit of the research. Thanks to former music faculty member Ken Cooper for creating sheet music for Graceland Yellowjackets. And, in a more general but probably more significant sense, thanks to the many more people who played a part in shaping my own “Graceland Experience”, both times around. (You all know who you are.) Returning students know that change comes to Graceland College every year. Each fall, the makeup of the student community is reshuffled, new policies debut, and the campus gets accustomed to physical modifications that were made over the summer. A piece of Graceland’s ongo- ing evolution crumbles into the past, and foundations are introduced for the next stage of memories. Graceland students from around the globe unite in the fall of 1951 for a walk down the college’s old main entrance toward town. – v – Throughout all the change, the constant has always been that students and educators gather to learn, associate, and grow. Here, then, is the development behind that learning, association, and growth during the first century of Graceland College. —David Goehner July 1997 Graceland students from around the globe unite with Professor Les Gardner (sixth from left in the 1951 photo) for a walk down the college hill in the spring of 1996. – vi – Contents Graceland College From A To Z ............................................p. 1 Chapter A .........................................................................p. 2 Chapter B .......................................................................p. 24 Chapter C .......................................................................p. 42 Chapter D .......................................................................p. 70 Chapter E ........................................................................p.80 Chapter F ........................................................................p. 92 Chapter G .....................................................................p. 114 Chapter H .....................................................................p. 150 Chapter I .......................................................................p. 172 Chapter J ......................................................................p. 180 Chapter K .....................................................................p. 184 Chapter L ......................................................................p. 192 Chapter M ....................................................................p. 202 Chapter N .....................................................................p. 220 Chapter O .....................................................................p. 230 Chapter P, Q .................................................................p. 238 Chapter R .....................................................................p. 258 Chapter S ......................................................................p.