A History of the Site, Founding, and Progress of Brookdale Community College

A History of the Site, Founding, and Progress of Brookdale Community College The Northern Monmouth County Branch of the American Association of University Women Published by Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, N.J. Copyright ©1978 and 2005, by Brookdale Community College All Rights Reserved A T RI A NGLE OF L A ND CONTENTS 3 Introduction to the Updated Edition....................................................................................... 7 College Mission Statement....................................................................................................... 8 Foreword................................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 11 The AAUW Committee.......................................................................................................... 12 Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................... 13 Part I, Section I: Beginnings.................................................................................................... 15 Part I, Section II: The Birth of Brookdale Farm...................................................................... 22 Part II, Section I: The Thompson Era..................................................................................... 26 Part II, Section II: The Great Lady of Brookdale..................................................................... 42 Part III, Section I: The Founding............................................................................................ 62 Part III, Section II: The Impossible Dream....................................................................................... 81 Part IV, Section I: Brookdale in the 1970’s and 1980’s........................................................... 108 Part IV, Section II: The 90’s and Beyond............................................................................... 112 Appendices.............................................................................................................................. 117 Reference Notes...................................................................................................................... 124 Bibliography............................................................................................................................ 138 A T RI A NGLE OF L A ND INTRODUCTION TO THE UPDATED EDITION 5 In 1978, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of Brookdale Community College, the Northern Monmouth County Branch of The American Association of University Women presented the College and the County with the first edition of A Triangle of Land – A History of the Site and the Founding of Brookdale Community College. Almost three more decades have passed since its publication; Brookdale is nearing the 40-year mark. At this juncture, with Brookdale entering true maturity, it is appropriate to take another look and bring the history of the College into the 21st century. It can honestly be said that the “Impossible Dream” of the early years has been met and surpassed, time and time again. New dreams, new possibilities, a continuum of growth and expansion. We at the College know that the stellar work of the more than 40 volunteers who labored on the original volume should and must be continued. Therefore, to mark the coming 40th anniversary, Brookdale presents to you a new A Triangle of Land. It contains every word of the first edition, plus information which recounts the excitement of the activities since those early days. In looking at the original’s introduction and foreword, some of these changes are evident – no more typewriters, no more “slightly musty back stacks of The College Library.” But the words of Joan Grantges, who coordinated the original publication, are still at the heart of the College’s mission – “the community coming together to do something for the community.” Our mission statement, presented in its entirety on the following page, reflects our respect for the past, our dedication to the present, and our aspirations for the future. It is proof that Brookdale, no longer the new kid on the block, remains at the heart of the Monmouth County community, still student-centered, still changing lives, one by one. MARY CHRISTIAN CLARK Marketing Services Brookdale Community College A T RI A NGLE OF L A ND 6 MISSION: Brookdale Community College is a comprehensive, public community college providing affordable, open access for all individuals to a wide variety of high-quality Associate degree and Certificate programs, and coursework for both transfer and vocational entry opportunities. The College also provides personal and economic growth through life-long learning, personal enrich- ment, and business and community development activities, in both credit and noncredit formats, at a wide variety of locations. Through partnerships with other educational providers, Brookdale affords expanded access to post-As- sociate degree learning at the baccalaureate and graduate levels, through joint admission and detailed course and program articulation. As a learning-centered environment, characterized by teaching excellence, Brookdale provides assess- ment of student academic capabilities and offers basic skills development with access to a wide range of appropriate student and academic support systems, enabling the individual to have the full opportunity to succeed in postsecondary learning environments. Brookdale Community College is committed to opportunity with excellence, opportunity with acces- sibility, and opportunity with appropriate support, to enable success. A T RI A NGLE OF L A ND FOREWORD 7 If you accept 1968 as “the beginning,” Brookdale Community College is ten years old this year. Being ten years old is not in itself much of an achievement…at least for a college. The ten tiny candles on Brookdale’s cake flicker dimly indeed in the deep, ivy-hung shadows of our nation’s older hallowed halls of learning. Still, Brookdale has just cause to mark the occasion. Brookdale celebrates not the achievement of the great age of ten. Brookdale celebrates the dynamic new dimension the college has given to life in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in ten short, fast years. Brookdale celebrates the fruition of the idea of a few forward-thinking citizens to provide for all citizens a diversity and excellence of educational opportunity worthy of national recognition. Brookdale is unique…a product of its community and, to a considerable degree, of its environment. The geographic and historic characteristics of Monmouth County, the 100-year-old barns in which the first students started, the rural beauty of Brookdale Farm, the memory of the strong-minded and public- spirited Geraldine Thompson, even the Derby-winning filly named “Regret” who was bred and trained here…all have influenced the nature of Brookdale Community College. Since ten years is such a short time in itself, and since some of the things that make Brookdale what it is go back ten times ten years and more…what better way to mark our tenth birthday than to publish a history of the “triangle of land” on which we stand today and of the people who lived on it and loved it before us? In July, 1976, we enlisted the aid of the Northern Monmouth County Branch of the American Association of University Women…an organization that had played a key role in the establishment of the college and has maintained a significant volunteer relationship with Brookdale in numerous activities. We asked if they would research and write a history of Brookdale from early colonial times through the establishment of the college. Typical of AAUW, they tackled the project with the greatest enthusiasm and skill…and the end result is in your hands. But it didn’t get there easily! Hundreds of pages of notes were accumulated in researching archives and libraries. Fifty people related to the college and to the farm were interviewed and transcribed tapes ran to 1500 typewritten pages. In the fifteen months from inception of actual work to final edited manuscript, more than forty volunteers put in 3100 hours of work, not counting typing time. We can never adequately thank either the women of AAUW or the people of the community who gave their time so freely for the interviews. We can only hope that they will hear spontaneously from appreciative readers and thereby enjoy some small part of the recognition they deserve. PHILIP C. CARLING Executive Director, Public Affairs Brookdale Community College A T RI A NGLE OF L A ND 8 A T RI A NGLE OF L A ND INTRODUCTION 9 For Brookdale Community College, the community is at the center of things. It has been that way since before the beginning. It was community groups, led by the Northern Monmouth Branch of the American Association of University Women, which first held aloft the ideal of an independent institution to serve the community’s diversity. That ideal became a community cause and the cause became a community’s college. For the tenth anniversary of that college, a look backward seemed appropriate, but what form should it take? The usual college history seeks to assure the old boys (and sometimes the girls) that all is as it was then, while simultaneously regaling prospective students with the modernity of it all. Such a history usually reposes in the slightly musty back stacks of

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