University of California Berkeley All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between the Regents of the Univer sity of California and Ella Barrows Hagar, dated 8 November 1973. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, and should include identifica tion of the specific passages to be quoted, antici pated use of the passages, and identification of the user. The legal agreement with Ella Barrows Hagar requires that he be notified of the request and allowed thirty days in which to respond. The Bancroft Library University of California/Berkeley Regional Oral History Office Ella Barrows Hagar CONTINUING MEMOIRS: FAMILY, COMMUNITY, UNIVERSITY An Interview Conducted by Suzanne B. Riess No. ~< Copy _ the of California fc) 1974 by The Regents of University TABLE OF CONTENTS-- Ella Barrows Hagar INTRODUCTION by Marian Sproul Good in i INTERVIEW HISTORY by Suzanne Riess v I THE PHILIPPINES [Interview 1] 1 First Memories 1 Baguio. 1902 4 A Trip on Horseback to Northern Luzon 7 Education and Home Life 11 The Homestead in Pomona 11 Books 13 Six Months in Zamboanga 15 Domestic Arts 17 Growing Up 18 The Mango Tree 18 Nan and Ella 19 Fashion, Food 20 Recollections of Tom 22 Mother and Father Together 22 Separations 23 Pomona College and After 25 Health [Interview 2] 28 "He Would Have Stayed" 29 Friends in the Islands 30 II YOUTH IN BERKELEY 33 A New Life. Regent Street 33 ^ C Transportation Religion Dr. Barrows and Education Mills College and Susan Mills 40 Visits to the College 41 Dr. Barrows' Trusteeship 42 44 Happy Family Memories Shopping 4b Holidays Music Lessons 49 McKinley Schooldays "Our Crowd" 50 Sunday Suppers in the College Avenue Home 53 55 III UNIVERSITY YEARS, 1915 to 1919 [Interview 3] Ella's Studies and Professors Wartime 59 59 Decisions of 1915, 1916 Commission for Relief to Belgium 60 . O Preparedness Camp Presidio Officers Training Camp College Work and Campus Activities 65 Research for Housing Commission Jessica Peixotto and Lucy Stebbins College Activities Philippine Summer. 1918 71 Officers and Girls Work in Siberia '_< Intelligence 74 Pacific Coast Committee on American Principles and Fair Play Ella Takes on Leadership on Campus 76 National Service Work 76 Sororities and Prominent Women [Interview 4] 79 War. Influenza, and Idealism 84 Publications, Pageants, and Some Berkeley Figures 87 Sam Hume 90 The Boyntons The Gregorys, and Bill Wurster 92 Trials of President Barrows Faculty Revolution, 1919 93 Rally in Support Regents, and Expanding Campuses 97 IV LIVING IN THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE 99 In Sacramento with Weinstock-Lubin 99 Staff and Running of the President's House [Interview 5] 103 Family Friends 108 Cultivating Friends of the University The Piedmont Trail Club, the Bowleses 109 Events 111 Charter Day Speakers: Sir Auckland Geddes Wheeler Hall Plays A Prytanean Fete The Barrows Children H6 Nan Barrows Stewart Thomas Nichols Barrows Elizabeth Barrows Adams Culture Writers of the 20s The John Galen Howard Family [Interview 6] Music and Poetry 128 Other Presidents 130 The Benjamin Ide Wheelers 130 Ida and Bob Sproul 132 Campus Benefactors 134 Memories of Albert Bender, Edward Hohfeld; the Morrisson Fund 134 The Pardee Family 136 Phoebe Apperson Hearst 139 Jane Sather 141 The Sierra Club, and other Clubs of President Barrows 143 V MARRIAGE: GERALD HAGAR [Interview 7] 146 Meeting Jerry, and the Hagar Family 146 A Trip Abroad 148 Traveling with Laurinne, and Dr. and Mrs. Barrows 148 Life with the deFabritiis 153 Marriage. November 1924. and a House 156 Sierra Trips 157 Roughing It 157 With the McDuffies 159 1936, Dorrington 162 The Maids; The Depression 163 Gerald Hagar. Pro Bono Publico. and Family 164 The Crime Commission 167 Loyalty Oath 169 VI COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: YWCA [Interview 8] 173 The Tradition of the YWCA as Forum and Catalyst 174 The Changing Board 178 Counselling 183 The "Training in Leadership" Days 184 Students, and Formation of Association Policy 186 The Difficulties of Riding with the Tide 188 Fund-raising Over the Years 192 Old and New Buildings 194 VII WARTIME [Interview 9] 197 Mr. and Mrs. Duncan McDuffie 197 Red Cross Camp and Hospital Corps, and Canteen 199 Red Cross Arts and Skills Service 203 The John Roosevelts Next Door 206 War Debate 207 The U.N. Meets in San Francisco; Entertainments and Optimism 208 General Barrows' Broadcasts 212 VIII FAMILY LIFE [Interview 10] 213 Children's Education 213 Julie Hagar. in Paris 215 Mary Hagar. Project PIC 216 Travels with Jerry 219 Family Focus and Traditions 221 223 Neighborhood : The Claremont Book Club IX THE UNIVERSITY, RECENT YEARS [Interview 11] 226 The Regents in the Fifties 226 Locating the Santa Cruz Campus 229 The Wives of the Regents 232 State Occasions 234 LL.D. Awarded to Gerald Hagar 238 International House 239 U.C. Dames Club 241 ' . ( . Centennial Fund Management Committee < 242 Alumni Support and Recognition 246 Robert Gordon Sproul Associates 247 Berkeley Fellows 248 California Alumni Foundation 250 Berkeley Citation 251 Finding a Role on Boards 252 DEDICATION AND CONCLUSION 257 GENEALOGY 259 INDEX 261 INTRODUCTION by Marian Sproul Good in I must have known Ella Hagar since my childhood. But I have no memory of it. I do remember that "the Barrows girls" (undifferentiated) were held forth as a promise that living in the President's House was not the unrelieved disaster that it first appeared to be to my 13-year-old eyes. The Barrows girls were the only young girls who had preceded me there and in my mother's glowing stories they became larger than life- golden girls who moved gaily from triumph to triumph, at ease and delighting in all manner of company and occasions. And though I had no reason to doubt that life for such fairytale creatures was, even amidst such awesome surroundings, a constant joy, it just did not seem much help to me. Such is my first picture of Ella, a second-hand one, but beneath its school-girl excesses it has, I believe, a base of truth. The next frame is observed first-hand and is entirely different. Ella was on the Board of the University YWCA when, as a college girl, I had a half-hearted connection with it. But most students have little contact with board members, and the less-than-fully committed none at all. Nonetheless, when the time came in 1957 to raise the money for the new building, even the half-hearted were rounded up, and so I attended that first organizational meeting chaired by Ella. I came to that meeting because I liked Ella very much and because it it was obviously a job that had to be done. I think that most of the others had very similar motivations. Not Ella. She couldn't believe, she said (I am paraphrasing, not quoting, but the impression is exact), that she could be so lucky, and we were lucky too. Just by fortunate chance we were there at the right time. She said we were going to all work together, and build a beautiful new home for our beloved YWCA. We were going to raise $2 00, 000 --much more, very likely- -and we were going to have the time of our lives doing it. The way this was put left no doubt it was for Ella the simple truth, and even the reluctant skeptics were caught up in her enthusiasm, this despite the fact that no one beforehand had thought in the heady terms of $200,000. In any event, I did enjoy it, and we did raise more than $200,000. ii I would like to place next to this, for the purposes of showing a continuity, the incident of the National Service Committee that Ella recollects in the interviews. This took place in her college years, but her reactions to accepting its challenge are strikingly similar: "...and this other committee was the most thrilling and exciting thing I could possibly do... It was a real war job and especially appealing because of that. They formed a new committee called the National Service Committee and it was money-raising--that 's where money-raising got into my blood... Everyone took pledge cards and we went over the top in one day. You can't imagine how together we all were... But it was a marvellous experience, if you can imagine, a campuswide fund drive in which everyone was involved." Clearly, money-raising, not undertaken as a necessary but distasteful chore but embraced joyously as a life-enhancing opportunity, is an integral part of the person Ella is. In my experience this trait is unique, and the components of personality that bring it into being, and the talents that foster its execution provide for me a key to the nature of Ella's life and an understanding of her contribution to the community. It is obvious that Ella could sell anything, even voile dresses to little Japanese women as she describes in her debut at Weinstock-Lubin. But in the campaigns which she highlights in her story, her enthusiasm is fueled by the chance of serving, always a deeply-felt need to her, and by her love for the people who make up the institution served and with whom she will work.