H A R C U M COLLEGE A CENTENNIAL HISTORY H A R C U M COLLEGE A CENTENNIAL HISTORY

By Anders R. Back TABLE OF CONTENTS

6 Foreword by Harcum President Jon Jay DeTemple, PhD 7 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 14 Beginnings 30 The Klein Years

Unless otherwise noted, all images used in this publication are courtesy of Harcum College’s archives or were taken by 44 The 1970s and Beyond Harcum staff, faculty, and others under agreement with the college. 76 The Future 78 Endnotes 78 Bibliography Copyright © 2016 by Harcum College 79 Index All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review. For information, please write:

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ISBN: 978-1-68184-067-3 Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress

Printed in the of America at Walsworth FOREWORD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Harcum College was in the midst of what Harcum’s first century and the In reflecting on Harcum’s history in My thanks to Harcum College’s Fred Anderson, executive director contemporary technology mocks such I called the most celebratory anniversary in achievements of its founders, Harcum 1945, Edith Harcum wrote: Board of Trustees and President Jon of the Baptist Historical Society, measurements. When Harcum College its history when we paused to consider how was hard at work preparing for its Like the rest of the world, Jay DeTemple for their support and is probably the only living expert on Dr. opened in 1915, the largest employers Harcum arrived where it is today. second century by completing our latest Harcum has had its ups and downs, encouragement of Harcum’s Centennial William Hatcher, Edith Hatcher Harcum’s in the region made ships, In our Centennial year of 2015, we accreditation with the Middle States but the fact that for thirty years in 2015, which led to the research and father. In fact, Fred literally embodies locomotives, and textiles, the telephone took time among lectures, art shows, Commission on Higher Education. the educational aspirations of its production of this book. him on occasion, having closely studied was just being introduced widely, and Acts of Service, and sports championship We are currently expanding and beginning have endured and that In particular, thanks to board his writings and assumed Dr. Hatcher’s commercial radio broadcasting was five games to pay tribute in speeches and in revising existing academic programs other fine colleges have since been built members Louise Strauss and Alexander persona to recreate his famous sermons years away. Teaching was done with print to our founders, Edith Hatcher and planning new programs. New sites on this same idea, should encourage us Klein who have taken a personal interest over four hundred times across thirty-five textbooks, notebooks, and chalk boards. Harcum and Octavius Harcum. for our Partnership Site programs with to keep attuned to current conditions in Harcum’s history both for themselves years and reaching nearly one hundred What private institutions operating We also recognized Philip, Henry, I-LEAD, Inc. are being planned, and and needs, rather than sink into the and for their families that played a thousand persons. Fred reviewed the in 1915 remain in the region today? and Arthur Klein—the architects of we are considering new sports teams lethargy of past achievements. With significant role in Harcum’s growth and manuscript of this book and provided A handful of law firms and insurance Harcum’s revival—and the many trustees, and planning improvements to our thousands of alumnae, increasing development for over fifty years. valuable insights about the Hatcher family. companies, a baseball team, a hospital presidents, faculty, and staff who devoted athletic facilities. every year, Harcum should now be Archival records of Harcum’s history David Bearr of Westminster College or two, some museums and a zoo, their time, creativity, and hard work to It’s impossible in one history to widely felt. A college without ideals are limited; they remain only in scattered was an unexpected and valuable source and dozens of institutions of higher make a Harcum education and degree recognize every individual and each group is as useless as a person without an repositories, in the yearbooks, and in the of information on Oranie Virginia Snead education. They have survived in part relevant and valuable to students and that contributed to Harcum’s success. It’s objective. shared individual memories of Harcum and her daughters. because they provide a service customers alumni during the past century. This my hope that this book will encourage This book is just the beginning of trustees, faculty, alumni, students, Geoff Harrington, Harcum’s find indispensable while others who did book is a part of that tribute. interest and further study and help us lead the process of chronicling how Harcum’s and staff. These need to be collected, former executive director of college not disappeared from the scene. Centennials are a time to reflect, to the development of a comprehensive ideals were developed and where they are recorded, catalogued, and preserved. I advancement, provided contacts and Higher education still survives in a regroup, and prepare for future archive that brings together the many taking the Harcum community. I hope am grateful to all the individuals who suggestions regarding alumni and former form that Edith and Octavius Harcum challenges. Even as we celebrated strands of Harcum’s unique history. you enjoy it. shared their recollections with me. employees at Harcum. would recognize. But as the digital Boris Blai, Jr.’s Harcum Junior I am grateful for the help of Trout revolution continually deletes seemingly College: A Short History (1972) is the Library Director Katie McGowan and impregnable fixtures of the regional Jon Jay DeTemple, Ph.D. only previous full-length history of the her staff, particularly Catalog Librarian economy, permanently alters the President college available and is a primary source Roxanne Sutton, for providing materials workplace and the teaching profession, of information enhanced by Blai’s role from the college archive. and upends so many individuals’ lives, as Harcum’s director of institutional Gale Martin, Harcum’s director of those of us dedicated to institutional research. Former Registrar Phyllis Bean communications and marketing, used higher education can be grateful for wrote her master’s thesis on Harcum’s her extensive experience in publications the human logic that spared it—largely history and found new information editing as well as editing her own work because of people’s trust in its authority about Edith Harcum, her family, and the to make this manuscript presentable to and value. Yet, we must recognize it school’s curricula. The Lower Merion the world. too has changed in ways we are only Historical Society holds a variety of A century may once have seemed beginning to understand. material about Harcum’s past and present. a long time in human affairs, but our

Anders R. Back Bryn Mawr, April 2016 6 HARCUM COLLEGE A CENTENNIAL HISTORY 7 matching suspenders, and a white shirt, tie, jacket and an overcoat. A wartime cloth shortage was beginning INTRODUCTION to impact styles and prices, but women dressed slightly less severely in cloth coats and colorful tunics worn over There had been several days of fine fall umbrellas of faculty and students on privat