R. W.F. : Architect and Builder

CHAPTER XIII R. W.F. : Architect and Builder THE SUMMER and early fall of 1933 were filled with anxiety and suspense for the University and townspeople. Never before in the long life of the school was it so generally felt that the future and prestige of the institution rested upon the choice made by the eleven members of the Board. Meanwhile Dean Schroeder, who had effectively held the school together during President Felmley's illness and death, undertook to reassure the student body and faculty alike and to put matters in order for the fall term and the new president. He took great care in select ing persons to fill vacancies. He scrutinized credentials and made Jure that applicants were not only qualified by training and ex perience but were professionally minded and devoted to the cause of teacher education. Herman Schroeder put his whole soul into the task that had fallen to his lot for the second time. He was the first to arrive at Old Main in the morning and the last to leave at night. It might be that he would be asked to continue as president. Both the Pantagraph and the Normalite had edi torially placed their stamp of approval upon him as a candidate.1 On Monday, October 9, the Board announced its decision. Raymond Wilber Fairchild, Professor, School of Education, Northwestern University, was named president. Two days later the newly elected president visited Normal. When he arrived at the office of William Bach, resident Board member, he found a Pantagraph reporter waiting to take a photograph and secure a statement for the press. Bach hurriedly brought the new president to the campus, where the faculty had been assembled in Capen Auditorium. Mr. Bach paid high tribute to Dean Schroeder and then presented Dr. Fairchild. The new president had not planned to make an address, but he quickly sensed the spirit of the oc casion, expressed appreciation for Dean Schroeder's work, and 1 Daily Pantagraph, September 20, 23, 1933. Normalit~, September 8, 15, 22, 1933. R. W.F.: Architect and Builder 293 set the tone that was to dominate his administration for the next twenty years. I came with no preconceived ideas of teacher training as applies to this or any other institution. An administration of this school is a purely co operative enterprise. I shall maintain an open attitude and my office door shall always be open. This policy I intend to maintain. Not revolu tion but evolution will be the policy of progress at the University .... I hope to take up my duties here without factional feelings, to make a new start, without reference to past difficulties.2 In Old Main, the University farm manager, a paper in hand, sat anxiously awaiting Dr. Fairchild's appearance. Would the president authorize the exchanging of seventeen pigs for five calves? Unless a direct trade could be made, it would be necessary to advertise a sale and have the livestock checked by the Depart ment of Agriculture. In that length of time the pigs would probably be hogs and the calves would have reached the butcher's block. President Fairchild smiled and reached for a pen. Within an hour he had met the faculty, made a speech, and performed his first official act.3 Raymond W. Fairchild was forty-four years of age, the father of two sons, Ralph Bronson and Robert Eugene, and was in his prime at the time he came to the presidency of Illinois State Normal University. He had the clean vigorous look of an athlete, and there was warmth and strength in his firm handclasp. He was smooth shaven, his light brown hair was carefully groomed, and his blue eyes were friendly and kind and fun-loving. He stood six feet four, broad-shouldered and straight. A small boy at the Soldiers and Sailors Childrens School seeing him for the first time asked, "Are you really a giant?" President Fairchild was a midwesterner of native stock. He was born in Bismarck, Illinois, September 9, 1889, the son of Wilber Daniel and Serena Mattie Johnson Fairchild. His father was a Methodist minister, a brilliant and scholarly man and erstwhile professor at Illinois Wesleyan. The two Fairchild sons, Raymond and Donald Hurlstone, attended public schools in the towns where their father held pastorates. After high school Ray- • Vidett~, October 13, 1933. • Interview, R. W. Fairchild, Normal, January 2, 1956. 294 Grandest of Enterprises mond attended the University of Illinois and Illinois Wesleyan, where he held an assistantship, majored in biology, and earned a letter in track. He decided not to take his degree at Illinois be cause he wished to study with a famous bacteriologist at the Uni versity of Michigan. He taught biology and social studies, coached football, and acted as assistant principal of the high school in Vandalia, 1909- 19IO. From 19IO to 1914, he held a similar position at the Moline High School. On June 25, 1913, he was married to Nellie Bron son. He studied summers at the University of Michigan, and in 1914 was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in bacteriology. He was dean of men at Wisconsin Teachers College, Stevens Point, from 1914 to 1920. He continued his summer study at the Uni versity of Michigan and was granted a Master of Arts in 1919. He was superintendent of schools, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, 1920- 1923, and superintendent of schools at Elgin, Illinois from 1923 to 1930. He then began graduate study in education and admin istration at Northwestern University. While completing the work for his doctor's degree in 1930-1932, he taught classes in the School of Education at Northwestern. Walter Dill Scott, president of Northwestern, believed there should be special training for teachers college administrators, and that this was a field in which his university might well pioneer. He selected Professor Fairchild with his background of liberal arts, public school, and teachers college experience, as the man most able to assist in the development of such a program. He wanted first of all a survey of administrative practices and pro cedures in the teachers colleges of the United States. Dr. Fairchild was teaching mostly graduate classes, so it was possible for him to be away from the campus for as long as two weeks at a time. He traveled over 25,000 miles and visited seventy teachers colleges in forty-three states. He was "saturated" with teachers college work. These visitations served as a basis for his doctoral disserta tion, "The Improvement of Teacher Education." As a conse quence President Fairchild came to Normal prepared for teachers college administration as were few men at that time. Carter Harris, the beloved "custodian" of Old Castle as the University High School gymnasium was then known, watched R. W.P.: Architect and Builder 295 the new president as he went from building to building, acquaint~ ing himself with the plant, talking with employees, and pausing to watch the boys at football practice. Harris was glad the presi~ dent's office was being set up in Old Main again. After hearing Dr. Fairchild speak, he confided to his friend Manfred Holmes that he was afraid the new president would not stay, that the school would not be big enough.4 As a school superintendent he had seen shortcomings in the preparation of teachers. He was now in a position to work out ideas. He had his own theories but he also wanted to know what others were thinking. Mter all he had promised progress, service, evolution, not revolution. There was a feeling abroad that teach~ ers colleges had walls around them and operated without regard to the public schools whose teachers they supplied. President Fairchild invited the principals and superintendents of twenty~ seven counties served by the Normal University to come to the campus on the first Saturday of December and talk things over. After a keynote speech the crowd would break up into small groups, and discuss phases of the topic, "What's wrong with teachers colleges and Illinois State Normal University?" At noon they would be guests at a luncheon in Fell Hall. From a popular song of the day, the meeting was styled "The First Round~up of Superintendents and Principals." President Fairchild hoped that the "First Round~up" would not be the last. Never before had the public school administrators of Illinois been invited to participate in such a conference. Some came out of curiosity, a few to voice grievances, and others to meet friends. The faculty were asked to attend, to listen, and to learn. The U ni~ versity promised to do something about the complaints and report progress at a similar meeting a year hence if the administrators approved. The schoo1men liked the idea, and the University gained from the frank exchange of opinion, and the Roundup became an annual affair.1i There was also the matter of acquainting the faculty with what was going on in the public schools. The new president urged his teachers to take visiting days to observe teaching as it was done • Manfred J. Holmes, "Carter Harris," Holmes Papers. 6 As this Centennial History leaves the press, preparations are under way for the twenty-four annual Round-up. Grandest of Enterprises in rural, elementary, and secondary schools. A county contact system, later to become effective in recruiting students, was set up to acquaint the schools with the offerings of the Normal Uni versity and to bring back to the campus written reports of the teaching in the schools. President Fairchild used every opportu nity to bring teacher education and Illinois State Normal Uni versity to the attention of the public.

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