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University Daily Kansan
Friday. Nov. 5, 1954
KU Has Had Chancellor Since School's Beginning
By IRWIN BROWN
Since 1864, when the State Legislature instructed Charles Chadwick of Lawrence to draw up a bill organizing a university, the University of Kansas has had a chancellor.
Mr. Chadwick drew up his plan following the model of the University of Michigan except for one respect. Oddly enough, the University of Michigan never had a chancellor although there was one called for in the charter. Originally, the KU charter specified only that the chancellor be the head of the governing body, the board of regents. Since in the Michigan charter the duties of the chancellor were never defined, one has never been appointed.
The Rev. R. W. Oliver, the Episcopal rector in Lawrence, had been elected by the regents as its chairman, and he was therefore, by law, the chancellor of the University. He had no salary at first, but shortly after the University opened, his duties were enlarged. He was appointed financial agent. For these combined duties he received $500 yearly, "payable quarterly."
The first chancellor of the University had no contact with the faculty, for its head was President Rice. Mr Rice and two other faculty members drew up the first curriculum.
Besides President Rice, the faculty consisted of two men at that time—Frank H. Snow and David H. Robinson. Mr. Snow became chancellor in 1803, and Mr. Robinson became the first dean of the School of Arts, today named the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, named for both of them. President Rice left in 1867 to become the president of Baker university.
The first chancellor of the University, in the sense that he was the first head of the faculty, was John Fraser, for whom Fraser hall is named. Chancellor Oliver left at about the same time as Rice and the inspiration came to the regents to combine the positions.
Chancellor Fraser was responsible in large measure for the $100,000 university by Lawrence which built University hall, called Frasher hall since 1897.
He was replaced by a man from Wisconsin, S. H. Carpenter, who took one look at Lawrence and the Kansas grasshoppers in the heat of the summer of 1874 and returned to his lake country, sending his resignation from there.
But a Pennsylvania Methodist minister, Dr. James Marvin, was speaking at that time in Lawrence, and the regents found that he was a mathematics instructor as well as aorman, and he was elected to serve.
During the tenure of James Marvin, the appearance of the University was greatly improved. He was distressed by the openness of the campus and felt that a program should be instituted to give it something less than the "cow-pasture" look. Under him, trees were planted in Marvin's garden, and on the campus to add to the general beauty. In 1883, Dr. Marvin resigned to become the first superintendent of Haskell institute.
For the third time, the board of regents picked a man from Pennsylvania to be the new chancellor. He also was a mathematician. His name was Joshua A. Lippincott, and he had been president of Dickinson college in his home state. For some six years Dr. Lippincott suffered with the derisive term, "Lawrence High School," as applied to the still budding university. It has this appellation because since its founding, the University was attended principally by preparatory rather than college students.
Frank H. Snow, a member of the
original three-man faculty and a famed entomologist by the time of his inauguration in 1890, continued the building of the University until he resigned in 1901 because of bad health. During his time, a building was named for him, located in front of the Merrill Museum, Mr. Merrill and Jayhawk drive. Later the building was torn down and his name was given later to the present Snow hall.
The namesake of the former "Ad" building, Frank Strong hall, came to the University as chancellor in 1992, and in 1919 he resigned saying he believed the man who would have the administration for the next 18 years also should have the privilege of planning it.
Ernest H. Lindley, president of the University of Idaho, was elected in 1920 and came to the campus to quarterback a program that required the biggest appropriation by the Legislature in the history of the school. He was not inaugurated until 1921.
Through the depression, Chancellor Lindley handled the problems of running a still growing university. At times there were difficulties, as in 1924, when the chairman of the State Board of Administration announced that the chancellorship of Dr. Lindlev had been terminated.
The trouble had been foreseen for several days by the press, since there had been some friction between the governor of Kansas and Dr. Lindley,
Gov. Davis charged that the Chancellor had been insubordinate and incompetent, and the chancellor felt that the board was attempting to make positions on the university staff a matter of political patronage. All this occurred two weeks before Gov. Davis' term of office was to end, and the newly elected governor, on his inauguration, made it one of his first official acts to order the reinstatement of Chancellor Lindley.
In 1938, Dr. Lindley resigned. His successor was KU graduate in 1921. Deane W. Malot, at that time associator of business at Harvard university,
Chancellor Maletti continued until 1951 when he accepted an offer to go to Cornell university, Ithaca, N. Y., as its chancellor. The newly elected chancellor, another KU graduate, Franklin D. Murphy, had been dean of the University Medical school in Kansas City. He came to the Lawrence campus as the youngest chancellor the University had ever had, and one of the youngest in the nation at 35.
After his graduation with a B.A. degree in 1936, Dr. Murphy was the University's exchange student in physiology to Germany and in 1941 was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After military service from 1944 to 1946, Dr. Murphy joined the faculty in Kansas City and in Kansas City and in 1948 was appointed dean of the School of Medicine and associate professor of internal medicine.
During his years at the Medical center, he forwarded the "Kansas Plan" for the extension of medical care to small towns. The plan helped send young doctors to the small towns and helped to give them small clinics for better treatment. As a result, Kansas has achieved a marked reputation in medical care. In 1949, the Kansas Junior Chamber of Commerce named Dr. Murphy its "Man of the Year."
Husk Those Huskers!
For a new look in suits see Schulz for a made-to-measure suit.
Schulz The Tailor
924 Mass.
George Swank, architecture, the new freshman class president.
Alpha Phi Omega To Initiate Two
Jon Baker and Kenneth Plumb, college sophomores, and Ronald Salyer, college junior, will be initiated into Alpha Phi Omega, national honorary service fraternity at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Oread room of the Student Union.
Ceremonies will be conducted by James Miller, president, following which there will be an initiation dinner.
English Club to Hold Tea
Acacia to Celebrate Fiftieth Year on Hill
The undergraduate English club will hold a tea at 4:30 p.m. today in 313 Fraser, Dr James L. Wortham, director of the department of English, and other faculty members will meet new students and plan the year's activities. Guest lecturers and faculty members will speak at the bi-monthly meetings.
Fifty years ago a group of Masons from the University formed a colony of a new fraternity just organized at the University of Michigan. This weekend national officers, alumni, and active members will gather on the campus to celebrate the golden anniversary of the Kansas chapter of the Acacia fraternity.
Before the KU-Nebraska homecoming game, an open house and buffet lunch will be held at the chapter house, 1225 Oread ave. The chapter will hold a pre-dinner hour at the "Ye Olde Castle" immediately after the game.
The chapter was founded Nov. 25, 1904, as the second chapter of the present 41. The chapter remained active at KU until 1943, when World War II forced it to disband. During the fall semester of 1947, a reorganization program was conducted, with the group holding meetings in Snow hall.
At 6:30 p.m. the anniversary banquet will be held in the Kansas room of the Student Union. Prof. Howard T. Hill, former head of the Kansas State college speech department, will speak to the group. Entertainment will be provided by the active chapter.
On May 28, 1948, 28 candidates were initiated at Kansas State college. After several weeks of seeking suitable property for a fraternity, the chapter bought a home at 4147 Tennessee st.
But fire destroyed the new chapter house four years later on Dec. 29, 1950. Members spent the remainder of that semester in the old Delta Delta Delta sorority house which the chapter rented from the University.
Today, the chapter owner property at 1225 Orcad ave., where it has
been the past three years. The house has been completely remodeled with a $5,000 dining room addition which was added two years ago. Acacia now has an active chapter of 45 men.
The active chapter expects a record number of alumni back for the event this year. Walter Creegar, fraternity national president, and Roy Clark, executive secretary, will attend, as will the former national president, Lloyd Rupenthal of McPherson. Nelson J. Ward, one of the Kansas chapter's founders, also will be at KU for the events.
Among the faculty of the University who will attend are Fred Montgomery, director of the Bureau of Visual education; Thomas Rythe, head of the KU press; E. L. Treece, chairman of the Department of Bacteriology and Max Fessler, associate professor of economics and chapter adviser.
First Hearing Set In Murder Case
Preliminary hearing for Phillip Johnson, 68, of Kansas City, Mo., charged with first degree murder in the May 28 shooting here of Leroy Harris, Lawrence lawyer, is set this morning in the district court.
Mr. Johnson was arrested after he had walked into the police station and surrendered. Mr. Harris was hot three times and apparently lied instantly from a head wound.
The KU Presbyterian Men's club will serve supper at the Community building after the homecoming game tomorrow to all veterans from hospitals in this area. The veterans will be guests of the University for the football game.
Group to Serve Veterans