Alumni Association moves forward
By G. MENDENHALL
The campus spreads out and changes. New buildings go up and old ones come down. The turnover on the staff is tremendous; students come end go like a revolving door, but the Alumni Association goes on. It is the continuum that holds the years together.
KU OPENED for classes in 1866 and gave its first degree in 1873. Ten years later a group of graduates met to form the KU Alumni Association with William Herbert Carruth as the first president.
The idea of organizing graduates into an association was first adopted at Williams College in Massachusetts in 1821. Other associations followed at Bowdoin, Princeton, and Rutgers; Oberlin College in Ohio was the first educational college to form an alumni association.
Charles F. Scott and E. C. Meservey among others talked of incorporating the Alumni Association as a holding company to administer gifts to the University.
In 1885, the organization began to urge a permanent mill tax to support the University. By 1892, the Alumni Association passed resolution favoring the building of suitable living quarters for women students; but it was not until 1921 that the legislature appropriated funds to build dormitories at the state schools.
It is the embodiment of the Alma Mater, the foster parent to the old grad and the former student. It is the bond, the tie, the opportunity to remain a part of KU after one has left the campus.
Eventually they decided to organize a separate corporation for that purpose, and the Kansas University Endowment Association was formed in 1893. Since then it had administered hundreds of gifts, and the two organizations have worked closely together.
AS FAR BACK as 1888 the alumni discussed in their meetings the danger of the University arising from a provision in the state constitution that a gift made to the school became the property of the state.
IN 1902. THE Alumni Association started a monthly, called the Graduate Magazine. The early publication was largely literary journal, written and edited by Professors Olin Templin, R. D O'Leary, E. F. Engel, Marshall Barber, Archie Hogg, and M. W.
Daily Kansan
Sterling, Joe Murray, who was later to become managing editor of the Lawrence Journal-World, was hired to set type in a room in the basement of Fraser Hall.
Monday, December 5, 1966
Professor Templin then hauled the forms in his buggy to the old Lawrence Journal for presses to run off the magazine each month. From these humble beginnings the publication grew into the present Kansas Alumni Magazine which KU alumni all over the world welcome and enjoy.
The story of the KU Alumni Association is largely the story of those devoted, hardy souls who have served as Secretary to the Association.
About 1905, when the alumni fortunes were at low tide, the Association decided that it needed a paid secretary to carry on the work and edit the magazine. Leon Flint, a man of considerable newspaper experience, was employed, and in his eleven years of service he did all that was required of him and more. Membership grew. Under his direction a printing plant was built for which the Regents later paid the Association $5,000 when they took it over for the University.
ALFRED G. "SCOOP" HILL came to KU as Alumni Secretary in 1820. The war was followed by a tremendous revival of interest in the University. Chancellor Lindlay, ably assisted by Hill, a dynamic publicity man, outlined and enlarged an exciting program for KU, which aroused a vital and widespread interest among friends of the University.
"Constant revision was necessary as men moved from one camp to another and sometimes from one service to another, and were commissioned or promoted. Most of them were finally concealed behind post office numbers in France." A further practice to insure the permanence of the record was the stamping of small flags in two colors on these cards in the card catalogue. All of this required endless hours of careful labor.
THE TENURE of Miss Agnes Thompson as Alumni Secretary from 1916 to 1920 included the task of assembling and maintaining the war records of KU men and women who were in the service. Looking back at this period, Miss Thompson wrote,
It is doubtful if any other one person has contributed more to the University in terms of time, energy, love, and service than Fred Ellsworth. Probably the trait for which he is best remembered is his friendliness, combined with a fantastic memory for names, faces, and details. He gave his enthusiastic interest to each person he met.
WHEN HE WAS interviewed by Pat Burnau of the "Topeka Capital" on his retirement, Ellsworth made a typical comment: "I hate to take any credit for anything the Association has done," he said. "Our Alumni Association is the most dedicated of any school I know. I'm just a farm boy. . . . I haven't done anything outstanding, except maybe live in one place so long."
Hill and his "galloping Dodge" became a familiar sight throughout the state. His services didn't stop with the Alumni Association. He boosted KU wherever he went, and more especially in Topeka when the legislature was in
Clyde Reed once wrote of him,
"He can spot a KU graduate at
100 paces, recite his student history
at 50 paces, and inquire about his children or grandchildren while shaking his hand with a candidate's zeal... "
Hill's immediate objective was a million dollar program to finance the building of the Memorial stadium, the Union building, the Uncle Jimmie Green statue in front of the Law School.
The Kansas City alums came through with $206,000. Topeka contributed about $50,000. The $985,000 pledged in this campaign made possible at KU the first football stadium in the Missouri Valley, the Student Union, and the Uncle Jimmie Green statue. When Hill resigned in 1924, the membership of the Association had doubled to 3,000 members.
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THE MEMORIAL CAMPAIGN was a never-to-be-forgotten demonstration of school spit. In the weeks following a 20 to 20 tie game with Nebraska in 1920, the students pledged $225,000 for the memorials to the KU men and women who lost their lives in the World War. The people of Lawrence followed with $150,000.
In the thirty-nine years he served as Alumni Secretary and Editor at KU, Fred Ellsworth became such an institution that he was known as Mr. KU. There is no conceivable way to estimate the value of his services to the Association and to KU in the years between his coming in 1924 and the time of his retirement in 1963.
session. He saw the big picture of the school's future usefulness.
ELLSWORTH'S INTEREST and excitement made the Alumni Magazine and the newsletter vital and personal contacts with members of the Association. Until
--the number of members at that time. We do know that paid memberships had grown to 1500 in 1920.
1952, when a full-time manager editor was hired, he wrote, edited, and plumed the levout of the Magazine with very little help.
At the same time he handled the endless correspondence, compiled myriad records, attended Alumni meetings all over the country, and carried on the Association work on the campus as advisor to the Senior class.
During World War II, he added the job of directing the University's News Bureau to his other work; and in the depression years, he directed the Men's Employment Bureau, scraping up many a job to help a needy student. Many in Alumnaus has Fred Ellsworth to think for the encouragement and help that made it possible for him to stay in school.
Among the tangible memorials to his years of service at KU are the World War II Memorial Drive and Cempanile, for which fund Ellsworth spearheaded the drive, and Fred Ellsworth Hall, named for and dedicated to him on October 6, 1963.
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Dick Wintermote and Miss Mildred Clodfellow of the Alumni office carry on the Ellsworth tradition. They both bed the privilege of training under him. Mildred joined the staff in 1944 "to help out until after commencement," and Dick became Assistant Secretary in 1951.
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The 1966-1937 budget of the
Alumni Association is $181,000.
There are about 19,000 members
of whom 405 are paid-up life
members, and another 20% are
installment-paying life members.
Address
WHEN THE KU Alumni Association received its first charter in 1908 (for fifty years), 1968 students were enrolled at the University, with a graduating class of 285. For the year 1908-1909 the Association budget came to $6000 with no available record of
The work load of the Association is such that it requires 23 full-time and 3 part-time employees, working in two shifts; one from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and another from 6:00 p.m. to 12:00 m. Letters and phone calls pour into the office at all hours.
Name
THEY CONSIDER the Alumni office a service center for news, information, and any other service they can give to the University. In short, they make it the place to which an alumnus turns for something from or about the University.
City, State, Zip Code
Winternote fees' that their reason for being is, "to foster a spirit of warmth and friendship almost like a family tie to all grades and former students. We are the only continuing contact," he says, "with the thousands of alums who leave the campus to be absorbed by the world of femily, business, and civic responsibilities."
The present staff includes Wintermote, Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Director; Miss Cloofelter, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer, Vince Bilotta, Field Director; Jerry Hutchinson, Assistant director; and Walter Blackledge, Managing Editor of Alumni publications. They all work to keep the alumni informed about and interested in the University.
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Presenting The Drinking Song for Sprite:
"ROAR, SOFT-DRINK, ROAR!"
(To the tune of "Barbara Fritchie")
Traditionally, a lusty, rousing fight song is de rigueur for every worthy cause and institution. But we wrote a song for Sprite anyway. We'd like you to sing it while drinking Sprite, though this may cause some choking and coughing. So what? It's all in good, clean fun. And speaking of good, clean things, what about the taste of Sprite? It's good. It's clean. However, good clean things may not exactly be your idea of jolies. In that case, remember that Sprite is also very refreshing. "Tart and tingling," in fact. And very collegiate. And maybe we'd better quit while we're ahead. So here it is. The Drinking Song For Sprite. And if you can get a group together to sing it--we'd be very surprised.
Roar, soft drink, roar!
You're the loudest soft drink
we ever sawr!
So tart and tingling, they
couldn't keep you quiet:
The perfect drink, guy,
To sit and think by,
Or to bring instant refreshment
To any campus riot! Ooooooh--
Roar, soft drink, roar!
Flip your cap, hiss and bubble,
fizz and gush!
Oh we can't think
Of any drink
That we would rather sit with!
Or (if we feel like loitering)
to hang out in the stilt with!
Or sleep through English lit' with!
Roar! Soft drink! Roar!
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh, SPRITE!
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SPRITE. SO TART AND
TINGLING, WE JUST COULDN'T
KEEP IT QUIET.