THE TWIG
Newspaper of the Students of Meredith College
Volume XL
ANNIVERSARY ISSUE, MEREDITH COLLEGE, RALEIGH, N. C., FEBRUARY 25, 1966
No. 8
MEREDITH CELEBRATES SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
Guest Speakers Will Participate in Activities
Commemorating Both Founders and Charter
First Founders' Day Ceremony
Honored "Keepers of Dream"
A consciousness of her past with
due appreciation for her heritage
has been through the years a mark
of the soundness of the College. It
may have seemed a bit presumptu
ous when at the early age of ten,
she first expressed this conscious
ness in formal ceremonies. How
ever, even a cursory glance at her
history reveals that, though on that
■■ first Founders’ Day, January 28,
1909, the doors of the College had
been open to students less than ten
years, the actual founding of the
institution went much further into
the past.
“Keepers of the Dream”
It has been significantly noted,
too, that she has always celebrated
Founders’, not Founder’s, Day, for
her founders included a long line
of “keepers of the dream” who
never lived to see the actual open
ing of the College. And, as Presi
dent Carlyle Campbell has pointed
out on recent occasions, she is con
tinually being founded, if the insti
tution is truly alive. Thus there is
no one person to whom history
points as the founder of the College.
Ceremonies
Certain features of that first cele
bration commemorating the found
ing of the school survive in the cere
monies with which in 1966 the
College takes cognizance of its past.
The proposal for such an occasion
was made, according to Dr. Mary
Lynch Johnson, historian of the col
lege, by Wade R. Brown, chairman
of the music department, in the
spring of 1908. The planning com
mittee had suggested that “special
chapel exercises, a reception, and
a contest in declamation of essays
between the literary societies” be
included in the observance of the
occasion.
The speakers on that day were
acquainted with the background of
the College. President Richard Til-
man Vann sketched the history of
the school, and Oliver Larkin String-
field, whose fierce dedication to the
College had enabled it to survive
financially, spoke of the future of
the school. The main speaker on
that first Founders’ Day was Henry
Louis Smith, then president of the
University of Virginia. The Biblical
Recorder of February 3, 1909, re
ported as his topic “Higher Educa
tion as a Field for Christian Phi
lanthropy.”
Student Participation
Students participated in the ac
tivities of the afternoon, as a re
ception was given by the Stu
dent Government Association. Class
rooms were also decorated for the
event. Students also took part in the
festivities by means of the “contest
in declamation of essays between
the literary societies.”
Meredith After Seventy-Five Years
Leadership of Four Presidents
Determines Meredith's Growth
Since its beginning, an experi
ment in the field of female univer
sities, Meredith has been guided by
outstanding and courageous presi
dents. Through the perseverance
and will of Dr. I. C. Blasingame,
Dr. Richard Tilman Vann, Dr.
Charles E. Brewer, and Dr. Car
lyle Campbell, Meredith has grown
from a struggling little Baptist Fe
male University in downtown Ra
leigh to a recognized college for
women on the outskirts of the city.
Only through great leadership did
the dream of Meredith College be
come a reality.
Dr. I. C. Blasingame, the first
president of Meredith, was thirty-
two years old when he was ap
pointed president of the infant in
stitution, in 1899, then called the
Baptist Female University. No
sooner had he been appointed, re
ports A History of Meredith Col
lege, than he set out to tour the
northern universities and later the
North Carolina churches to deliver
such glowing speeches that some
one once reported of them that they
made a listener feel that the new
school would one day “surpass
Princeton, Yale and Harvard or
even one of the great English
univeraties.” Although Blasingame
proved a good administrator, the
(Continued on page 10)
On February 27, 1891, the state
of North Carolina granted a charter
to the Baptist Female University; on
February 27, 1966, Meredith Col
lege celebrates the seventy-fifth anni
versary of that significant event. A
three-day program has been planned
to feature alumnae, students and
faculty, and trustees, respectively.
The annual Alumnae Seminar on
Saturday, February 26, sponsored
by the department of business and
economics has as its theme “Eco
nomic Knowledge—A Citizen Re
sponsibility.”
Hardly any introduction is needed
for the keynote speaker, the Honor
able Luther H. Hodges, former
governor of North Carolina. He will
speak on “The Role of Government
in the Economy.” Mr. Hodges re
tired in 1950 from the textile in
dustry. Since then his work has
been in public service as lieutenant
governor and then governor of North
Carolina. He has helped to bring
much industry to the state and was
involved in the establishing of the
Research Triangle. Since his service
as U. S. Secretary of Commerce, he
has made his home in Chapel Hill,
North Carohna. Presently he is serv
ing as president of the Research
Triangle Foundation.
The next speaker is Mr. J. E.
Starnes, a comparatively new citi-
Trustees Join
In Celebration
Meredith College welcomes to the
campus for this special occasion in
her history one group of her friends
to whom she owes a special debt of
gratitude. These are the twenty-
eight members who make her present
Board of Trustees. A slight change
in the schedule of their biennial
meetings, held usually on the fourth
Tuesday in September and February,
makes it possible for them to partici
pate in some of these Founders’ Day
Activities as they convene for a
semi-annual meeting.
The Board of Trustees, like the
College itself, has a history that ex-
Tfae Honorable Luther M. Hodges
zen of Raleigh. Mr. Starnes is
branch manager of IBM, Data Pro
cessing Division. His topic for the
Seminar is “The Impact of Auto
mation on the Economy.”
On Saturday afternoon a panel
of four will discuss “Economic Re
sponsibility for Making Rational
Consumer Decisions”: Dr. E. C.
Bishop, Dr. Charles E. Ferguson,
Miss Theresa Demus, and Mrs. Eve
lyn P. Simmons. Dr. Bishop, a Wil
liam Neal Reynolds Distinguished
Professor, is head of the department
of economics at North Carolina State
University, as well as the author of
a textbook and numerous articles
in his field. Dr. Ferguson is a mem
ber of the department of economics
at Duke University. He has pub
lished many articles and is author
and co-author of two books in his
field. Miss Demus is a consumer
(Continued on page 10)
tends farther into the past than does
the actual college, for it was the
State Baptist Convention of 1889,
in session in Henderson, that elected
the first board. Their first meeting
was held there immediately after
election. Thus the group was at
work as trustees of an institution
that ten years later first opened her
doors to students.
The present Board, like the first
(Continued on page 8)
JJ’ouithers’ fragrant — 75th Cljarter
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1966
9:30 A.M Coffee Hour and Registration for Alumnae Seminar
10:30 A.M Addresses
The Honorable Luther H. Hodges, A.B., LL.D.
Chapel Hill, North Carolino
J. E. Starnes, B.S.
Branch Manager, The IBM Corporation
1:00 P.M Luncheon for Alumnoe ond Guests
2:00 P.M Panel Discussion
Charles E. Bishop, Ph.D.
Department of Agricultural Economics, North Carolina State University
Charles E. Ferguson, Ph.D.
Department of Economics, Duke University
Theresa Demus, M.S.
Consultant, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1966
11:00 A.M Founders' Day Sermon
The Reverend Vernon B. Richardson, B.D., D.D.
River Road Church, Richmond, Virginia
3:00 P.M Wreath Ceremony at the Grave of Thomas Meredith
4:00 P.M Annual Founders' Day Reception
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1966
10:30 A.M Founders' Doy Address
Lois Edinger, Ph.D.
Department of Education, the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro
11:30 A.M Meeting of the Board of Trustees
1:00 P.M Luncheon for Trustees and Guests
Dr. Lois Edinger
Publications Hail
"City of Oaks"
Sheltered as we are on this cam
pus by an abundance of oaks, one
can see how our college publica
tions might bear the names Acorn,
Twig, and Oak Leaves, but these
names have an even more signifi
cant history. They were chosen be
cause Meredith was located in Ra
leigh, long known as the “City of
Oaks.” The first Oak Leaves (1904)
opens with this Dedication:
Dedicated to the
“City of Oaks”
and its Citizens
Whose interest and hospitality
have been so generously
extended to the
girls of
B.F.U.
GRAVE OF THOMAS MEREDITH
Scene of Sunday Ceremony