[Alumni-chat] FOUNDER'S DAY PRESENT FROM ARTHUR DOLE

[Steven Duffy]

Here's another snippet from Founder's Day.

The parade snippet video is on google video and the college e-newsletter.

And folks are working to get Jim Malarkey's kickoff lecture either on-line
or out in a digitized and edited version.

It ran an hour but was actually quite fun...especially the part about
Arthur Morgan floating down the Mississippi

on something like a huge log...taking odd jobs here ane there.....seeds
for the co-op idea??

After the parade there were some speeches and cake and karoake...   this
following snippet is a story sent to

the Community from Arthur Dole......a descendant of the man.

  Who's the man???  Horace Mann!!


here goes

HORACE MANN AND ME by Arthur A. Dole

(prepared for presentstion st Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio 
Founder's Day, October 5th 2007,
commemorating the inauguration of Horace Mann as its first president.  I
was asked to speak to Antioch's history
and to provide direction/hope for the future.)



I am an Antiochian because of Horace Mann.

This personal history starts almost 70 years ago in the bleak spring of
1938. I was at a low point. I had taken a leave from
Harvard College for financial reasons.  I was broke, unemployed, no clear
career objective, living in dismal Detroit in the
cramped apartment of Uncle Bob, mother's brother.  Both my parents had
remarried and could provide me neither shelter
nor financial help.  The country was in a recession following a
devastating depression.

The letter from "Uncle Ho" and Aunt Win was heartening. "We will loan you
the funds to continue your education".

"and while you're in Detroit why don't you take a look at Antioch
College".  Wes, I had heard of Antioch and the cooperative
plan through an article in Reader's Digest and Antioch Notes, as well as
from Uncle Ho.  Uncle Ho was a retired teacher of foreign languages at
Milton Academu, a gentle man and a scholar.  But my cousin, Kay, had
warned me, "Don't listen to
Daddy!" She should know, she has worked as secretary for a professor of
art, Raymond Stites, "an eccentric."

So...apprehensively I boarded the night bus to Springfield and hitch hiked
to Yellow Springs. The campus was so
brautiful that morning; green, the towers loomed, doves were cooing, and
the students I passed on the way to Fressa
Baker Inman's office ectually spoke to me. That would never happen in
Harvard Yard.  So I talked to a few students and
profs. NO DOUBT.  This was the place!  I filled out some forms, completed
the O"Rourke intelligence test, was admitted as
a transfer, and began a long, intense love affair.

What about the Horace Mann?  Well, Uncle Ho was his grandson, also Horace
Mann. He had married my dad's first cousin,
Winifred Dole, and this couple became my substitute family when my folks
divorcd.  After my first year, which was demanding and rigorous, I wrote
to their younger daughter, Barbara Mann, "Don't listen to Kay, Come to
Antioch for a great education. It's
hard but the social like and the intramurals, plus the co-op plan are
super."  She did come and by raduation she found a husband,
John Chandler.

I have been on this campus many times since I enrolled roughly 15 student
generations ago, and, as my many roles shifted,
I have seen many changes, some good, some bad.  I dispute the myth that
there was a golden age just before one's own
era.

Now, permit me to share a few snapshots from my roles as student, faculty
member, alumnus, parent, spouse of Alumni
Board member, and Professor of Education.

As a student--I prized a stimulating faculty like Basil Pillard, Billy
Owen, George Geiger, Manmatha Chatterjee, Horace Champney
and many more.  I made life long friends. Challenging co-ops  in New York,
Wisconsin, Detroit, Yellow Springs and Springfield
led to my change in career goal from journalism to psychology.

I entered as a floundering discouraged late teenager and graduated as a
focused optimistic young adult.

What was Antioch like in those pre-war days?

When the honor system failed, Miss Norment was captain of the chastity
police. Eventually they named a women's dorm after her.

Pacifists argued with communists about entering the war.

If you were sick, Lady Alice Bingle nursed you. Once recovered you were
invited to English tea.  They named a hall
after her too.

Prof. Manmatha Chatterjee helped to found a commune near Cleveland to
study non-violent direction action (co-op credit).
He was man ahead of his time.

J. Donald Kingsley gave a great course in post-war reconstruction. He
became an influential givernment officer.

Community Government was a laboratory in democracy. One CM, Bob Levin,
year's ater during a crisis became acting
president.

The Record/Antiochian editorial board under Ed Fiess alleged that J.D.
Dawson cared more about keeping permanent
co-op jobs open for the college than about student development.

A crowd filled the sidelines to watch underdog Camelot Hall beat Birch for
the intramural basketball champsionship.

Kenny Hamilton deftly supervised the student waitpersons at the Antioch
Tea Room. He had a heart of gold, a gentl