On January 8, 2018 I posted the very first of the DreamersAndGiants Blogs. It was appropriately titled Registration Day and New Beginnings. In it I thought back to the days in the 1970s when registration was done via computer punch cards.
It also invited readers to take a look at my new website, DreamersAndGiants.com. The purpose of this new venture was to tell the stories about WVWC and the people who have studied and worked there through the years.
Today, I am amazed to discover, is the 101st consecutive time I have posted an announcement that Monday = Blog Day. No two of these have been alike. They consist of things that I have run across during the week or something that I have always wondered about. Many of them have been about people. Many are about buildings or things on campus that we generally just don’t notice in our busy lives.
I have been asked why I always use the DreamersAndGiants term without putting spaces between the words. Two reasons, really. One is that the url treats it that way. The other is that it is impossible to tell the Dreamers from the Giants.
People Who Have Worked And Studied On Our Campus
People Who Have Walked Where We Walk
Learning and Teaching
Throughout this process of creating a webpage and a blog to share the stories, I have learned a great deal: about the people, about the school, the resources for finding out more about the school, and about myself.
I have been teaching this information in courses on campus as well as a couple of times online. More and more of the required readings have come from these blogs! To take this course without actually taking it, you could simply read through these blogs – your very own DreamersAndGiants 101! The full list of the blogs can be found here.
Lots of Stories Left!
After 100 blogs, I have barely scratched the surface of the stories that are to be found. Our buildings, our faculty, our students, our alumni, our organizations and athletic teams all have so many! I have a long list of things still to explore and share. Several of you have given me some ideas to add to that list.
As we enter Thanksgiving Week 2019, I would like to thank those of you who have been reading along. Many have subscribed and receive an email notice when a new one goes up. Also, I am thankful for the rich heritage that we share and the chance to know more about it.
As I mentioned way back in that first Blog, it took us well over a century to get this far, and it will take a while to gather all of the stories.
To read more about the people and events that have made West Virginia Wesleyan College great, check out https://DreamersAndGiants.com.
What would cause more than 30 people to travel from seven states (and one even from as far away as Malaysia) to Buckhannon, WV to play jazz in the middle of November? There is only one answer to that question.
Doc Milburn’s Jazz Family Reunion
From 1966-2004. David Milburn taught at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Hundreds of students were challenged and inspired by him. Many of them became musicians and educators, some found their callings in medicine, banking, law, business, and a multitude of other professions. There are even several Wesleyan Jazz Sweetheart couples!
These students considered themselves part of the Milburn family and stayed in touch with his wife and daughters throughout the years. It was this sense of family that brought these people together. That, and the fact that they had shared so many incredible experiences together.
So how did it all begin?? It was all a product of the times, and of something much bigger.
The 1950s
The world was in a mess. The Cold War was raging around the world, The Civil Rights Movement was dominating the news in America. Into that mix came Jazz Music right in the middle of it all.
Louis Armstrong and his wife Bettmann/Getty Images
The music of jazz, which was structured around improvisation within a set of commonly agreed-upon boundaries, was a perfect metaphor for America in the eyes of the State Department. Here was a music of democracy and freedom. What the bands looked like was important too. “The racism and violence within the U.S. was getting international exposure,” says Von Eschen. “For President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, this was a great embarrassment.” By sending bands comprised of black and white musicians to play together around the world, the State Department could engineer an image of racial harmony to offset the bad press about racism at home.
1956 – State Department sent Dizzy Gillespie as a Jazz Ambassador
1957 – State Department sent Benny Goodman on a tour to the Far East
1958 – Dave Brubeck toured Eastern Europe, Middle East, Southern Asia as an Ambassador. He championed racial integration and equality at home and abroad
Meanwhile, at Wesleyan
Music faculty at Wesleyan tended to focus more on more orthodox forms of serious music. Ensembles consisted basically of Orchestra, Choirs, and Chamber Ensembles. Vocal instruction was offered and piano, organ, and violin were stressed as well as other orchestral instruments. Faculty included such greats as Calvin Buell Agey, Robert Shafer, Irma Helen Hopkins, Bobby Loftis, and Owen West.
There was an emphasis on music theory, composition, orchestration, and form analysis. In other words, there were strict rules when it came to music.
The 1960s
The Cold War was in full force.
Construction began on the Berlin Wall (1961)
Cuban Missile Crisis – world on the brink of nuclear war (1962)
First U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam (1965)
Prague Spring Uprising crushed by the Warsaw Pact (an organization of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe) (1968)
The 1960s also was a busy time in the Civil Rights Movement with protests, marches, assasinations and the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1962, Dave Brubeck, and wife Iola, wrote a musical called “The Real Ambassadors for Louis Armstrong (a musical commentary on race relations in America). The State Department cultural diplomacy tours of the 1950s were often at odds with the Civil Rights issues at home. This musical was intended to address the difficulties of these contradictions in message.
Meanwhile at Wesleyan
David A. Milburn
In 1966 a new faculty member was hired in the Music Department.
David Milburn, as it turns out, was about to cause a major shift in the departmental approach to music. Having had exposure to the great jazz legends, he was probaby a bit frustrated with this description of the Instrumental Ensemble Course in the 1968-69 catalog:
In 1969, he requested to form a Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Agey refused on the basis that jazz was not serious music and had no place in the department. He said that it could not meet in Loar Hall. So, David Milburn, the rebel, started the group and met off campus or in the SCOW (Student Center of Wesleyan). With no budgetary support, the band members literally sat around listening to records and writing out their own parts by hand. Click here to read his recollection of that period of time. He recalls that:
We had to practice ‘secretly’ off campus and occasionally we were allowed to practice in the ‘Scow’ as long as the music department didnt hear about it. After the first year we were finally accepted by the music department but we had to use the name “Modern American Music Ensemble,” but at least we were acknowledged as a legitimate organization and they allowed us to practice on campus and even use Loar Hall to practice in.
The group quickly gained popularity with audiences and musicians alike. They learned improvisation and composing and to arrange compositions. They began to live by musical rules that went beyond the strict rules of days gone by.
By 1973, a mere four years later, the West Virginia Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble participated in the first of what would be 10 Friendship Ambassador Tours to Eastern Europe, playing the music of freedom and democracy to audiences living under Communist Rule. They became part of that Cold War Secret Weapon of cutural diplomacy.
1973 (July) Romania
1974 (August 6-30) Poland
1979 (May)Romania
1983 (Summer) Russia and Romania
1987 Hungary and Austria
1992 (Spring) Russia, Romania, and the Ukraine
1996 (May) The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania
1997 Romania
2001 Finland, Estonia, and Russia
2004 (May) Bulgaria, Romania, and The Czech Republic
A documentary, The Jazz Ambassadors, was made in 2018. It was directed by Hugo Berkeley and stars Leslie Odom, Jr. It is currently available free on Amazon Prime. In it we see how The Cold War, The Civil Rights Movement, and Jazz collided.
David Milburn and the WVWC Jazz Ensemble took an active role in the cultural diplomacy of the times. Truly, this was a remarkable set of circumstances and a talented group of people. This rich legacy adds to the close-knit family feeling among the WVWC Jazz “Oldtimers.”
An Era Comes to a Close
As the final Milburn-led European trip came to a close in the summer of 2004, the band found itself performing in a theater in one of the largest cities in Bulgaria. On that particular evening, the concert stage was shared with a local jazz band. That group performed first, followed by WVWC.
At the end of the concert, Wesleyan welcomed the local Bulgarian jazz group to share the stage to perform the final song together as one “super-group.” While the vast majority of musicians from both groups were unable to communicate with each other through the language barrier, everyone was able to immediately bond through the one true universal language—music. The performance of that final song was a literal expression of everything the Wesleyan jazz group had come to represent in Eastern Europe over 30 years and 10 visits: bridging cultural divides, and bringing humanity closer together through music.
Following Dr. Milburn’s retirement in 2004, and with the different times in which we live today, the group is doing a few different things. For a couple of years, the program was led by David Wright, but in 2006, James Moore arrived at Wesleyan bringing with him his own hopes and dreams for the program. Jazz at WVWC is alive, well, and thriving.
That group has a story all of its own for another day, but suffice it to say that David Milburn would be excited to see the Legacy being carried forward.
Family Reunion!! (At least some of the family. There are hundreds more who were there in spirit as well)
A highlight of the evening was when the band played Hey Jude, and the audience which filled the Culpepper Auditorium joined in singing Hey Slide (Doc’s other nickname).
Special thanks to Jim Watson for getting the whole thing going and giving everyone the chance to create a wonderful tribute to our mentor and friend. And to Neil Randolph who stepped in to pull all of the musicians together and get them ready to swing.
This past week, my First Year Seminar class has been discussing the fact that Wesleyan has intentionally interacted with the world for a very long time.
Veterans
On this Veteran’s Day (2019) I am mindful that many students encountered the world during their military service. During World Wars I and II many students, who had never been far from home, found themselves in France, Germany, and other places. Many came home with a new view of the world. They served as soldiers, pilots, officers, and chaplains. The same happened in Korea and in Vietnam, and in such places as the Middle East and Afghanistan.
For example, according to his obituary in 2015, Franklin “Hank” Ellis (Class of 1943 and long-time coach and professor at WVWC)
was the Commanding Officer on the USS LCT 710 from May of 1944 through March of 1945 where he carried cargo from large ships to and across the Beaches of Normandy. He made the D-Day landing on Utah Beach, Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. In June of 1945, he was the Gunnery Officer on the USS LCI 728 in Pearl Harbor, HI. Mr. Ellis returned to Normandy for the 20th Reunion of D-Day, in 1964, the 50th Reunion in 1994, and the 60th Reunion in 2004. In 2015, he was awarded the French Legion Medal of Honor by the French government.
Faculty
Throughout the history of the college, there have been more than two dozen faculty members from more than 20 countries other than the United States. Others, born here, have lived and studied abroad thus enlarging their view of the world. All of these have impacted the lives of their students in ways beyond the curriculum. They have shared new perspectives about the world.
Many faculty have led study abroad trips, creating opportunities for thousands of students to expand their horizons.
Many have been speakers and participants at international conferences, such as Drs. Jessica Scott, Tamara Bailey, and Coty Martin at the International Studies Association International Conference in Accra, Ghana this year – the first time this annual event has ever been held in Africa. “Currents of Knowledge: Knowledge Production in the Global South Informing the Global North.” Co-Presenting at the ISA International Conference, Accra, Ghana, August 2019
International Students
As early as 1926, Methodist Missionaries around the world were making it possible for students to come to Wesleyan. Dorothy Lee was the first from China, and later a scholarship in her name was created. This scholarship has enabled hundreds of others to follow, including her own daughter, Julia B.
Sports teams and the arts have recruited international students as well, and these students have brought new perspectives to all academic disciplines.
Study and Travel Opportunities
From May term trips to summer programs, professors and students have been part of study abroad opportunities. Each time they came back to Buckhannon with new ideas of how people are alike as well as how their differences help to create new possiblities.
The West Virginia Wesleyan Jazz Ensemble was invited, through the Friendship Ambassador Program, to tour Romania in 1973. Less than a year later, they were invited to tour Poland on a similar program. Since then there have been numerous Goodwill Ambassador trips to Europe with the group playing in: Poland, Romania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Latvia, Finland, the Czech Republic,Ukraine, and the Soviet Union/Russia.
Many of these tours included time in countries under Communist rule during the period of the Cold War.
[Many of these people will gather in Buckhannon next Saturday – November 16 – for a reunion concert to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the group. It will take place in the Performing Arts Center at 7:00pm].
Other groups, such as choirs, have also traveled abroad and shared the gift of music while learning about the world.
Individual Student Opportunities
Many people from West Virginia Wesleyan have been inspired, encouraged and supported in their desire to interact with the world. One of them, I know very well! And, as this is the 30 year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I would like to share this experience.
My younger sister, Sarah, was inspired by a novel she read in her early years. From there, she was encouraged by parents and teachers. At Wesleyan, she had a Chemistry Teacher (Allen Hamner) who taught German, and she was further encouraged by such people as Herb Coston, Arthur Holmes, Larry Parsons, and Volkmar Lauber. Wanting to spend her Jr. year in Germany, she was supported by administrators who helped make the connections and to figure out all of the red tape to make it possible for her to study in Heidelberg. Following her graduation in 1984 with a degree in International Studies, she was able to return to Germany to study for and receive her masters degree.
A few years later, in 1989, she returned to Germany once again to work with Radio Deutsche Welle, and found herself in Berlin 30 years ago this week (November 9, 1989) when the Berlin Wall came down. As she experienced and reported this incredible news, she met many people whose stories have impacted her to this day.
This photo was taken in the days just after the Fall of the Berlin Wall (30th anniversary of that event was November 9, 2019.) I was reporting from Berlin for Radio Deutsche Welle – armed with my Marantz cassette recorder and microphone. Of course MANY people were reporting from Berlin at that time, including the American TV networks. At one point I happened to be working the same street as Peter Jennings. The sharply dressed woman next to him was his translator. The fellow with earphones was his sound guy. I watched them work for a bit and then moved along to gather my own interviews. It was a crazy, exciting, wonder-filled experience.
And…this story was the main result of my Fall-of-the-Wall reporting adventure in Berlin. (I took this photo the morning they opened the new crossing at Potsdamer Platz. We heard them jack-hammering from the other side the night before.)
Click here and close your eyes to be transported to Berlin in November 1989….30 years ago. To a different time and a different place.
Sarah’s story is but one of the many stories that could be told by alumni of West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Wesleyan’s Intentional Interactions With the World
Whether it is bringing world experiences to Buckhannon or going to faraway places to experience new cultures, Wesleyan is so committed to encouraging students to learn about the world, and to offer service, that it is even one of the major missions of the college:
What could a Music Conservatory and eSports possibly have in common? Both require practice space, and both have occupied space in the same building on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College, more than a century apart.
1900
In 1900, ten full years after the opening of the West Virginia Conference Seminary, the campus was much different than what we see today.
West Virginia Conference Seminary Catalog, 1900
There was a main building which housed all of the classrooms, offices, a chapel, and Literary Society Halls. There was Ladies’ Hall (a mere five years old in this photograph) for housing the female students. Men boarded with families in town at that time.
Professor James J. Jelley, hired in 1899 as the Director of the Conservatory of Music, was adamant that the Conservatory needed a building dedicated to that purpose. Space was needed for instruments, practice facilities, and to house the Conservatory Circulating Library of Music.
1902
In 1902, J.J. Jelley’s dream was fulfilled. This is one of the oldest buildings on our campus. In fact, it is THE oldest academic building.
1905 and Beyond
Only a few years after it was completed it had its first of many changes in purpose.
The fire that destroyed the Seminary Building in 1905 meant that there was a huge need for office and classroom space.
When the Student Army Training Corp was here in 1918, a flu epidemic swept through the troops causing the Annex building to be used as a hospital and a place of quarantine.
Through the years, the building has been used for many other purposes as well, including admission office and art department, and today is beginning a brand new adventure as the eSports Stadium (dedicated on October 31, 2019) is now located on the first floor of the building.
The seemingly simple and plain building has survived several attempts to tear it down through the years. Although it is a very plain building, there were some subtle structural things done to try and make it a bit more interesting.
Through all of the years I have passed by this building, I never noticed them until I took an architectural tour of campus with local Architect, Bryson Van Nostrand.
As he pointed out:
The first floor windows are rectangles.
The second floor windows have a half-arch at the top
The third floor windows have a full arch
I’ll bet that you will never see this building in the same way again! I know that I find it interesting every time I pass by it now.
2019
And now, in 2019, renovation of the first floor in one of our oldest buildings has created a facility for another historic first. Wesleyan has the first collegiate eSports team in West Virginia.
Following NCAA guidelines on training and practice sessions, and competing in the National Association of Collegiate eSports (NACE), Wesleyan is once again leading the way into what has become one of the fastest growing spectator sports in the world. The number of colleges with eSports teams has doubled in recent years, and now boasts 130 schools involving more than 3,000 students.
Their new facility has made this possible. Like the Conservatory before it, the eSports Arena provides practice space as well as equipment. Coach Wu says that “this facility replicates tournament conditions with hardware that is used by League of Legends Championship Series professionals. The ‘Arena’ will enable us to play, practice, and grow as a team and I am looking forward to the accomplishments our team will accrue moving forward.”
Coach Kevin Wu and his team participated in the ceremonial ribbon cutting ceremony on October 31, 2019 officially opening the eSports Arena at Wesleyan.
The inagural Bobcat eSports team includes a stong group of heavily recruited Computer Science majors who all happen to be from West Virginia. Coming from small towns and cities alike, these players will be applying technical skills, teamwork, and critical thinking as they compete.
Abraham Blouir of Pennsboro, WV
William Butcher of Ellenboro, WV
Brandon Cochran of Given, WV
Stanley Ciciora of Lewisburg, WV
Thomas Flannery of Charleston, WV
Gabe Poling of Moatsville, WV
Jacob Williamson of Renick, WV
Abraham Blouir and his parents – Signing Day 2019 at Ritchie County High School
Coach Wu says that he is hoping to eventually develop a roster with thirty players, and is actively in search of female players for the team.
Computer Science professor Don Tobin says he is looking forward to working with these students in the classroom as well. He notes that eSports requires intense problem solving skills and teamwork – things that are in high demand in the world today.
Sports Innovations Through the Years
Another early building that set the stage for growth and innovation in sports was what is now referred to as the “Old Gymnasium.”
Built in 1912, the Gymnasium provided facilities for athletics, physical education, offices, classrooms, and a location for dances and other festive events. Page 5 of the March 1913 College Bulletin describes the Gymnasium in some detail.
These were the days of Giants in the athletic realm – both coaches and players.
The facility also made it possible for WVWC to organize and host the first state high school basketball tournament on March 21, 1914. That year Elkins and Wheeling each claimed to be supreme. Harry Stansbury, who also served as Athletic Director, invited them to Buckhannon to settle the dispute on the court. Elkins emerged victorious and became the first “State Champions.” The tournament continued here until 1938.
In 1915, Wesleyan athletic director Stansbury contacted high schools all over West Virginia, inviting them to participate in an open tournament for the state basketball title. Fourteen teams answered the call, and the building of a sports tradition was under way. His vision, enthusiasm, and energy were the key factors in creating an event that has involved many thousands of players and fans throughout the years. Around West Virginia, March Madness is Nothing New thanks to Harry Stansbury.
Harry Stansbury Connection
When Scott McKinney, West Virginia Wesleyan Chief Financial Officer, went in search of furniture and equipment for the new eSports Arena, he found a great deal on some high quality tables. But these were not just any tables.
He found them at an auction at West Virginia University as they were preparing to tear down Stansbury Hall in August 2019. This building, originally built in 1929 as the West Virginia University Field House, was the home to WVU basketball from 1929-1970 and was the place where Jerry West and Hot Rod Hundley made history. In 1973 it was renamed Stansbury Hall to honor Wesleyan’s own Harry Stansbury – who had gone on to become the athletic director at WVU from 1916-1938.
The tables, which would have cost tens of thousands of dollars if purchased through regular channels, were obtained for $1,200. But, more than that, I believe that Harry Stansbury, the forward-thinking, innovative son of WVWC would be extremely pleased to have a connection to this new adventure.
That group has a story all of its own for another day, but suffice it to say that David Milburn would be excited to see the Legacy being carried forward.
