Some photographs have a way of coming up again and again.
Each time we see it, we see different things. For example, this photograph of the entire campus community in 1928 first came to my attention in the WVWC archives a decade or so ago. It was rolled up and placed in a box. We unrolled it, flattened it out, and took it to an architectural firm who had a special scanner which could handle the size and format of this picture.
I found myself wondering who these people were. What did their experience at WVWC look like? What happened to them later?
These questions persisted, and the idea for DreamersAndGiants began to take hold. The photo surfaced again and a section of it is part of the graphic on the front page of the website.
It came up yet again in a Blog Post in June of 2018 (Cloud of Witnesses) when I was writing about the faculty through the years. At that time, I was looking mainly at faculty, but I also continued to wonder about those students.
A Fresh Look in Context
The photograph was taken in March 1928. This was a full year and a half before the stock market would crash…..bringing on the Great Depression.
It was roughly a decade after World War I and a decade before World War II.
It was three years before the board accepted the resignation of President Homer Wark, and elected President Roy McCuskey.
It was eight years after Ladies Hall had been renamed Agnes Howard Hall.
Haymond Hall of Science was fourteen years old.
It would be twelve years before Thomas W. Haught (seated next to President Homer Wark in the center of this photograph) would write the first history of the college. West Virginia Wesleyan College : First Fifty Years 1890-1940. In fact, the school was not quite 40 years old at that moment.
Because I have read this book and the two that followed (A History of West Virginia Wesleyan College 1890-1965 by KennethPlummer and Our Home Among the Hills: West Virginia Wesleyan College’s First 125 Years, by Brett T. Miller), and thanks to the digitization of college publications such as catalogs, yearbooks, Pharos, and alumni publications, I can now identifity people in this picture. Some are very familiar now, and I find that I can spot them right away.
Because of these resources, I now even know the stories of some of them, and have been able to share them on the DreamersAndGiants website and in the weekly Blog posts.
It turns out that there are definitely some Giants in this iconic photograph. And some who are yet unknown.
Who Was There? (Faculty)
Cecelia Alexander (WVWC’s first librarian. She died in an automobile accident five months after this picture was taken.)
Arthur Aylesworth (Bookkeeper and Treasurer 1922-44)
Jacob Bos (Professor of Languages 1923-52)
Ralph C. Brown (Class of 1915; Taught Bible and Religion 1922-61)
Lewis Chrisman (Professor of English Literature 1919-56)
Paul Crissman (Philosophy and Psychology 1925-28)
James Deck (German Languages, Greek, Modern Languages 1901-32)
Clara Fishpaugh (Education 1925-30)
Camp Wellington Foltz (Director of the Conservatory of Music 1925-27)
George Glauner (History 1923-66)
Eleanore Hancher (Biology 1926-28)
Thomas W. Haught (Sem. 1894, Many Roles!)
Nicholas Hyma (Chemistry 1919-56)
Oda Earl Karickhoff (Class of 1905; Sociology and Economics 1919-46)
Zeno Le Tellier (Mathematics 1922-28)
Reemt Eike Luebbbers (Business Administration and Finance 1926-30)
Bartlett Lyons (Public School Music 1926-33_
Lois Muree McCloskey (Home Economis 1922-29)
Frank Edwin Muzzy (Voice and Piano 1918-41)
Aiice Nason (Physical Education for Women 1922-39)
Rachel Ogden (Dean of Women 1926-34; Modern Languages 1926-47)
Ruth Raw (English Composition 1925-29)
Cecil B. (Cebe) Ross (Class of 1923; Coach, Director of Athletics; Physical Education 1925-42; 1946-54)
R. Ray Scott (Education 1921-35)
Leta Snodgrass (Sem.1904; Art 1913-49; WVWC Masters 1933)
Edgar Sorton (Violin 1926-28; Music 1938-44)
Homer Wark (President 1926-31)
Who Was There? (Students)
These students became doctors, lawyers, pastors, professors, and leaders in all walks of life. Some served in World War II. There were artists, athletes, debaters, musicians, and writers.
Among these students are several people that we might recognize. For example:
Forrest Bachtel (Class of 1930; Forrest Bachtel was the starting quarterback for Wesleyan for four years. He also lettered in basketball three times, as well as serving as the captain in 1930.)
Charles Ross Culpepper (Class of 1930; Honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1950. He became a prominent minister in the West Virginia Annual Conference and was a delegate to three World Conferences. He served in World War II on active duty for 4 1/2 years and was in the National Guard for 17 years, retiring as a colonel. He is the father of Marvin Culpepper who graduated in the class of 1951).
Katherine Ellen Currran (Class of 1930; Katherine eventually married classmate David Echols Reemsnyder and, when she died in 2013 at 104 years old, she was Wesleyan’s oldest alumna)
Randall Hamrick (Class of 1930; Director of Personnel 1938-42; Taught Bible, Philosophy, and Religion)
David Reemsnyder (Class of 1930; Physical Education 1935-73; Director of Athletics 1960-73)
The expressions on the faces of these students would tend to suggest that they were a lively bunch. Some look serious, some appear annoyed at having to pose for the photograph, and some look downright ornery. In other words, they are much like the students of today.
A snapshot of a group of students. It is often hard to recognize the significance of a moment when we are in it.