McGilvery, Rockwell, Manchester, Stopher, Olson, McDowell and Dunbar are familiar to most people on the Kent State University Kent Campus as the names of buildings. But in the 1922-1923 academic year, the people that these buildings were named for were members of Kent State Normal College’s faculty and board of trustees.
Some of the profiles below also include photo captions that were featured in the faculty section of the somewhat-whimsical Chestnut Burr yearbook of 1921.
John E. McGilvrey
Due to his own modesty and some unfortunate circumstance, the first president of Kent State didn’t have a building on campus named for him until 1940.
When the William A Cluff Teachers Training Building was due to be renamed in 1934 because its function was changing, the trustees voted that it be renamed in McGilvrey’s honor. However, as Cluff had been among the conspirators on the board of trustees who had dismissed McGilvrey in 1926, the former president thought that putting his name on the building would be in bad form. He instead accepted the title of “President Emeritus,” as he returned to Kent State to revitalize the alumni organization.
Cluff’s name still appears on the pediment of Franklin Hall. It was renamed in 1956, with the original name of the city of Kent: Franklin Mills. It’s one of the few buildings on the Kent Campus that is not named after a person.
McGilvrey Hall under construction in 1940
In 1940, when the new science building was constructed, after McGilvrey headed the fundraising efforts for its construction, he accepted the honor of having it dedicated in his name.
Margaret I. Dunbar, Isabelle Dunbar
“The presiding spirit who watches over the students in the library so they will not get ‘bewildered.’ We appreciate her care even tho’ we haven’t shown it all the time.”
Dunbar served the university from 1913 to 1943. Margaret’s sister, Isabelle Dunbar, also worked in the University Library from 1913 to 1955. While the building was not specifically named for both sisters, it might as well honor their memory together. The sisters worked tirelessly to establish the first school library by consolidating books from across the institution in one location, the unfinished Administration Building (now Rockwell Hall).
Dunbar Hall
In her many years working at Kent State, Isabelle Dunbar was well-appreciated by the students she assisted. Her entry in the 1921 Chestnut Burr reads, ‘”You’re certainly welcome,’ How pleasing this sounds when you have annoyed her for two days and say, ‘Thank you.’”
Stephen A. Harbourt
Professor Harbourt taught biology at Kent State from 1922-1940. In the back of a student’s copy of The Chestnut Burr 1922, he wrote, “In these strenuous times, you have to run as fast as you can to stand still.”
Harcourt began his teaching career at the age of 16 because, he said “he liked teaching better than anything else. After earning his university degrees and studying at several different universities, he taught at several Ohio schools from 1888-1911.
Harbourt served as a supervisor of the Ohio State Department of Education from 1911 to 1915, before coming to teach at Kent State College beginning part-time in the summer of 1919 before joining the full-time faculty in 1922. He retired in 1940 to devote more time to his position as a city councilman in Kent.
Harbourt Hall, built in 1967, was formerly a residence hall, in a group of residence halls called Small Group, phase 1. It is now the home of University Facilities Planning and Operations, Procurement, and the University Architect.
Bertha Louise Nixson
The notation for her photo in the 1921 Chestnut Burr is “What would the Household Science Department be without Miss Nixson? We can say it wouldn’t be very much.”
Nixson joined the faculty in 1915 and helped build the department of home economics from scratch into one with the modern equipment of the time, including two model homes, one in 1929 and another in 1947, established in her honor. The 1947 version was a three-story building built in 1865 on the corner of Summit Road and Terrace Drive, where six students could practice the responsibilities related to running a household. She was head of the department of home economics when she resigned in 1945.
Nixson Hall, which is located near Verder Hall and the Kent Center for the Performing Arts, was dedicated to Bertha Nixson in 1966.
David Olson
Hired as one of Kent State's first faculty members in 1913, David Olson, Ph.D., served as the founding chairman of the Geology and Geography Department. He resigned in 1945 to conduct research in social science at the Research Institute at the University of North Carolina.
When he resigned in 1945, the Daily Kent Stater reported, “Arriving here when Kent was only a small normal school, Dr. Olson has nursed his department through two world wars, many changes and expansion. Many educators in this area have studied under his guidance through the years, and numerous students in other fields have taken his courses.”
The caption accompanying his photo in the whimsical 1921 edition of The Chestnut Burr states “He likes one to be specific even if it is a difficult task. He comes from Wisconsin, which explains everything.”
Olson Hall was dedicated in 1961.
David Ladd Rockwell (right) with newly appointed Kent State President James Orzo Engleman (left) and Ohio Governor Myers Y. Cooper (center)
David Ladd Rockwell
In 1900, Rockwell gained nationwide attention when he was elected mayor of Kent. At 21, he was the youngest mayor in the nation. He had a long career in politics, notably serving as a Portage County judge and the campaign manager for Democratic candidate for U.S. president, William G. McAdoo in 1924. He was part of the commission that selected Kent as the site for a school and he served on Kent State’s Board of Trustees from 1919-1933.
Rockwell was a controversial figure. He was mainly responsible for the ousting of Kent State’s first president, John McGilvrey, in 1926 and also tried to remove President James Orzo Engleman in 1934. Reaction to this unsuccessful effort caused his request to be reappointed to the board to be denied.
Rockwell Fields, on the site that is now The Commons near Taylor Hall was Kent State’s first athletic field, and was used for football, baseball, and men’s track and field events from 1920 to 1941.
Rockwell Hall in the 1930s
Rockwell Hall was built in 1927 to house the university library and administration offices. It is now home to the Kent State University Museum and the Kent State School of Fashion Design and Merchandising.
The gang's all here! John A. McDowell appears in this photo, fourth from right in the top row. Taken in 1912, this was the placing of the cornerstone of Merrill Hall, Kent State's oldest building. Also pictured are: First row, left to right: A. B. Stutzman, John Hamilton Lowry, R. H. Evan, Duncan B. Wolcott, Henry W. Riddle, John Edward McGilvrey. Second row:William A. Walls, William S. Kent, Edwin F. Moulton, George F. Hammond, Peter W. Doyle, John A. McDowell, Frank A. Merrill (with mallet), John F.Zeller, L. E. Rodenbaugh.
John A. McDowell
In 1922, John A. McDowell was the last remaining member of the college’s 1912 founding board of trustees. He served as secretary of the board and later as president and was also the superintendent of Portage County Schools. In 1924, McDowell became the first recipient of an honorary degree from Kent State.
McDowell Hall was dedicated in 1966. The other half of Kent State’s “Twin Towers” was named for Florence Beall, who was a professor in the English Department from 1933 to 1957.
Beall and McDowell Halls under construction in 1966
Three of the five original campus buildings were named for members of the 1912 Board of Trustees, John A. McDowell, Frank A. Merill and Edwin F. Moulton. Other buildings, Lowry Hall and Kent Hall, were named for John H. Lowry, legislator and sponsor of the bill which created Kent State Normal School, and William S. Kent, the donor of the land for the original campus.
Raymond E. Manchester
“Mr. Manchester has just come to us this year, and now we have in our midst a real poet.”
Coming to Kent State College in 1920, Manchester served as the Head of the Mathematics Department, and advisor to men, and in 1925 he was appointed dean of men, a position he held for almost 30 years.
Manchester authored several books on mathematics, and his poetry and fiction were published in a number of magazines and booklets. He is well remembered for his series, The Saturday Letter, a short weekly essay in letter form, begun in 1934 and written to dispense humor and advice to Kent State University's male student population.
Kent State President George Bowman (right) and Dean Raymond E. Manchester posed with the Wagon Wheel in 1951 as part of the Penny Fund to send copies of the Daily Kent Stater to Kent grads and former students in the armed forces.
In 1946, he began the tradition of the Wagon Wheel – the trophy awarded to the winner of the annual Kent State vs. University of Akron football game. He donated the antique wheel and created a fanciful story to go along with it.
Following his retirement from the university in 1954 as dean emeritus of men, Manchester successfully ran for mayor of the city of Kent in 1955 and 1957 and became a state representative for Portage County in 1958.
Fletcher (left) and Manchester (right) Halls are part of the Eastway Center Complex
Manchester Hall, one of the four residence halls in the Eastway Center Complex was named for him in 1963. The residence hall adjoining Manchester Hall, Fletcher Hall, was named for Mona Fletcher, professor emeritus of political science. She joined the faculty in 1924 and retired in 1963.
Emmet C. Stopher and John T. Johnson
Stopher and Johnson have the distinction of having two buildings in their names. The original Stopher Hall and Johnson Hall were constructed in 1956 and later demolished. The new Stopher-Johnson complex was opened in 2006 and is home to the Honors College.
Emmet C. Stopher was a longtime registrar for Kent State, serving from 1916-1947. His photo caption in the 1921 Chestnut Burr reads, “A true friend and helper, especially in the training school. He likes to keep one guessing, but in the end, he gives the right answer.”
John T. Johnson (center) with an extension class in Bedford, Ohio in 1913.
John T. Johnson was a professor emeritus of agriculture and photography. He was the first dean of faculty at Kent State Normal School and oversaw the opening of official opening of the school in the summer of 1913, as President McGilvrey had fallen ill. He taught at the school from 1912-1917 before leaving to teach at the Cleveland School of Education and later, Bowling Green State Normal College. He returned to Kent State in 1925 to head the College Farm and Agricultural Department and also briefly served as a professor of photography and as the official university photographer before retiring in 1941.
May H. Prentice
“Miss Prentice loves all children, big or little, and she is always ready to help them.”
One of the institution’s original, founding teachers, and the school’s first woman faculty member Prentice may be the only former educator in Kent to have three structures named in her honor on Kent State’s Kent Campus. Prentice retired from Kent State in 1930, after a 55-year career in education.
Prentice Gate, located near the intersection of East Main and South Lincoln Streets was dedicated to her in 1935. It once served as the official gateway to the university, and it was a campus tradition to have graduation classes walk through it following commencement.
Prentice Hall was dedicated and named in her honor in 1959. It was the last remaining all-female residence hall on campus until it became co-ed in 2008.
The Wick Poetry Center is based in the house in which Prentice lived while she taught at Kent State. Originally located at 128 South Willow, the house was moved in 2012 as the Lester S. Lefton Esplanade was expanded and then renovated to become home to the poetry center.
The Wick Poetry Center in the May Prentice House
Not to be Forgotten
Three faculty members from 1922-1923 whose names might not be as familiar to students on campus today are Clinton S. Van Deusen, Marie Hyde Apple and Nina Humphrey, because the buildings that were named after them have changed names or have been demolished.
Clinton S. Van Deusen
“’Let us learn by doing,’ Mr. Van Deusen is a firm believer in this theory.”
Professor Clinton Van Deusen was head of the manual training program at the founding of Kent College. When the renamed industrial arts program grew exponentially after World War II – like so many at Kent State and around the United States following the G.I. Bill – it needed more dedicated space. The new building, completed in 1950, was later named to honor Professor Van Deusen.
In 2014, the 1916 Heating Plant and Van Deusen Hall were renovated and linked to become the new Center for the Visual Arts, which opened in 2016.
The Center for the Visual Arts
Marie Hyde Apple
First joining the Kent State faculty in 1918 as the physical director of women, and an associate professor in the Department of Health and Physical Education, Apple’s career at the institution spanned 35 years – she was the first chair of the Department of Women’s Physical Education and a member of the Women’s Athletic Association. Apple was granted emerita status in 1969.
Nina Humphrey
Humphrey was one of the original faculty members of Kent State Normal School in 1913 and also one of the longest-serving. When she retired in 1951, she was the only remaining faculty member from those early days. An art professor, and the founding head of Kent State’s Department of Art, her cheerful disposition and motherly way was noted in a Chestnut Burr yearbooks of 1915 and 1916 as being comforting to homesick students.
Humphrey Hall in 1971
During World War II, she recognized the need for occupational therapy programs in rehabilitation centers for returning veterans. Humphrey developed courses for an occupational therapy program that included physiology, anatomy, psychology and sociology courses, as well as practice work in hospitals. She was granted emerita status in 1951, a few months after her retirement.
Apple and Humphrey Halls were part of the Small Group Complex of residence halls that were demolished in 2008.
Recent Additions
The most recent structure on the Kent Campus to be named for an administrator or faculty member is the Beverly J. Warren Student Wellness and Recreation Center. The facility, opened in 1999, was named for her in June 2019, to honor her service to the university as president from 2014 to 2019.
The Beverly J. Warren Student Recreatioon and Wellness Center