Spirit Day Stories

May. 4, 2006 —The Wingtipped Warrior

Since this is the last Spirit Day story of the year I thought I would send something from the May 10, 1968 edition of the Ambrosian News (the Buzz of its day).

For two years Dan Doran had written a column for the Ambrosian News entitled, “The Wingtipped Warrior.” In May, just weeks before he graduated, he wrote his last column about his experience at St. Ambrose which he called “the most truly enlightening portion of my life. For here, under the Oaks . . . I was able to grow.” He said he saw students struggle to achieve in the classroom, in their social lives, in their religious lives. He served as a proctor and he saw them get into and out of trouble, and “laugh, cry, shout, whisper . . . live.” He realized that it was the people who made St. Ambrose worth whatever it cost to attend, “People who have trouble getting papers in on time, people who don’t have trouble; people who get into trouble, people who never get into trouble; people who frequent the Tiptopper, people who never go into the Tiptopper; people who sit in the student center and who solve the problems of the day, people who never go into the student center. The people who are not in the categories above [are] people like Margarette behind the counter [of the snack bar in the Bee Hive]; Mrs. Salsbury on the PA [in the Bee Hive], and surely the most underrated woman on the campus, the incomparable Mrs. Spencer in the Dean’s office. This is Ambrose. Ambrose is essentially people, the ones you know and the ones you don’t know.” This last column was his attempt to express his thanks to the institution, its people, and “even to the oaks. . . . Ambrose has been good to the Warrior and quite simply, I came . . . I saw . . . I loved . . . I lived. Thank you.”

Happy Spirit Day!

Apr. 6, 2006 — A History of the Bee Hive

Now that we have, at least temporarily, a Bee Hive Chapel, I thought it would be nice to look at the history of the Bee Hive. The original Bee Hive opened as a new campus hangout in the basement of the library-administration building (now McMullen Hall) on February 8, 1948. The Reverend Fred Verbeckmoes, who had opened a new bookstore in the basement of Davis Hall the year before, was the manager. The space was decorated with green and red block floor tiles and a yellow ceiling with red and green stripes on the beams. There were booths and a bar that could accommodate up to ninety patrons. On opening day Bishop Ralph L. Hayes, the president, Msgr. Ambrose Burke, a group of sisters from Marycrest, and St. Ambrose and Marycrest students came in to see it.

In the spring of 1960 work began on a $100,000 project to create a new college center in the northeast corner of Ambrose Hall. When it was built in 1908, the area had served as the gymnasium. After LeClaire Gymnasium was built, a second floor was added to the high-ceilinged room, and it became the manual training area for the academy. The academy had moved two years before when it became the male half of Assumption High School. John Morrissey and his crew took out the second floor to create a balcony that was connected to the lounge area and conversation pit below by a circular staircase. They dug out the space behind this to create a game room, a quiet room, and a snack bar area. When it was finished the Bee Hive moved from the basement of the library-administration building to the new space. To carry out the Bee Hive theme, a two-story wall was constructed outside using open cement block whose pattern was meant to resemble a beehive.

The new Bee Hive opened as part of the homecoming celebration of 1961. There to greet the students was Mrs. Loretta Salsbury, who served as director of the Bee Hive, and Mrs. Edna Deardoff, her assistant. Their duties included scheduling meetings, making announcements on the public address system, usually because someone had a phone call, picking up after the not-always-so-neat students, and providing a “fourth for a game of cards.” After a few years in the position, Mrs. Salsbury said, “I keep things halfway under control . . . Without a woman, this place would be terribly wild. . . . You need patience, a sense of humor, and stamina to deal with students, especially boys, but I love it.” Over the years, Mrs. Salsbury, and the other women who served with her, also became confidants of generations of students away from home.

Now that the area is no longer the Bee Hive, wouldn’t it be appropriate to transfer the name once again, now to the food court area of the Rogalski Center? The name has more buzz than the generic Food Court, and I can envision the rather dull wall above the windows on the west ablaze with neon lights proclaiming that this is the Bee Hive. Perhaps if enough St. Ambrose Bees swarm around the idea and let the worker bees in charge know, we can make the change.

Happy Spirit Day!

A Poll on Parking

This is a Spirit Day Extra for a grey, March day illustrating again that Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

A 1959 poll in the Ambrosian News asked what could be done to “ease the parking problem at St. Ambrose?” One respondent said the problem was not “too bad now” if you did not mind a short walk, but that it was getting worse every semester. He suggested that the area to be vacated by the barracks [what is now the parking lot behind Galvin] could become a parking lot, or that the college should build a multi-level parking garage where students and faculty could pay to rent a space. Another student said parking was “quite a problem” and suggested that Locust and Gaines Streets could be widened to accommodate more parking or that the college could cut down some of the trees in front of Ambrose Hall and put a parking lot there. A third respondent said he had talked with the Davenport Police Department who told him that parking was going to be eliminated on Locust Street and the east side of Gaines Street, and so the student said that the only solution was a parking lot in front of Ambrose Hall.

Happy Spirit Day!

Mar. 2, 2006 — Cars

Two items from the late 1950s:

Someone has said that the only difference between a college professor and a student is a new car. The college professor doesn’t have one.

“I don’t see where I’m going to get money for the prom,” said one Ambrosian.

“What did you do with the money you made last summer, with the money you’ve been making in the Bee Hive, with the money your folks have been sending you?”

The no-longer wealthy Ambrosian shook his head and said, “Part of it I spent at Heeter’s [a local night spot], part of it on my car, and part of it on girls from Marycrest and Marian Hall [the nurses’ residence at Mercy Hospital]. The rest I spent foolishly.”

Happy Spirit Day!

Feb. 2, 2006 — Our School Song

The last Spirit Day Story involved music so I thought I would continue on the same theme, this time about school songs.

The first school song of which I am aware was “The Blue and White,” composed by Ervin Swindell, with lyrics by S. A. Crabbe and published in 1918. Swindell was a local music teacher who had his own studio but taught part time at St. Ambrose. I don’t know who Crabbe was. It is a peppy song in 6/8 time and begins, “Where mighty Mississippi flows,/ Where o’er the west wind blows,/ The oaken boughs swing to and fro,/ And spring birds come and sing and go/The old school stands; the old bell rings,/Whose echo in my heart still sings/Hurrah, Hurrah, St. Ambrose!/ Hurrah for the White and Blue!/Hurrah, Hurrah, for St. Ambrose!/Alma Mater, here’s to you.” There is another verse. There were also special verses for the war, “When freedom called her sons around.” There was a verse for the football team and one for commencement. The song was published as a piece of sheet music with a wonderful drawing of Ambrose Hall and the oak trees that you all may see more of one day [a plug for the book].

In 1928, thirty-year-old Bernard Schultz came to St. Ambrose to study pre-medicine. In 1923-24 he had played alto sax and trumpet with the orchestra on board the ocean liner S.S. Leviathan, one of many orchestras of the Paul Whiteman organization. Later he led his own Crescent Orchestra which played and recorded in Chicago. When he came to St. Ambrose he revived the band, which had not had a leader for several years. He composed the “Victory March,” “Here’s to the team and victory.” There was another song from that era called “Go! St. Ambrose, go!” but I don’t know anything about it.

In 1936 some members of the alumni association wanted an alma mater, a song that was a hymn of praise to St. Ambrose College, modeled on “Old Gold,” the alma mater of the University of Iowa (and a better model they could not have picked!). The music department had already decided to use the melody, “Finlandia,” by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and in November 1936, it announced a contest for the lyrics to accompany it. The faculty of the English department agreed to serve as judges. In May 1937, William Kerrigan, a senior from Davenport, was declared the winner for the lyrics you all sing so beautifully at commencement ceremonies.

Happy Spirit Day!! Sing Well!!

Dec. 01, 2005 — Oom-Pa-Pa

In the first 30 years of the twentieth century the college band was led be a succession of conductors, sometimes even by a student. In the fall of 1931 the leader of the band was Nedde Catich, a freshman from Mooseheart, Illinois. Catich was born in Montana but, orphaned at age eleven, he was sent to Mooseheart, Illinois. He played in the Mooseheart band, which toured the country in a series of concerts. Following graduation from high school in 1924, Catich became a sign painter in Chicago, studied at the Art Institute, and played in a jazz band in local clubs. He brought those skills to St. Ambrose where he led the band to help pay his tuition. He led the marching band, and also played the trumpet. Sebastian Menke, then a member of the football team, recalled that those “who played football to his marching band were convinced that his trumpet never gave out an uncertain call for battle.” Those of us who remember him know that Catich was never uncertain about anything! In addition to the marching band, Catich organized a jazz orchestra called the “Ambie Joy Boys,” and then later he organized the “Royal Ambrosians,” which had saxophones, trombone, trumpet, tuba, violins, drums, banjo, piano, and vocalist Verdell Williams. The Royal Ambrosians played for “light entertainments,” on campus and represented the school when a “lighter vein of music” was asked for outside the college. Catich played trumpet in the Royal Ambrosians, and among the other players was Pasquale Ferrara, another student from Mooseheart, described as the “most cheerful and even tempered chap in the school,” who played the tuba.

Can’t you just hear the oom-pa-pa?

Happy Spirit Day!

Nov. 03, 2005 — At Least 100

In March 1927, the North Central Association voted to grant membership to St. Ambrose College. Since we are preparing for a visit next year it might be interesting to know what we had to do to achieve membership in 1927. The standards of accredited institutions of higher education included:

1. The college is legally authorized to grant degrees and organizes its curricula so that the early years are a continuation of secondary school and the upper two years “are shaped more or less distinctly in the direction of special, professional or graduate instruction.
2. The college requires at lest 15 units of secondary work
3. The college requires 120 hours for graduation.
4. The college of 200 students or less shall have at least 8 distinct departments with each having at least 1 person of professorial rank. This should increase proportionately as the college grows.
5. The minimum training for college teachers is a BA from an accredited college. Head of departments should have a PhD or the equivalent. The teacher’s success is to be determined by the efficiency of his teaching as well as his research work.
6. Teaching schedules exceeding 16 hours per week, per instructor, will be interpreted as endangering educational efficiency.
7. Classes (exclusive of lectures) of more than 30 students endanger educational efficiency.
8. The college should prepare its graduates to enter graduate school.
9. The character of the curriculum, the efficiency of the instruction and the scientific spirit, the standard for regular degrees, conservatism in granting honorary degrees, and the tone of the institution shall be factors in determining eligibility for accrediting.
10. The college must have at least 100 students.
11. A library of at least 8,000 volumes and appropriate laboratories are necessary.
12. The college shall have a minimum annual income of $50,000, one-half of which must come from sources other than tuition. It shall possess an endowment of at least $500,000.
13. A college should not maintain a secondary school as part of the college organization.
14. Professional departments are accepted separately.
15. The college must be inspected by agents of the Association.

Good luck, and thanks, to those who are working for the visitation next year.

Happy Spirit Day!

Oct. 07, 2005 — Counting Stones

The new residence hall is the twenty-sixth building on campus, that is if you count the five parts of Ambrose Hall separately, count Davis Hall as two buildings since it was built in two halves four years apart, and count the townhouses as four separate buildings although they were one construction project, and don’t count the 19th century Play Hall or pest house and the 20th century convent/gray house which have been torn down, or the bookstore which was built as a gas station, or the coaches’ house which was built as a private residence. Most of them have something in common, a cornerstone or date stone. But of all the cornerstones and various dedication stones on campus, only one is in Roman numerals

That may seem odd on a campus with a Roman Catholic heritage, where generations of students struggled through years of Latin classes, and where Roman history is in the curriculum. Yet, there it is. The cornerstone on the original section of Ambrose Hall says 1885 (which would be MDCCCLXXXV). Most of the other buildings on campus have a date stone somewhere, either inside the lobby or outside. Some merely indicate the date. Some (Schneider Town House, Hayes, Cosgrove Hall, and Galvin) include the name of the bishop who dedicated the building. The stone for two buildings, Christ the King Chapel and Lewis Hall add, probably unnecessarily, the initials A.D. The most recent buildings, Tiedemann, Hagen, Bechtel, and the New Dorm, have no date stones at all. That is too bad, especially for Hagen, which since it was built in the year 2000 would have the elegantly concise Roman numeral date stone, MM. The largest numbers on cornerstones are on the tower of O’Keefe Library where thirteen-inch-high numbers tell us the building went up in 1996 (MCMXCVI). But only high up on the west end of Ambrose Hall do we find the Roman numerals which date it MCMI (1901).

Father Edward Catich often referred to it as the “McMigh” building, suggesting a Scottish or Irish donor. Father Fred McMahan tried to convince us that the letters were a form of his name, an argument made somewhat more believable since for a time he lived in the fourth-floor apartment just behind the numerals. But, as always, legend is more interesting than the truth: the building was put up in 1901, hence MCMI. You may say that Roman numerals are archaic, well, they are. You may say you cannot read them: learn! But whether Roman or Arabic, cornerstones or date stones are useful because they record progress and help us to keep track of our growth, which on a campus growing this fast, is a helpful thing to do.

Happy Spirit Day, X/VII/MMV

Sept. 02, 2005 — Self-possession Befitting a True Gentleman

In the first forty years of the college there were many literary and debating societies. Their purpose was to give the students an opportunity to practice public speaking, or as the St. Ambrose Literary and Debating Society, the first one here, said, its purpose was to help the students learn the “self-possession so befitting a true gentleman, and that eloquence and readiness for speech so necessary for the orator.” The activities of these groups included reading essays, delivering poetry or declamations of famous speeches, but the most common activity was to stage debates. Over the years the topics were recycled but they were on such varied topics as: “That to Columbus alone belongs the honor of having discovered America; that the Indians had a full right to America; that theoretical bookkeeping is necessary for a businessman; that a street car line over the government bridge would be beneficial to the city of Davenport; that a mechanic is more useful to the country than a farmer; that there is more science in the game of football than in a game of baseball; that the prohibition law is beneficial to the state of Iowa; that the statesman is more worthy of esteem of the people than the soldier.”

The names of the societies at St. Ambrose changed: St. Ambrose, St. John’s, St. Thomas, Philalethic, and even one who conducted all its business in German, the Bonifaciusverein, but for me the most interesting was the Logomachetean Literary Society. It was formed in 1903 by eight philosophy students. At St. Ambrose in those years the philosophy students were the only real college students on campus, the rest were high school students. As such they formed something of a campus elite. They lived in a separate section of Ambrose Hall called Wisdom Row, where, according to legend, they lead a quiet life among books and games of chess. Thus the Logomachetean Society had a certain formality befitting a group of philosophers aware of their exalted position on campus. Each new member was formally voted in and then would ceremoniously sign his name in the society’s register. During meetings members would address one another as “mister.”

The issues discussed by the Logomachetean society were usually related to world events or current national controversies. There were debates about the Russo-Japanese War, the actions of the United States in fomenting revolution in Panama, a discussion about whether immigration was beneficial to the United States, debates about the tariff, a debate about women suffrage, and debates as to whether the federal government should control the railroads. The most frequent issue debated through the life of the society concerned the rights of labor to organize, the benefits of organization, whether labor unions were a “detriment” to the country, and whether child labor should be prohibited, all issues that would continue to be debated on campus over the coming decades. For all their seriousness of purpose they still maintained a sense of fun. Once in 1904 the issue proposed for debate was whether the hen that laid the egg or the hen that hatched it was the mother of the chicken. A number of members “vehemently objected” to the question because they felt it was not in the “spirit of the society and that the discussion of it would hardly be consistent with decency.”

Ah, for the good old days. Happy Spirit Day!

Aug. 23, 2005 — Beginning a Year

It is not a regular Spirit Day but it is the beginning of our 124th year. Here is something about the beginning of an earlier year.

The train carrying two ambitious young men, Lou Mueller and the writer, from Iowa City emerged from the Fejervary Park ravine and swing around the curve on its elevated roadbed. We suddenly found ourselves looking out upon a level expanse dotted with working men’s homes, plain and severe-looking in their small treeless yards. This was a new world for boys reared in the quiet atmosphere of a university town and the surrounding rural areas. It was a vivid and to us bewildering panorama with its disturbing emphasis on the nature of our modern industrial expansion. The train came to a stop at the old depot at Fifth and Perry and we asked for directions to the College. ‘Take a Harrison street car at the corner.’ We had never seen a street car. This one was the old summer type, open on both sides the full length, with a motorman and a conductor who swung himself along the outside platform from seat to seat to pick up and ring in our nickels. ‘We want to go to St. Ambrose College.’ ‘Yes, I’ll tell you when to get off.’

When Ulrich Hauber stepped off the Harrison Street car that tenth day of September in 1901, walked the two blocks to campus, and walked up the stairs of Ambrose Hall, he walked into the place that would be his home until his death in 1956. Moreover, for the generations of students who joined him at St. Ambrose during those decades, he would come to represent what was best about St. Ambrose, and themselves. It was the first year of the new century. On the day he arrived President McKinley lay dying in Buffalo and one of the first events he took part in at St. Ambrose would be the memorial mass for the dead president. The new president, the former Rough Rider Theodore Roosevelt, charged into the center of national life and seemed to say that change was afoot and all was possible. Years later Hauber the biologist and scientist would recall that a few years before his arrival on campus, radium was discovered which made possible the atomic age he would live to see. The year before he arrived, Mendel’s laws of genetics were rediscovered, having been ignored by scientists for decades. “Such events are decisive,” Hauber wrote. And at the beginning of the year, while Hauber was still a high school student in Iowa City, Queen Victoria died. She had lived long enough to have an era named for her and had become the symbol of the previous century. Nearly fifty years later Hauber wrote, “Somehow our young minds sensed than and there that important history was being made. We tried to picture the future, our future. Our dreams were wild, but hardly as fantastic as the reality it has come to be.”

Happy Spirit Day! Have a good year.

Baccalaureate Mass

Tomorrow is spirit day and next week we celebrate the Baccalaureate Mass and graduation. In 1954 the sermon at the Baccalaureate Mass was preached by Msgr. U. A. Hauber. Hauber had come to St. Ambrose as a student in 1901, was ordained a priest and returned to the faculty in 1908 where he taught biology. He was president of the college from 1926-1930 when he returned to the faculty where he remained until his death in 1956. He published biology textbooks and wrote extensively on the controversial topic of the relationship of religion and modern science.

In his sermon Hauber said: “You have acquired two valuable things: a trained mind and a fund of specialized knowledge. With that equipment you hope to make a living. . . . What you have is a form of wealth. And just as it is foolish for a rich man to boast of his wealth, so it is both wrong and foolish for anyone to take pride in his learning. An educated man, like a wealthy man, may still be a fool. That is part of my theme today.”

Happy Spirit Day!

Hauber said that a “complete education should look beyond wealth to wisdom.” And that a “wise man has asked himself the big questions of life . . . . Who made me? Who is God? Why am I here? Whither am I headed? How can I reach my goal?”

“Wisdom, as distinct from knowledge, consists largely in putting everything in its proper place. . . . Out in California there are trees that were saplings in Abraham‘s day, still alive and growing . . . During this time of year in Davenport one sees swarms of dayflies emerging from the river; they appear one day and are dead and gone the next. One of God’s creatures lives a thousand years; another only a few hours. . . . The longest life will sometime end, and only he is wise who plans first for eternity which does not end.

My word to you is this: Do not be selfish in your plans, don’t think too much about yourself; you will be a failure if you do. What I do for my neighbor in the concrete is what counts. If here and there some people are happier because of our presence, our life has been a success. Whether you live, like the Pacific redwoods, to be a hundred years old or more; or whether, like the Mississippi River dayfly, your day ends tomorrow, is a minor matter. The report you make to your Creator on what you have done with the time and talent he gave you is all that matters.”

Happy Spirit Day!

Mar. 03, 2005 — St. Patrick's and Ambrose

This is the month of St. Patrick's Day. St. Ambrose was founded by a man born in Ireland and many of the early faculty and students were of Irish descent. In the first years of the school St. Patrick's Day was celebrated with a program of music and speeches, and often, a day off from classes. The 1892 celebration is typical of those years. The program included toasts to the day, to the United States, to the music of Ireland, to Catholics in the U.S., and to Daniel O'Connell, given by students named Hanson, Shannahan, Condon, Loftus and Donohoe. The double quartet consisting of Gaule, Gallagher, Cotter, O'Reilly, Walsh, Patton, Condon and Gillespie sang "Marching Through Georgia," "Down on the Farm," and "The Dear Little Shamrock of Ireland." Father Flannagan, the president of the college spoke. Fr. James Davis (later Bishop Davis) was the main speaker of the evening. Born in Kilkenny and educated at Carlow, Davis served in a parish but was a frequent and popular visitor to campus. Davis said, "Everybody should celebrate St. Patrick's Day; not only the Irish but everybody that ever met an Irishman. Unfortunately, some carry it too far; it is St. Patrick's Day in the morning; and before evening it is somebody else's day. Although the habit does not make the monk, neither does the green make the Irish. But it shows there is a liberal and generous heart beneath." He praised the "noble spirit" of the students and urged them to love their country but not to "forget" Ireland, the land of their forefathers.

Happy Spirit Day!

Feb. 4, 2005 — A Most Valuable Lesson

I received this story from Arthur Gill, class of 1957:

"The year was 1955 or 1956, when I was at St. Ambrose College, Davenport, Iowa. Together with my classmates, I was sitting in a lecture hall, waiting for the professor, who happened to be late. Small talk centered on the general rule that if the instructor did not show up after 15 minutes, the class could feel free to leave.

"Meanwhile, a school janitor was outside the room, mopping the hall, when one of the students made the smart-aleck remark, perhaps in well-meaning jest, but potentially hurtful nonetheless, that perhaps the janitor would be willing to deliver the lecture. This comment brought a few ill-considered bursts of laugher. What followed was unforgettable.

'When you invited me in to speak, I know that you were not serious, but I do have a message for you students. When I was young, I did not have the money to go to college, and due to financial and other considerations, I had to go to work early to help support my family. I never had the advantages you have now. I think it is very important that you appreciate what opportunities you do have and that you make the most of them. I value what I do, and I do a good job at what I do, but my work won't take me as far as the heights you can reach, provided that you do not waste your chances and appreciate what has been given to you. That's my message to you.'

"At that, he smiled, turned, left the podium and return to his work. You could have heard a pin drop. No one moved, and 15 minutes had by now come and gone. First a trickle, then a sincere burst of applause, filled the hall. It was the most memorable lecture of my years at St. Ambrose. I often think of that janitor, that day and that most valuable lesson."

Happy Spirit Day!

Dec. 02, 2004 — The Feast of St. Ambrose

This Sunday we will celebrate the Feast of St. Ambrose (which is actually December 7) with Vespers in the chapel at 4:30. In doing so we continue a long tradition. The first observance was apparently in 1894 and was a low-key celebration. After the first class of the morning the students went to the president, Father J. T. A. Flannagan, and asked him to cancel classes for the rest of the day, which he did. The students then spent the day “in amusements of various kinds.” The Catholic Messenger reported that “this pleasant feast is a source of happiness and mirth to professors and students alike.” Although there was no “monumental celebration . . . nevertheless the day was joyously spent and for time to come its recollection will be intensely pleasant and desirous.”

If the first celebration was simple, the Feast of St. Ambrose quickly became an important day in the calendar of the school. The year after that first observance there was a program that included speeches and literary recitations, including a long poem on the saint written and delivered by student Ed Weil. The Glee Club sang, the Mandolin Club played a selection, and the program ended when the newly formed St. Ambrose band played “America.” The faculty was present as well as the bishop and pastors from Davenport and Rock Island. Over the decades the celebration continued to have a formal program, but often also included Mass, sometimes Vespers, and often with an outside speaker.

May the celebration of our patronal feast this year be a source of “happiness and mirth” to you and yours.

Happy Spirit Day!

Nov. 05, 2004 — Pursuing the Future, circa 1939

In September, 1939, the college surveyed 350 students, about 75% of the student body, to ask them what career they hoped to pursue upon graduation. 20% said they were undecided. Of the others, 41 said they wanted to enter a medical field, 32 of these wanted to be doctors, 2 veterinarians, 4 dentists, 1 optometrist, 1 pharmacist, and 1 bacteriologist. 49 planned to enter some field of business, 26 of whom want to be accountants, other fields included office work, advertising, sales, personnel work, and real estate. 30 planned to become priests, 27 hoped to become teachers, 28 wanted to practice law and 13 said they planned to have a career in journalism. 24 chose some field in engineering, including hydraulic, aeronautical, construction, metallurgy and chemical engineering. Another 26 wanted some form of biological science. The remaining students chose a wide range of fields: 3 coaches, 1 physical education teacher, 2 radio announcers, 1 in the telephone business, 2 architects, 3 aviators, 2 undertakers, 1 in forestry in politics, 3 hoped to enter civil service, 1 farm credit administrator. Other fields mentioned included farming, commercial art, music and sociology. 231 said that they intended to graduate from SAC. Those who did intend to graduate were in pre-medical or pre-engineering courses, which were two year programs at St. Ambrose. These would go one to complete their undergraduate work elsewhere. 51 students didn’t know if they would graduate from SAC or not. At the time the survey was taken the war had begun in Europe. It is not known how that impacted their life choices.

Happy Spirit Day!

Sept. 30, 2004 — Organizing Alumni

Next week we celebrate homecoming and the dedication of the new University Center. It is a time for alumni to return to relive what they remember, or think they remember, about their days at St. Ambrose. It is also a time when the university recognizes the contributions our alumni have made to St. Ambrose and to the many communities where they now live.

The first attempt to organize the alumni was in June, 1893 when an alumni association was formed. Although the school was only ten years old it was remarked that the college could take pride in the fact that it had already given the diocese of Davenport 11 priests, “while among the laity it numbers lawyers, doctors, bookkeepers and laborers in many of the trades . . . men full of push and energy and rapidly making their mark in the world.” However, this organization seems to have lasted for only two years. Apparently not enough push and energy to keep it going.

In 1914 the alumni again organized to “promote good fellowship and cooperation among the alumni of St. Ambrose college, to increase its influence, and to promote its material development.” This association met for three years before World War I interrupted its activities.

In 1922 the Alumni Association reorganized itself and planned for a Homecoming that fall. Over four hundred alumni and friends gathered on Wednesday, November 15. The day began with the dedication of the first major building that was not part of Ambrose Hall. It contained laboratories, classrooms, faculty offices and student rooms and marked the first physical separation of the college from the academy, which remained in Ambrose Hall. There were appropriate blessings and speeches and it was announced that it would be named in honor of Bishop James Davis. Following a noon lunch the highlight of the afternoon was a football game against our old rival Campion College. The first half was all in favor of the Blue and White but Campion came back with two quick touchdowns in the second half. But the Ambrosians reached deep inside themselves and were able mount a defense to hold off Campion and the Saints (as they were then called) emerged the winner, 26-19. That evening, fortified by the thrill of a win, and the sign of growth represented by the new Davis Hall, the alumni gathered in the college gymnasium for a banquet at which there was more food and more speeches.

Following the 1915 alumni meeting the newspaper reported that “good fellowship and jollity reigned supreme.” This homecoming, with the dedication of the University Center, a win on the gridiron, good food and short speeches, may good fellowship and jollity again reign supreme!

Happy Spirit Day!

Sept. 02, 2004 — Thirty-Three Boys

On September 4, 1882 thirty-three boys entered two classrooms of St. Marguerite’s Parish School at 11th and Iowa streets, for the first day of St. Ambrose Seminary/College/University. Thirty of the students were from Davenport, mostly in the neighborhood of the parish. Two were from DeWitt and one was from Joslin Station, Illinois. Most of them were 13 to 16 years old. There were three sets of brothers, Edward and Maurice McNamara, Edward and Peter O’Shaughnessey and Edward and Scott Stackhouse. Most of them were the sons of working class immigrant parents. Of the sixty parents (remember those three sets of brothers), 30 were from Ireland, 14 from the United States, 8 from Germany, 1 from Canada, 1 from France, and the origins of 6 are not known (as yet). Their fathers listed occupations such as farmer, teamster, watchman, carpenter, bricklayer, express man, railroad engineer, blacksmith helper. Several were listed as contractors. Only two or three could be considered middle class. One, Fred Bartemeyer took over his father’s grocery business when his father became a banker. In 1920 Fred Bartemeyer sold St. Ambrose the land that is now the football field. Thomas O’Shaughnessey was also a grocer and merchant. Of the 33 students the first year, 15 would return for a second year, 11 for a third year, 6 for a fourth year and 6 for a fifth year. 3 of the 33 only stayed for the Fall semester1882, but 8 others came for the Spring semester 1883. Moreover, these new students were from a wider area: West Des Moines, Chariton, Charlotte, Long Grove. The diocesan school was reaching further into the diocese.

After St. Ambrose the 33 original students established their own careers. Frank Lew became a Davenport police lieutenant. Two of his sons, Thomas and Edward graduated from St. Ambrose, were ordained priests and served on the faculty. Thomas O’Brien became a salesman. Cornelius Buckley was in real estate, contracting, and for a time, was vice-president of a plumbing equipment manufacturing company in Rock Island. Two, Bernard Mackin and James Renihan, were ordained priests and ironically, both died within three day of each other in 1909. Thomas O’Donnell went to Kansas City and became a national organizer for the Fraternal Order of Eagles. John J. Ryan practiced law in Chicago. Scott Stackhouse was a district court reporter, his brother Edmond moved to Minneapolis. John Reid owned a printing firm in Davenport. In 1919 John Ruhl formed what became Ruhl and Ruhl, a real estate and insurance company. His grandson, Charles Ruhl, graduated from St. Ambrose in 1950 and later served on the Board of Directors. Matthias Koch also dealt in real estate. Edward Butler joined his brothers in a wholesale grocery business in St. Louis. William H. Harrison started as a news stand boy in the Kimball Hotel in Davenport, and worked his way up to manage a number of hotels here and in Chicago. He returned to Davenport and built the Davenport Hotel at 4th and Main. The O’Shaughnessey brothers joined their father in the grocery business. Herman Bartemeyer followed his father and grandfather in the grocery business at 1430 Harrison Street. In 1940 we bought the corner of Gaines and Lombard from Herman’s daughters and sisters. Joseph Jacobs struck out for Los Angeles but it is not known if there was a pot of gold at the end of his rainbow. Others worked on the railroad, at the Arsenal or in other endeavors. The careers of 8 of them are still to be discovered.

The fourth St. Ambrose catalogue, published in 1886, said the mission of St. Ambrose was to “impart to its students a thorough mental and moral culture, so as to enable them to fill any position in life.” One has to be careful about attributing too much to the influence of St. Ambrose on that first class, after all, a majority of them were here for only one year. Still most were successful and they were proud of their connection with St. Ambrose, so much so, that the obituaries of a number of them pointed out that they were in the first class of St. Ambrose College.

HAPPY SPIRIT DAY, WELCOME TO THE NEW STUDENTS!

Apr. 29, 2004 — The First Honorary Degrees

On May 19, 1938 the St. Ambrose Board on Educational Policy, consisting of the president and the chairs of the academic departments, met in the president’s office with Bishop Henry Rohlman. Rohlman had convened the group to discuss whether St. Ambrose College should award honorary degrees. The discussion was apparently brief and the group concluded, as recorded in the minutes, that St. Ambrose should grant honorary degrees “within limits, that the policy should be to give few, and only to distinguished individuals.” They then voted unanimously to award the first two such degrees to the Rev. Luigi Ligutti of Granger, Iowa and Mr. L. J. Dougherty of Davenport. Both men would received the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Born in Italy, Ligutti had come the United States at age 17 and settled with family in Des Moines. He came to St. Ambrose and graduated in 1914. Ordained in 1917, Ligutti was on the first faculty of what became Dowling High School in Des Moines. In 1926 he was appointed a pastor in Granger, Iowa, a coal mining community with many Italian immigrants. Ligutti worked to improve their living situation. This was a struggle until an opportunity came in the mid-1930s with a New Deal program. He applied and received money to build the Granger Homesteads. These homes gave the coal minors and their families decent housing and land upon which to grow food. The project received national attention, especially when Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt came to visit. At the time he received the degree Ligutti was president the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. After World War II Ligutti became the Vatican’s observer to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Lee J. Dougherty was born in Scott County, attended St. Ambrose and after further education began as an agent for Prudential Insurance. Dougherty served the diocese of Davenport and St. Ambrose College in many ways. He was a member of the St. Ambrose Board of trustees and at the time of receiving the degree he was head of the bishop’s diocesan improvement fund that included money to build the library-administration building on campus. He also served as mayor of Davenport.

The three honorees this year bring to 219 the number of honorary degree recipients. The list includes educators, politicians, clergy, religious, people from various kinds of public service, business executives, and perhaps a few scoundrels. A representative sample includes Postmaster General James A. Farley, Iowa Supreme Court Justice Maurice Donegan, actress Una O’Connor, Gen. Leslie Grove, Msgr. U. A. Hauber, Abbot Philip O’Connor OCSO, Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, University of Northern Iowa president John Kamerick (an SAC history graduate), Professor Larry McCaffrey (another SAC history graduate), University of Iowa president Virgil Hancher, Governor Robert D. Ray, The Most Rev. Jean Jadot, Bob Hope, Sen. Dick Clark, John Cardinal Carberry, Paul N. Norton, The Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, Dr. James Van Allen, Chinese dissident Shen Tong, Isabel and John Bloom, Sister Helen Prejean, Peace Corps director Loret Ruppe, Amb. Andrew Young, Lech Walesa, Chad Prepracke.

This will be the last Spirit Day message for the year so let me wish you all a real (not honorary) wish for a happy summer

Apr. 1, 2004 — Vic Pahl, One of the Finest

On Thursday morning, April 25, 1935, St. Ambrose students began to go to the chapel to pray for the recovery of their classmate and friend who had been injured in an automobile accident the previous Sunday. He had been unconscious since the accident and now word had come that his condition had worsened. In the early afternoon they learned that their prayers had not been answered: Vic Pahl was dead.

Born in Davenport in 1912, Vic Pahl was one of 11 children. When Vic was nine his father died and his mother sent Vic and three of his sisters to Mooseheart, a home for children near Aurora, Illinois. Pahl excelled at sports, was second team all-state in basketball and set a national high school javelin record in track.

He entered St. Ambrose in the fall of 1933 where he was a star in the classroom and a star on the playing field. In football, coach Dukes Duford made him center, a position he had never played, and he so excelled at it that in his sophomore season he was named all Iowa Conference and all-state center. In basketball he was all-conference his first year and all-conference and all-state as a sophomore. He continued to throw the javelin and Duford, suggested that he try the decathlon at the Kansas Relays. Several of the events were new to him and after the first day he was in twelfth place out of sixteen competitors. On the second day he developed a charley horse but nevertheless he moved up in the standings. The last event was the 1500 meter, a race he had never run, and because of the charley horse the coach told him to start the run, but then drop out. Instead, Vic ran and won the 1500. He finished the decathlon in sixth place which qualified him for the National AAU meet that summer. Duford’s ultimate goal for Vic was the Olympic trials the next year.

After the meet Vic, an alumnus, John Gerwe, and Duford, left Kansas in Duford’s car to return to Davenport. Early Sunday morning, a few miles east of Muscatine, the left front tire of the car blew out. As they began to replace the tire, an oncoming driver struck them. He crushed Vic Pahl and Gerwe between the cars and threw Duford in the ditch. Gerwe had a broken leg, Duford was shaken up, but Pahl had severe bodily injuries and a concussion. He was taken to the Muscatine hospital where he never regained consciousness. By Thursday morning the doctors told his mother that there was nothing they could do for him. Since Vic had been taking instructions in the Catholic faith, his mother asked that he be baptized.

The tributes poured in from all over the middle west. Bert McGrane, long-time Des Moines Register sportswriter, call Pahl the “greatest all-around athlete and the finest sportsman I ever encountered.” Elmer Layden, athletic director at Notre Dame said Pahl’s “life on and off the field was exemplary.” Coaches from around Iowa echoed those words. The Davenport papers began to compare him to George Gipp, the legendary Notre Dame player who had died while a student. Coach Duford said he was the “finest boy any coach ever had. . . . Anything he attempted he did well. He never gave a moments trouble, either in the classroom or on the field.” St. Ambrose faculty and administrators praised him. The editor of the student newspaper said that while he would be missed as an athlete and as a student, the students would miss him “most as Vic Pahl. He was unpretentious, without conceit, friendly, lovable; a clean young man totally unaffected. As will his family, so too shall we miss him as plain Vic.”

On Friday afternoon Vic’s body was brought to the Davis Hall chapel where the students kept vigil all through the night. The next day the entire student body, accompanied by athletes from Augustana, walked behind the funeral coach to Sacred Heart Cathedral where Bishop Henry Rohlman celebrated the Mass. He is buried at Oakdale Cemetery beneath a small stone with just his name, Vic Pahl.

Two years later, when the alma mater, “Ambrosian Oaks” was written, the rarely sung (probably never sung) third verse memorialized Vic Pahl:

Your ivied bell tower with its cross on high,
That one time tolled the death of Vic Pahl,
Still rings our victories, and at its call,
When Ambrose shouts its battle cry,
Vic Pahl in helmet watches from the sky
The men of Ambrose–victors all.

When McMullen Hall was built in 1941 the Alumni Association provided a statue of the Blessed Mother which still stands in front of the windows on the landing. On the base it says, “Alumni Memorial, Vic Pahl.”

Happy Spirit Day!

Mar. 4, 2004 — Women at an All-Male School

March is Women's History Month and I thought I would lift your spirits with some information about the presence of women at an all-male school.

The first women on campus were members of the Sisters of Humilty who came in 1887 when St. Ambrose began accepting boarding students. These sisters provided housekeeping services for students and faculty and they ran the kitchens. In time a food service company took over the kitchens but the sisters remained as housekeepers until 1960. For many of those years they lived on the upper floor of Ambrose Hall. Then in 1940 a building was moved from the corner of Locust and Gaines to make room for what is now McMullen Hall, to Scott Street. It was remodeled and it became their convent. This is the building that sat in front of Cosgrove Hall and was known in its last years as the Gray House.

The first female faculty members joined the faculty in 1919. One, Miss Elizabeth Arnauld taught shorthand and typewriting for one year. The other was Mrs. Helena Bradford Churchill who was an Instructor in Public Speaking and Dramatic Arts from 1919-1921, 1925-1930, and from 1934 until her death in 1939. Born in New Hampshire in 1873, her family moved to Augusta, Wisconsin where she graduated from high school. Widowed at age 27 she studied speech and drama at Winona State Normal School, the University of Minnesota, the Stanley School of Expression in Minneapolis, and took a B.L.I. from the Emerson College of Oratory in Boston. She came to Davenport in 1919 and began to direct plays at St. Ambrose and around the Quad-City community. In those days drama was a club activity so most of what she did here was outside the classroom. In the 1930s other women began to teach at St. Ambrose.

The college began to teach women in 1925. That year 5 nuns studied in the Extension Division (meaning they were not on campus). By 1929 that number had risen to 30 nuns, and for the first time, 19 laywomen. In 1931 the first degrees were awarded to 2 of these women, Sister Mary Aquinas Freehill took a B.S. and Sister Margaret Mary Dwyer received a B.A. In July 1933 Sophia Hapke, Vera Johnson Carleton, Katherine Meyers, Corina Scott were the first lay women to receive degrees. In the fall of 1934 St. Ambrose opened a Women's Division with classes taught by Ambrose faculty at the Immaculate Conception Academy. These women students took part in campus activities including a seat on the St. Ambrose student council, and a column in the Ambrosian News. In 1933 Mrs. Churchill had directed the first play with a mixed cast and that tradition continued. Vera Ehlers, who many of you will remember taught in the Education Department, graduated from the Women's Division in 1938. The Women's Division continued until 1939 when Marycrest College opened. That same year the graduates of the Women's Division formed the St. Ambrose College Alumnae Association which continued until it merged with the St. Ambrose Alumni Association in 1970.

Happy Spirit Day!

"Name one important change..."

The May 14, 1948 edition of the "Ambrosian News" featured a "roving reporter" story. The reporter asked St. Ambrose students to name one important change they would like to make at St. Ambrose. The following are some of their responses: "Women are the downfall of man--but man loves it. Let's have a co-ed school again."
"I'd institute smoking in my Latin class for 'comfort.'"
"I'd install easy chairs in the classrooms."
"I'd make the food served in the Bee-Hive cheaper."
"Tear down Ambrose Hall--it disfigures the campus."

In the years after World War II hundreds of veterans came to St. Ambrose. They lived in war surplus barracks that had been erected on what is now the football field and the parking lot to its west. Some of the comments reflected that experience:
"I'd stop bed checks for vets."
"I'd make the rules lighter for vets so they did not have to abide by the same rules as the 17 and 18 year olds."
"I'd expand the school's facilities--with permanent structures."

And finally, in the department of "the more things change, the more they stay the same":
"I'd build a parking lot. The biggest bottleneck around here now is a lack of parking spaces." (By the way, that student's name was not Mike Kennedy!)

Happy Spirit Day!

Nov. 6, 2003 — Suspending the Rule of Etiquette

This month of Thanksgiving brings to mind a vignette told by Msgr. U. A. Hauber in his book "Oaks and Acorns." Hauber is writing about Fr. J. T. A. Flannagan, who was president of St. Ambrose from 1891 to 1906. At that time the student body numbered about 100 students and consisted mostly of high school age students. Many were boarders and they did not go home for Thanksgiving.

Hauber writes, "On Thanksgiving Day each year a quaint old custom prevailed. The faculty assembled in the study hall on the second floor of the east building [where the College of Business offices and classroom 220 are now] along with a barrel or so of apples. The students assembled on the lawn just outside the study hall windows. Then the Fathers would throw apples to the mob outside and watch the ensuing scramble. Father Flannagan enjoyed this immensely; he got the laugh of the year out of it. Boys, of course, like apples, and they like to scramble; but I am sure they enjoyed also the hilarity among the faculty members in the window frames up there. And for once the rule of etiquette was suspended."

Msgr. Hauber does not record whether any of the boys threw the apples back at the faculty.

Happy Spirit Day! Happy Thanksgiving!

Oct. 2, 2003 — Bees and their Origins

Friends,

One of the most frequent questions I hear is where did the Bees come from? Bees have been associated with St. Ambrose because of a legend that when he was an infant his father found his face covered with bees. This was taken to be a sign of future eloquence. But what about Bees as our mascot? For the first fifty years the St. Ambrose athletic teams were called the Saints. But in 1937 the students mounted a campaign to change the nickname to something else. The Ambrosian News, the student newspaper, took up the issue and asked students for suggestions. As you can imagine there was a wide variety of possibilities. The Big Oaks, the Ambrosian Oaks, the Buffaloes, the SAC (a reference to the initials of the school and to the Indian tribe that once lived here), the Blue Tide, the Fighting Irish, were just some of the ideas. One student, Warren Lage, suggested the Bees, and he explained that bees were historically associated with our patron saint and that "the qualities of a bee, such as its industriousness and its ability to sting might exemplify characteristics that might be associated with our athletic teams. These might include: to strive valiantly, to work hard, to be as troublesome to their opponents as a bee is to his." The students voted to name our teams the Bees. Almost immediately the nickname got a nickname, the Bees became the Blue Swarm."

Happy Spirit Day--Happy Homecoming!!

Sept. 5, 2003 — A Spring Day at St. Ambrose in Nineteen Hundred Thirteen

Friends,

I thought I would share with you a bit of my research into our history. This is an excerpt from a letter written in 1963 by David Klise about his student days fifty years before. At the end of a long letter he wrote:

"Sandy haired Tom Mitchell kept on mowing the grass under the majestic oaks on the front lawn, stopping the while to light the stub of a pipe. The great Doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose, from his pedestal on the front walk was imparting his blessing to passersby. Jim Gaffney was hurling curve balls down on the diamond. Luigi Ligutti was practicing the English language. Groups sat on benches on the hill. The bell in the tower rang out the Angelus. Young men stopped and blessed themselves. And evening came to a spring day at St. Ambrose in Nineteen Hundred Thirteen."

Happy Spirit Day!