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1954-08-26: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
AUGUST 26, 1954

Copy of Alma Stokey's Alumni
Luncheon Talk at 50th Reunion

(It is somewhat embarrassing to be asked to produce a copy of my speech, as I have to admit that there was only a trial copy - to keep me within the sacred limits of five minutes.  Moreover, I am not capable of sticking to a copy, such is the effect of an audience.  This is a warmed-up recall with an "assist" from Clara Jones.  I can't locate all the places where, according to Ernest and Kitty, I interpolated "Well" - in and out of season, I fear.)

One of the things which is a shock to everyone is that 50 years actually passes.  It has passed for us, and now we are back in Oberlin looking at the College and our classmates with critical, but sympathetic, eyes.

In the external Oberlin we are confronted by new buildings and new styles of architecture.  Rumors of the latest adventure in architecture have penetrated even to the fastnesses of New England, and the accounts - tinged in some cases with amusement and in others with horror - suggested that architecturally Oberlin is "going to the dogs."  But when we came back and saw the solidity of Peters, Warner Hall and Warner Gymnasium, and that dear old Sturges is still with us, we knew that all was not lost.  The invasion of Spanish architecture came after our day, but at this Reunion we have enjoyed our share of it at the Quadrangle - or should we say "Quad" after our three days there?  c  We also enjoyed the beauty of its outside lighting at night.

No one can question the charm of a campus with uniform architecture - classic, gothic, or colonial - but there is a high price to be paid for it in its lack of adaptability.  No one style of architecture can be adapted to the changing academic requirements or the varying modes of life in a long-lived institution.  So why not consort with the dogs occasionally?

As for the less tangible aspects of Oberlin - its intellectual and spiritual life - they are much more difficult to assess.  We find the musical life as stimulating as in our day, or even more so.  We never had the Bach B Minor Mass, which has been a notable event of the Reunion week end.

Some searching questions to a freshman brought out serious criticisms.  It rains too much in Oberlin and Time goes too fast.  Well, as for the rain, it has rained three times since my arrival - always at night and the rain came straight down, characteristics of a perfect world.  As for Time, if the able Faculty can devise any way of slowing Time, the Class of 1954 will be favored with greater opportunities for achievement than the Class of 1904.

Having looked at the college we also looked at our classmates.  We find gray hair and stouter figures except for those who have a fortunate inheritance or greater resistance to irresistible foods.  But these are trivialities.  In the fundamentals we are pleased with our Classmates.  We find a greater approachableness and a greater appreciation of people than in the more formal days of 1904.  We find a greater breadth of interest and liberality of attitude than in 1904.  We heard of "provincialism" in the Commencement address and it made our generation conscious that we graduated in a provincial era, and that we had a provincial attitude which can be credited to, or blamed on, the happier world conditions of those days.  It is not possible for any class which graduated since 1914 to have the provincial attitude of 1904.

As for achievements, none of us has attained great prominence in public life.  We have not even produced a Senator, but the members of the Class have followed many useful professions and activities: Teaching, Social Work, the Ministry, the Law, Business, and many other fields.  I have been much impressed by the strong interest shown in public affairs - especially in the public schools and civic matters.  But, after all, a major contribution of the Class has been the raising of fine children.  No country can be better than the families of which it is made up.  At our 25th Reunion we looked at the children and were proud of them.  At the 50th we can see both children and grandchildren.  It fills us with hope and rejoicing that the Oberlin tradition of character is being maintained.

Well -- 50 years are behind us.  We hope, however, that the achievements of 1904 are not all in the past, but that much activity lies ahead; and that we may go ahead with zest to what we are to do in the future.

Suggestions?
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1954-08-26: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
This is a warmed-up recall with an "assist" from Clara Jones.  I can't locate all the places where, according to Ernest and Kitty, I interpolated "Well" - in and out of season, I fear.
Clara Jones, also Oberlin Class of 1904, has a non-family page on this website.  I figure Alma and Clara worked on this transcript together at Fernbank.  I don't know who Ernest and Kitty are.  Maybe sometime I'll look through Alma's yearbook and see if I can find one of them, though there's no guarantee that either Ernest or Kitty is from the Class of 1904.

2.
​But when we came back and saw the solidity of Peters, Warner Hall and Warner Gymnasium, and that dear old Sturges is still with us, we knew that all was not lost.
From Oberlin's website:
A massive stronghold of rough-hewn buff Amherst sandstone, ashlar darkened by age, Peters Hall is the oldest survivor of the spectacular building program which inaugurated the college's stone age in the 1880s. It was the most strident local offering from the Akron architectural shop of Frank Weary and George Kramer, whose stationery called them "specialists in court house, jail and prison architecture." Today the building's appearance is politely labelled Richardsonian Romanesque, and is an acquired taste. 
and:
In June, 1883, the announcement was made that Dr. and Mrs. Lucien C. Warner, of New York, proposed to erect a building for the Conservatory. Ground was broken in November, 1883, and the cornerstone was laid in January, 1884. The building was dedicated December 20, 1884. Warner Hall contained offices, a musical library, lecture rooms, a small studio theatre, and one hundred and fifty studio and practice rooms.[...] It was demolished in October 1964 to make way for H.C. King Memorial Hall, after the new Conservatory building was completed across College Street.
and:
Originally built as a gymnasium in 1901, Warner Center is now home to Oberlin's theater and dance program. On the first floor are faculty offices and spacious acting studios. Upstairs are two astonishingly beautiful dance studios with original sprung wooden floors and stately period windows. The large Victorian-style gym, Warner Main, serves as a classroom and versatile 250-seat performance space with a computerized lighting system.
and:
The erection of Sturges Hall was begun in the fall of 1883, and completed in 1884, on the site across from Talcott Hall and next to the Soldier's Monument (1870, demolished/moved). For a number of years after the completion of Sturges Hall it was used primarily as an assembly room for the College women, but since 1907 this assembly room was used for lecture and recitation for large classes in the College of Arts and Sciences. The building was named for Susan M. Sturges, the principal donor. Sturges Hall was remodelled in 1952, then demolished in 1963 to make way for new Conservatory buildings.
So of the four buildings that Alma named as being still there since her college days, two (Warner Hall and Sturges Hall) have since been demolished, and that happened while Alma was still alive.

​3.
The invasion of Spanish architecture came after our day, but at this Reunion we have enjoyed our share of it at the Quadrangle - or should we say "Quad" after our three days there?
More from the Oberlin website:
Asia House is among the largest of all the college’s Program Houses with an average of 80 residents. It is open to all students. One wing of the building is entirely for women residents, and one wing has apartment-style rooms. Students must apply to live here.
The name Quadrangle is interchangeable with Asia House, as students who live here share a common interest in Asian and Asian American cultures. Built around an open courtyard, Asia House has a quiet sense of privacy despite its location on campus only steps away from Stevenson Dining Hall.

4.
We have spent a few minutes at least in the Hall Auditorium, and found ourselves able to understand not only occasional words and phrases but whole sentences in their context - an unusual experience in college dramatics.
And still more from the Oberlin website:
Hall Auditorium is a 501-seat theater used for large-scale opera, dramatic, and dance productions. Its distinctive, wave-like facade was the subject of much controversy before and after its completion in 1953. ​
The picture of it definitely conveys why it would be the subject of much controversy.  But good acoustics are what matters.

5.
Well, as for the rain, it has rained three times since my arrival - always at night and the rain came straight down, characteristics of a perfect world.
Miracles never cease.  Alma has no complaints about the weather!

6.
​We heard of "provincialism" in the Commencement address and it made our generation conscious that we graduated in a provincial era, and that we had a provincial attitude which can be credited to, or blamed on, the happier world conditions of those days.
Happier world conditions...hmm.  Only if ignorance is bliss.

​7.
But, after all, a major contribution of the Class has been the raising of fine children.  No country can be better than the families of which it is made up.  At our 25th Reunion we looked at the children and were proud of them.  At the 50th we can see both children and grandchildren.  It fills us with hope and rejoicing that the Oberlin tradition of character is being maintained.
Alma, of course, had no children, though she did help to raise her niece AG.  But Alma knew her audience, and anyway, she was a teacher.
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