BETHESDA DAYS

In the spring of 1946 an evening meeting of parents and teachers was held at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School for the purpose of hearing a panel discussion on the subject “After High School — What?” The major result of this meeting was the formation of a committee which was to examine the possibility and need for a public junior college in Montgomery County. On May 14, the Montgomery County Board of Education adopted a resolution which gave official status to this committee which was to include: Mr. Thomas W. Pyle, Principal, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School; Dr. Earle T. Hawkins, Supervisor of Secondary Education, Maryland State Department of Education; Mrs. Mary B. Mohler, the college counselor at Bethesda-Chevy Chase; Dr. Fern D. Schneider, Montgomery County Secondary School Supervisor; Miss Dorothy Young, Bethesda-Chevy Chase counselor; and Mr. Hugh G. Price, a chemistry teacher, also at Bethesda-Chevy Chase.

The ad hoc committee established by the Board of Education noted in its report three compelling reasons for the establishment of a public two-year college: first, the crisis caused by the overcrowding of colleges and universities by returning G.I.’s, with the consequence that a smaller proportion of desirable college candidates from the high schools was being admitted; secondly, many servicemen returning to Montgomery County would not be able to enter existing overcrowded colleges but would profit by attending a local junior college under the GI Bill; and thirdly, an opportunity to be provided for the establishment of terminal courses of a subprofessional nature in fields which would enable students to gain employment requiring semi-technical skills.¹

The committee further recommended, in addition to the usual fees for matriculation, student activities and such, a tuition of approximately $150 per semester for county residents and an additional charge of $25 per semester for out-of-county residents. (See Appendix C.)

In order to learn of potential student interest and preferences as to the location of the proposed junior college, the committee submitted a questionnaire to all the high school seniors in the county. Forty seniors expressed a positive desire to enroll and 224 indicated an interest in enrolling, making a total of 264 who were interested in attending a public junior college, which had not as yet been established. Sixty-four percent of the respondents to the questionnaire favored the location of the college at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School while thirty-six percent wished to have it housed at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.

The Board of Education, whose members included Arthur B. Joseph, President; Mrs. Helen C. Walker, Vice President; James W. Gill; H. Stanley Stine; Mrs. Elizabeth T. McK. Hauck; and Dr. Edwin W. Broome, Secretary-Treasurer and Superintendent, in turn, asked Hugh Price, the popular BCC chemistry teacher, to become the first administrator of the new college. “It was just a year ago,” Dean Price remarked at the first convocation (June 5, 1947), “that we were approached by phone late in the evening and asked to administer an organization called Montgomery Junior College.”²

In his notes and comments for the college’s first convocation, Price recalled that “when on June 6 [1946] we started to make plans, six distinctive objectives seemed obvious:

1. To establish the philosophy of the college until such time as the faculty and the community modify it;

2. In terms of that philosophy, organize the curricula;

3. Select a faculty who could offer the courses which comprised the curricula;

4. Write a catalog including the curricula and prepare information for students;

5. Enroll a student body, and finally

6. Purchase equipment and supplies.”³

And “that,” added Price, “looked like a summer’s job, didn’t it?” He went on to say that each of these steps was checked off and that “. . . on September 16 the college opened, not with the 75–100 we expected, but with 184 registrants.”⁴

In his book Founding Public Junior Colleges, Elbert K. Fretwell, Jr., has referred to Hugh Price as “the right man at the right time.”⁵ And one of the founding faculty recently observed that “he appeared at the right time in a place that needed his talents, and he was able to make the most of the situation.”⁶ Price had two important qualifications which were invaluable in the establishment of “M.J.C.,” the College’s once popular nickname: his personality and his experience before coming to Bethesda. As Professor Jerome W. Kloucek of the University of Toledo, who knew “the Dean” well, has emphasized: “. . . He was no neophyte when he started MJC, but rather could act with confidence from what he had learned from experience. In fact, he knew more about junior colleges than any school board member or [school] administrative officer in Montgomery County in 1946 . . . .”⁷

Born in 1902 in the small Chicago suburb of Morgan Park, the son of a prominent attorney, Price was a student-cadet at Morgan Park Military Academy where he served as a teacher and administrator for twenty years. Following his graduation from the military school, he went to Denison University, Granville, Ohio, where he graduated in 1925 with a major in chemistry. In the meantime, when he was about sixteen years old, he was severely stricken with poliomyelitis which paralyzed him from the waist down. Later he underwent treatments at Warm Springs, Georgia, which was made famous by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “Some of his personality traits resembled FDR’s,” Kloucek has written, adding that “these are the only two persons I know who came out of Warm Springs, but that’s enough to make me wonder whether the ‘school’ there may not have consisted of psychological therapy as well as physical, for both men did exhibit in public a similar charisma.”⁸

In 1945, Price accepted a teaching position in Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School with the understanding that after a year he would be considered for some administrative post in the county school system. He quickly and easily established rapport with the high school students who after his one and only year of teaching chemistry voted him the most popular male teacher. “Such recognition from high school students after only one year speaks much for his genuine personality.”⁹

During the years of Price’s service at Morgan Park Military Academy, he had not only taught physics and chemistry but had served in various administrative positions. When MPMA added a non-military junior college as one means of trying to stay afloat during the depression, Price was an active member of the organizing committee.

Therefore, he had some knowledge of junior colleges before going to Maryland, not only as a member of the organizing committee, but also as a member of MPMA’s executive committee, where problems and policies of all three branches (the military elementary division, the military secondary division, and the secular junior college) were hashed out before going to the single Board of Trustees. Add to this that Price was public relations officer for all three branches during those lean years and therefore acquired equal experience in dealing with troublesome parents, in getting his message to the public, in turning out good publication material of all kinds, and in mastering all pertinent details and organizing them before going before the public.¹⁰

Price’s experience in and flair for public relations was to be of great importance in the establishment and early years of Montgomery Junior College. As a big man who could move about only with the aid of crutches and braces on his legs, “. . . he had learned to make his handicap work for him. Being public relations minded, he never asked for sympathy, but rather showed the determination to overcome his handicap which made people respond by admiring his courage.”¹¹

For Dean Price and the faculty whom he employed, the summer of 1946 was indeed a busy one. The first person he hired was Miss Sadie G. Higgins who was to teach the courses in secretarial studies and who later acted as bursar and, in turn, director of student personnel services. Dr. Eric N. Labouvie, the second appointee, who had been associated with the Bullis School in Silver Spring, Maryland, during the previous school year, was employed to teach modern languages. Jerome W. Kloucek, a teacher at Morgan Park Military Academy prior to his military service, was hired to teach English and history and to serve as veterans’ counselor. Dr. Bernice F. Pierson, who had been teaching for the past year at the University of Baltimore, was invited to teach biology and to serve as dean of women. On the recommendation of Dr. Walter Crosby Eells, the executive secretary of the American Association of Junior Colleges, Dean Price hired Miss Golda S. Payne as librarian. She had recently been the librarian at Stratford College, Danville, Virginia. Price readily agreed with her request that she be accorded faculty status.¹² In addition to the people mentioned, Price employed James R. McCadren to coach and serve as a physical education instructor and Earl F. Myers to teach mathematics and physics; they remained at MJC for just one year. Clarence A. Lowe, who left the college after two years, was hired to teach accounting and fill the position of registrar, his role being another example among the young faculty for the need to double in brass. These eight people, including Dean Price,¹³ were the founding faculty of Maryland’s first community college.¹⁴ Their training and academic experience were quite adequate for a junior college: two held doctorates; five, master’s degrees; and one, the physical education instructor, a bachelor’s degree.

In addition to the recruitment of a faculty, there was the obvious necessity of establishing curricula and preparing a catalog. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, with its convenient access and three modern buildings, had meanwhile been designated as the site for the new college.

In the foreword to the first catalog the purpose of the College and the nature of the programs it was to provide were clearly set forth:

Montgomery Junior College is the post-high school division of the Montgomery County Public Schools. It is being organized in 1946 as a permanent unit but with the immediate objective of caring for the very large number of qualified senior high school graduates who are unable to enter America’s colleges, as well as the former servicemen and women who are faced with the same problem. The College is organized to provide both transfer and terminal programs.

In general it is undertaking to serve these groups:

1. High school graduates

2. Veterans of the armed services

3. Adults

Programs of instruction will be organized to provide:

1. The freshman and sophomore years of standard four-year colleges and universities.

2. Terminal courses that prepare for occupational proficiency.

3. General education that prepares for civic and social responsibility.

4. Courses that contribute to personal development and satisfaction.

5. Elective courses that provide opportunity for cultural growth and interests.

6. Wholesome extracurricular activities that supplement regular classwork.¹⁵

The curricula which were to be offered were almost evenly divided between transfer (the first two years of baccalaureate programs) and terminal (leading to immediate employment upon graduation): transfer—liberal arts and science, pre-commerce and business administration, pre-dental, pre-engineering, pre-legal, pre-medical, and pre-nursing; terminal—art, auto service management, drafting, general business administration, medical secretarial, merchandising, secretarial and music. In addition to these curricula, the college announced in the first catalog that a hotel and restaurant curriculum was being developed in cooperation with the District of Columbia Hotel and Restaurant Association.¹⁶ This curriculum, as it turned out, was never offered.

Despite the fact that it never received a charter and that the Attorney General of Maryland did not render an opinion as to its being “a legally established institution under the laws of this state” until about a year and a half after its inauguration,¹⁷ MJC received a grant of $10,000 from the State in August 1946, an amount equal to what Montgomery County had already provided. With these funds Dean Price and the faculty quickly placed orders for equipment, supplies, and books for the library in preparation for the opening in mid-September.

Meanwhile, the State Department of Education had given provisional accreditation to the new institution with the understanding that after two years it would be eligible for permanent accreditation and authorized to confer the Associate in Arts degree upon its graduates. Furthermore, the State Department of Education certified the College for the training of veterans to the Veterans Administration.¹⁸

By the time the College opened its doors on Monday, September 16, for an orientation program, there had been a preliminary faculty workshop at which Dr. Eells of the American Association of Junior Colleges had spoken about junior college education, a student committee had planned an orientation program, and football practice had already begun, causing Kloucek to remark some years later, “We had a football team before we had a college!”¹⁹ It seemed that no stone had been left unturned in the plans and preparation, Dean Price, among other things, having established an advisory council which included not only the county high school principals and supervisors but also Dr. Thomas G. Pullen, Jr., ex officio, State Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Edwin W. Broome, ex officio, Montgomery County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Paul E. Elicker, Executive Secretary, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Dr. A. J. Brumbaugh, Vice President, County Medical Society, Douglas Courtney, Chief of Training, U.S. Public Health Service, Dr. Earl L. Kirchner, Specialist in Higher Education, U.S. Office of Education, among others. Price obviously understood the importance of involving a variety of people in the establishment of the new school and set a precedent for the appointment of advisory councils which his successors followed.

After the two-day orientation program, which all students were required to attend, registration was held on September 18. With 186 registered,²⁰ Raymond B. Wailes of Bethesda, was the first to do so.²¹ Only thirty-five of those who registered were women;²² however, it is worth noting that not until 1965 when the College’s second campus opened at Rockville, did the ratio of men to women students ever drop as low as two to one. (See Appendix A.)

Since MJC was sharing the high school’s facilities, classes began the day following registration at 4 p.m. and ran until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 7 p.m. on Friday. In addition there were classes on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.²³

Out of the necessity for evening classes came the chivalric or knightly nomenclature for the College’s athletic teams, newspapers, and yearbooks. It was the football team, which, as previously mentioned, was organized before the beginning of classes, that adopted the name of “Knights” as the infant institution was then only a “night” college. “. . . The newspaper fell in line with Knights’ Quest. The yearbook, wishing to carry on this tradition, considered many names suggesting knighthood and finally chose Accolade.”²⁴

Burgundy and gold were quickly chosen as the College’s colors, which led William F. Smith, a member of the Knights’ Quest staff, to note sardonically: “Though several other combinations were opposed on the grounds that they are used by some local high schools, the fact that the [Washington] Redskins are using our colors (or vice-versa, rather!) seemed too unimportant to even be considered.”²⁵ A humorous twist to the selection of the school’s colors came in the first home game of the football team when “the opposition trotted on to the field wearing . . . wine-colored jerseys with gold numbers.”²⁶

In the fall of 1946, MJC appeared to be a young college in a hurry, not only to establish a solid academic program but to provide as the foreword in the catalog stated, “wholesome extracurricular activities.” With Dean Price’s encouragement, “Milton Clogg, Steve and George Hopkins, Tom Bourke, Kirby Kendall, Lorrie Notton, Doris Day, John and Dick Wisda, and many others organized the pep committees, the newspaper, the social events, the constitution committees and orientation committees, and became leaders in forming a student democracy.”²⁷

A student council was established during the first semester although it was not until the spring semester that the constitution committee obtained a charter from the faculty, permitting it to write a constitution which was subsequently adopted by the Student Association. Milton Clogg was elected president; Ralph Kendall, vice-president; Joanne Jones, secretary; Steve Hopkins, treasurer. The other members included: Nancy Darby, Howard Bailey, Lorrie Notton, Tom Bourke, Lorraine Harris, and George Hopkins.²⁸ Mr. Kloucek was asked to serve as the faculty advisor. In February, 1947, Wilbur Sartwell succeeded Kendall to the vice-presidency. During the first year and a part of the second, the council held its meetings either in the library which was located in the basement of building A of BCC or over coffee in the Bethesda Hot Shoppe, the meetings in the latter sometimes lasting until midnight or later.

Other extra-curricular activities beside the student council and varsity football made their appearance during the first and second years of the College, among them being the Drama Club, Variety Club, “M” Club, varsity basketball, cheering squad, Swimming Club, the Accolade, the yearbook, and the Knights’ Quest which began publication immediately during the opening semester with Kirby Kendall, a popular student, serving as the first editor.

One of the early objectives of the Knights’ Quest was to ask Mrs. Price if her art class would design a school seal. Ultimately Mrs. Price and a cross section of students selected three seals designed in the art class, and these were published in the school paper.²⁹ The one chosen to be the College’s seal was a simple design which included a cupola—presumably that of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School—and crossed American and Maryland flags with the institution’s name and date of founding encircling them.

By 1948 the Montgomery Junior College Radio Group had been established and was broadcasting over both WBCC and WGAY regular weekly programs which, according to Dean Price, “… had an excellent reception by local radio listeners.”³⁰

Despite the rather impressive program of extra-curricular activities which was instituted during the first year or two of the College, there was considerable student apathy towards such activities.

“No one student, or any small group of students,” editorialized the Knights’ Quest in the spring of 1947, “can make a success of student activities. It takes the whole student body.”³¹ This comment was echoed on more than a few occasions in the years which followed: “As we all have noticed, the spirit around this campus [Takoma Park] has become so poor that in essence it is hardly discernible.”³² A strong viable extra-curricular program involving many students is almost impossible to achieve in a college whose student body is composed of commuters, many of whom work or have outside interests. In a residential college or university extra-curricular activities tend to assume a greater importance for the students than they do in institutions whose students live at home.

Regardless of the problems which the infant college confronted in its first year of operation, Dean Price was satisfied with the beginning made. To show his and the College’s appreciation to those people who had helped to establish MJC, a convocation was held on June 5, 1947, in the auditorium of Leland Junior High School, Chevy Chase, for the purpose of awarding citations. Among those honored were Senator Herbert R. O’Conor, formerly governor of Maryland; Dr. Thomas G. Pullen, Jr., State Superintendent of Schools; Brooke Johns, Chairman, Board of Commissioners, Montgomery County; Mrs. Helen C. Walker, President, Board of Education; Dr. Earle T. Hawkins, Supervisor for Secondary Education, State of Maryland; Dr. Edwin W. Broome, Superintendent of Schools of Montgomery County; Thomas W. Pyle, Principal of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School; Philip J. Austensen, President of the Montgomery County Press Association; William Prescott Allen, Editor and Publisher of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Tribune; Arnold W. Hurt, President of the Civitan Club of Bethesda; Dr. Fern D. Schneider, Supervisor of Secondary Education for Montgomery County; Harold R. Norris, an accountant for the Montgomery County Board of Education; and Dr. John Dale Russell, Chief of the Division of Higher Education, U.S. Office of Education, who gave the address on “The Role of the Junior College in American Education.”³³ Not only did this convocation provide an opportunity for the College to express its sincere gratitude to the people just mentioned, but it clearly showed Price’s deft ability in the field of public relations.

The second year of operation, 1947–48, was almost as important as the first: the full-time faculty was doubled in size; sophomore courses were offered for the first time; two separate buildings were put up for the College on the BCC campus; the Montgomery County Symphony Orchestra, under the sponsorship of the College, was established; and the College graduated its first class.

The eight new full-time members of the faculty added strength and stability to the instructional program. Dr. Louis W. Hunt, who remained only one year, taught chemistry; F. Frank Rubini, who had been in the Athletic Department of the University of Maryland, became coach and director of Physical Education; Mrs. Freda Malone and William Cohen, who had been teaching in the Montgomery County Schools, were to teach English and mathematics respectively; Dr. Julien A. Ripley, who had been associated with UNRRA, taught physics and mathematics; Allen H. Jones, who had been on the faculty of Muhlenberg College, joined the English Department; Emery Fast taught social studies, having recently been on the staff of the War Relocation Authority; and the author came from Lake Forest Academy to teach history.

What attracted these teachers to the new, unknown junior college? Essentially there were three reasons: “location, a relatively good salary schedule, and the opportunity to work in and help develop a new institution.”³⁴

It was these people, together with those members of the founding faculty who had remained, who inaugurated the sophomore courses in the various disciplines. Prior to the opening of classes in the fall, the faculty, both new and returning, met with several officials of the University of Maryland for the purpose of discussing the courses to be offered that fall since the University was acting as the accreditation agency for the State Department of Education.

Not long after the College commenced operation, Dean Price made application with the Federal Works Agency’s Bureau of Community Facilities for a temporary building which would provide space for administrative and faculty offices, laboratories, and a student lounge. Since more than half of the student body was composed of veterans, the College qualified under the Veterans’ Educational Facilities Program. So “to gain more space, two war-surplus BOQ’s, which had been located at Ft. Washington, were moved to the BCC Campus in the fall of 1947.”³⁵ Shortly after the first of the year the College moved into the converted buildings that composed a single unit containing offices, biology and chemistry laboratories, a student lounge and a book store. With the new L-shaped building, the College had gained 10,000 sq. ft. of much needed floor space. The Federal Works Agency also included a little building off to one side which was to house Coach Rubini’s office and an equipment room. “For the College to move its offices out of the High School building not only was of great help to the High School faculty and staff who had been indeed patient with the many discomforts arising from crowded conditions, but it also provided the College with badly needed facilities of its own.”³⁶

About a month after classes began in the fall of 1947, 25 people met to form the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra which was to be under the sponsorship of Dean Price and the temporary directorship of Dr. John R. Riggleman, a part-time instructor. The orchestra was the first instance of the College providing a cultural activity for the community. It met regularly every Wednesday evening for rehearsal under the direction of Chester J. Petranek and gave its first concert in June, 1948. “The College sponsors saw the orchestra as an opportunity for student and adult participation in an activity which would offer both cultural value as well as one semester hour credit to the participating students from the College.”³⁷

Seven years later MJC provided the Montgomery County Light Opera Association facilities for rehearsals and, under the same arrangements allowed to the students in the symphony orchestra, granted credit for participation in this musical organization.

The climax to the College’s second year of operation was of course the first commencement which was held on Wednesday evening, June 9, in the Leland Junior High School auditorium. Commencement week had begun with a baccalaureate service on the preceding Sunday at the Bethesda Presbyterian Church.³⁸ On Monday evening a dinner for the graduates, who were guests of the faculty, was held at the Dinner Bell in Bethesda. The rather lengthy program following the dinner included the caterwauling of a quartet, accurately named The Discords, that included Dean Price, Dr. Labouvie, William Cohen, and the author. Then on Tuesday evening there was held the usual prom. Meanwhile, it had been made clear to the 25 graduates that if they expected to receive their diplomas, attendance at the baccalaureate service, the rehearsal for commencement, and the commencement itself was necessary. With such a small graduating class, the College, it was felt, could not afford to have any “absentees”! Governor William Preston Lane, Jr., honored the College and its first graduating class by delivering the commencement address.

Two months before the first class graduated, one of its members, Raymond Yaukey, President of the Student Council for 1947-48, made an interesting and prophetic comment about MJC and its role in American education when he observed:

We look around at G.W. or American or Maryland and we feel awfully small; yet they say that by 1960 there’ll be more students in junior colleges than in senior colleges. In this light I begin to see M.J.C. as a part of the beginning of a huge movement that will effect the whole country and our whole educational set-up.³⁹

There were other interesting, though perhaps less significant developments which occurred during the College’s second year. The Montgomery County Quota Club and the Chevy Chase Women’s Club established scholarships for the young institution. However, it was not until the mid-1950’s that the contributions for scholarships were of such size as to warrant listing in the catalog.⁴⁰

In the fall of ’47, the Women’s Association, “under the counselorship” of Dr. Bernice F. Pierson, was established for the purpose of offering assistance in the promotion of school activities, help in resolving problems which the members might have, and disposing “of small individual cliques.”⁴¹ The first meeting was attended by 25 girls.

On a Saturday early in December the first conference of public junior colleges in Maryland was held at MJC for the purpose of studying their common problems. Dean Price invited Dr. A. J. Brumbaugh, Vice-President of the American Council on Education to speak on “Student Personnel Practices”; Dr. John Dale Russell, Director of the Division of Higher Education, U.S. Office of Education, to talk about “General Education in Junior College”; and Dr. Jesse P. Bogue of the American Association of Junior Colleges to comment on “Junior College Trends.”⁴²

Meanwhile, at the annual meeting of the Maryland State Teachers Association a luncheon involving junior college teachers and administrators was held. It was at this luncheon meeting that plans were made for the establishment of the Maryland Association of Junior Colleges, of which Dean Price was subsequently unanimously elected the first president.⁴³

These activities indicated that he was not only promoting MJC but “the cause” of the junior colleges, especially the public ones, throughout the state.

Even though the College had not completed its second year of operation, the Board of Education decided to establish a Committee to Study the Future Needs of Montgomery Junior College which, in turn, would make a report to the Board. The committee included two members of the Board, the principal of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, the assistant superintendent of schools, and Dean Price. The report included seven recommendations:

1. that the College “be made a permanent part of the county’s educational program”;

2. “that the Board of Education should plan … for a program of junior college education which, through County and State support, may be free…”;

3. “that the Board of Education should go on record as favoring the development in the future of a suitable campus and buildings for the College…”;

4. that there should be a “system of junior colleges” for the entire state and that, among other things, “all buildings and sites for public junior colleges in … Maryland be provided at the expense of the state” and the cost for the operation and maintenance of the public junior colleges be equitably distributed between the state, county, and student;⁴⁴

5. that MJC should “continue as a two-year unit including the 13th and 14th grades until such time that further development in the junior college field makes it clearly evident that any other combination of grades would prove more practical from an administrative and educational point of view”;

6. that a study should be undertaken to see how “it would be possible to incorporate into the junior college all post high school public education within the county, including vocational training and adult education” and

7. that the College’s business office should continue to operate under Dean Price’s direction and with the supervision of the Assistant Treasurer of the Montgomery County Board of Education…” in order that the fiscal operation of the institution would be administered more efficiently.⁴⁵

With regard to the second recommendation in this report, it was one of Dean Price’s main ambitions to have MJC tuition free. However, this has never been achieved. (See Appendix C.) Most of the other recommendations the Board endorsed. This report, it is worth noting, was but one of about nine studies undertaken during the first nine years of Montgomery’s history. Many other studies of the institution have followed during the last decade and a half. In fact, it is doubtful if there is another institution in the Washington-Metropolitan area that has been studied and examined with such frequency as Maryland’s oldest community college!

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The last two of the College’s four years in Bethesda reflected a collective effort towards achieving an institutional stability and fulfillment. In the summer of 1948 the College conducted a summer session under the direction of the registrar, Jerome Kloucek. Since this operation showed a small deficit, there was not much enthusiasm to repeat it in the summers immediately ahead. Not until 1959 was a summer session again conducted, although there were two abortive attempts in the meantime. For the past eleven years the eight-week summer session has been an integral part of the institution’s instructional program.

In the fall of 1948, Miss Grace H. Brown (now Mrs. Frank Neuffer) joined the faculty as a full-time counselor, having been at Syracuse University where she had been head resident of the women’s living center and an instructor in the remedial reading clinic. She was the College’s first full-time, professionally trained counselor. After one year at MJC she left to become the Assistant Dean of Women at the University of Cincinnati, having prepared before her departure a well written report of her work at the College.⁴⁶

Two other new faculty appeared in September, 1948, beside Miss Brown. Stephen G. Wright replaced Clarence Lowe in accounting and business administration. In addition to having a full teaching load, Mr. Wright was to serve as bursar. After several weeks had passed, however, he told Dean Price that “he was keeping a horse out of a job”⁴⁷ and would therefore have to give up the bursar’s position, which was shortly filled by Mrs. Georgia McMeekin, (“Mrs. Mac”) who became popular with both the faculty and the students, and who remained at the College until her death in 1953.

With an increased enrollment and a lack of sufficient space and equipment, the College needed, Dean Price felt, its own campus and buildings. He recommended $750,000 for this purpose in the fall of 1948, the buildings to consist of several small units.⁴⁸ But at this time he did not have enough leverage to make this proposal a reality. A year and a half later, the College having meanwhile been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, the story would be different.

Not only was there concern in the autumn of 1948 for the need of a separate campus but for “…MJC’s role in the county and community and how to improve its status in the community.”⁴⁹ During a faculty meeting many suggestions were advanced, including offering an adult reading program similar to the “Great Books” courses given in many colleges and universities, giving courses in general education and talks on science over local radio stations. Only one proposal among a half dozen, however, was implemented the following year, and that was for the College to sponsor a series of lectures and “feature a panel discussion.”⁵⁰ By the 1960’s this was well established with various departments providing interesting lectures by scientists, historians, and government leaders drawn from the local area.

In the spring of 1949 an occupational survey was conducted by students from the College in order to determine what the local job opportunities were for young people. “The information was used in determining future needs and offerings of the College.”⁵¹

Late in March, 1949, the first all-collegiate boxing tournament was held, Coach Rubini, who had once been boxing coach at the University of Maryland, having made the arrangements. After the 34 bouts which were held on two consecutive nights, Dean Price awarded golden glove charms to each of the twelve divisional champions and silver glove charms to each of the runners-up. Mr. Allen Jones of the English Department presented to Tom Clifford the Best Boxer trophy, and Coach Rubini awarded to Warren Allen the Fightingest Fighter trophy. For many years the boxing tournament was a popular, annual affair.

Another interesting as well as significant development in the history of the College which occurred during the academic year 1948–49 was the establishment of a chapter of the American Association of University Professors. In a statement which the author addressed to the faculty some ten years later on the origins of the AAUP Chapter, he noted:

Early in December, 1948, my attention was drawn to an editorial in The Washington Post which discussed the AAUP and its work. At the time I knew very little about the organization, and so I called the late Dr. Ralph E. Himstead who was then General Secretary to find out more about it and to ask if junior college teachers were eligible for membership. He informed me that they were, provided that one-half or more of their time was spent in teaching and/or research. In view of the fact that Montgomery Junior College had not as yet been accredited by the Middle States Association, Dr. Himstead suggested that we enlist the support of Dr. Jesse Bogue of the American Association of Junior Colleges who, in turn, might state to the AAUP that the College was a bona fide institution. Dr. Bogue was glad to help us out in this regard, and as a consequence MJC was placed on the AAUP’s approved list. The next step was the organization of a chapter, seven members of the faculty having signified their readiness to join. The charter members were Emery Fast, William Fox, Sadie Higgins, Allen Jones, Bernice Pierson, and Julien Ripley. In March, 1949, the chapter was organized, the executive committee being composed of William Fox, president, Bernice Pierson, vice-president, Allen Jones, secretary-treasurer, and Julien Ripley, member-at-large.⁵²

Essentially there were three reasons for the establishment of an AAUP Chapter at MJC: (1) To add some prestige to a junior college not quite three years old and operating its program in a high school; (2) To give the faculty members a feeling of identity with the profession at large; and (3) To provide protection for the faculty in matters of academic freedom and tenure.⁵³ It is worth noting with regard to the last reason mentioned that the Montgomery County Board of Education adopted before the Middle States accreditation visit in 1950 the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure of the American Association of University Professors.

During the course of the five years following the founding of the AAUP Chapter, the Chapter was involved in several rather important activities, including the defense of an instructor who was suspended while awaiting trial on a misdemeanor charge, the sponsoring of an essay contest among students to encourage “clear and creative thinking outside as well as in the classroom,”⁵⁴ the awarding of a prize to the student who had achieved the highest cumulative average in the graduating class, (this is still being done) and cooperation in the campaign against the Ober Law which was an anti-subversive measure that the Maryland General Assembly had proposed for referendum in November, 1950,⁵⁵ and which, contrary to the wishes of Dean Price and the faculty, became law.

It was not very long before the AAUP Chapter included a majority of the College’s full-time faculty. Although some instructors belonged to the Montgomery County Teachers Association, the Maryland State Teachers Association, and the National Education Association, the AAUP shortly claimed the strongest allegiance among the faculty until the late 1960’s when a unit of the American Federation of Teachers, which is now dormant, made its appearance and a chapter of the National Faculty Association (an NEA affiliate) was established, the latter being today approximately equal in membership to the AAUP Chapter. In addition to being a valuable watchdog of the rights and interests of the faculty for the past twenty-one years, the AAUP Chapter has striven to improve salaries for both full and part-time instructors, has held open meetings of general interest to the faculty and administration, and has sponsored from time to time pleasant social events enjoyed by both members and non-members.

Early in 1949, at about the time of the formation of the AAUP Chapter, a joint committee of the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters prepared a study on “Montgomery Junior College: Its Place in Our Community.” The committee made four recommendations: (1) “That the Montgomery Junior College be developed as a Community College to serve as a community center. . .” serving the curricular needs of young people but at the same time meeting the community’s wants and desires; (2) That a general plan for the College’s future development be prepared to include, as funds became available, “the acquisition of a permanent site located where it will be of the greatest benefit to the entire county, the erection of adequate buildings and facilities, and the extension of the program to include day and evening classes”; (3) That the College’s tuition be reduced as quickly as possible “. . . to a point where it is more in line with that of other public junior colleges”; and (4) That the institution be encouraged to continue making community surveys in order to determine what additions or revisions of the curricula should be made.⁵⁶ These recommendations, made jointly by two influential organizations, gave additional support to the needs and expanding role of MJC.

In April of 1949, Dean Price established an ad hoc faculty committee to investigate the possibility of offering a junior college program in Lincoln High School, the County’s Negro high school in Rockville. The committee met with Mr. Parlett Moore, then principal of Lincoln and some members of his staff on one occasion at the school and on another at the College. As public education in Maryland was then segregated and as there had been no junior college facility in Montgomery County for Negroes, the Board of Education established in August, 1950, the George Washington Carver Junior College which was to operate in Lincoln High School with Moore serving as the dean. The Negro junior college offered five curricula in Auto Mechanics, Building Trades, Cosmetology, Dry Cleaning and Tailoring, and Home Economics with an option in clothing or foods. As a result of the Supreme Court’s famous decision in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education (May 17, 1954) and Governor Theodore R. McKeldin’s prompt statement of support, public education in Montgomery County was desegregated and along with it the junior college program. Carver subsequently became the Rockville Branch of MJC,⁵⁷ but this branch lasted for only a short time.

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The academic year 1949 – 50 was important in the annals of the College because it marked the fourth and final year on the BCC campus and because the institution was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The fourth year began with the annual, all-college picnic at Meadowbrook Cabin in Rock Creek. A newly composed alma mater, written by Sue Fennell, a student, was introduced and sung at the picnic: “Dear Montgomery, we salute thy Burgundy and Gold. We bear thy shield, we tread thy road, as hopes and dreams unfold. Oh, Alma Mater, Alma Mater. . . .”⁵⁸ This song did not gain acceptance, nor have the one or two others which have since been introduced as the College’s alma mater. Later at the fall picnic in ’49, following the singing of the new alma mater, Dean Price and a few alumni offered their rendition of the old “alma mater,” Shanty Town!

When classes began that fall, there were two additions to the full-time faculty: Harvey J. Cheston in mathematics and Roi M. White in Drama and English. Cheston had been a member of the mathematics department at the University of Maryland, and White had recently served on the faculty at the University of Denver.

Although White was at the College for only one year, he successfully established a viable drama club, the Tournament Players, and directed several fine plays, which were well received, starting with Eugene O’Neill’s In The Zone, one of a series of four plays dealing with the crew of a British tramp steamer, the S. S. Glencairn. This was the first play to be produced at MJC. Other plays which White directed that year included The Second Shepherd’s Play, a medieval miracle play in the original style which was put on just before Christmas, The Twelve Pound Look, A Sunny Morning, The Marriage Proposal, and Patrick Hamilton’s psychological melodrama, Rope. In addition to these productions, White was responsible for several programs for the Radio Club’s Friday broadcasts.⁵⁹ Fortunately White’s successors, Teresa Graumann and James O. Harmon in turn, were able to meet the high standards he had set. By the spring of 1952 a chapter of Delta Psi Omega, the national honorary drama fraternity, had been established at the College.⁶⁰

With the graduation of the second class in June of 1949, MJC became eligible for evaluation and possible accreditation by the Middle States Association. Dean Price and the faculty were understandably desirous to see the College gain the recognition and status of regional accreditation. In the fall Price sent Kloucek to interview the dean of Jersey City Community College which had gained Middle States accreditation earlier that year. While visiting Jersey City, Kloucek was permitted to study the report of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Learning (Middle States Association) to the institution. Years later he recalled:

They, like us, had a night operation in a high school plant and while I picked up several valuable tips on that visit, I recall the most significant was that they flatly stated their facilities were adequate for night classes and that they would not plan day classes until they had their own plant.⁶¹

During the fall of 1949, the administration and faculty were busy preparing the necessary self-evaluation report for Middle States and getting ready for the visitation of the inspection Committee representing the Commission on Institutions of Higher Learning of February 22, 23 and 24, 1950. The committee was composed of five able men: the chairman, Dr. Charles C. Tillinghast, Principal of the Horace Mann School for Boys in New York; A. J. Breidenstine, Dean of Students, Franklin and Marshall College; Dean V. H. Fenstermacher, Hershey Junior College; Rev. Thomas J. Kilcullen, Treasurer, Mount St. Mary’s College; and John Russell Mason, Librarian of The George Washington University. In their report they noted that the faculty was well qualified, “…a total of nine doctor’s degrees and twenty master’s degrees evidencing a thoroughness of preparation and an awareness of the necessity of professional growth which is most encouraging.”⁶² Moreover, “the class presence and performance of the members of the faculty, with one exception, proved to be on a very high level indeed. There was a spontaneity in the classroom which showed activity of the mind on the part of both instructor and class….”⁶³ The committee wondered, however, “…about the ease with which students drop and take on courses, or shift from one curriculum to another.”⁶⁴ While the committee recognized that the statement on admissions as it appeared in the catalog was being lived up to, the members felt it “…wise to caution the administration that liberality in admitting to the College anyone who can profit by its program should not degenerate into a laxity which would make it possible for other institutions to say that any applicant can be admitted to the Montgomery Junior College.”⁶⁵

Among the several recommendations made at the conclusion of the Middle States Report, undoubtedly the most important was the necessity for MJC “…to obtain a campus site and building separate and distinct from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School so that the present wooden building may be abandoned, and the elements of late afternoon and evening classes which now seem to operate somewhat in the direction of preventing young women from attending the College—and indeed in the direction of affecting somewhat the morale of the whole institution—may be removed.”⁶⁶ This was indeed the leverage which Dean Price needed to convince the Board of Education and the county government that MJC should have its own campus and plant.

Another recommendation contained in this report called for consideration of divisional organization of the faculty, for some of the existing departments had only two or three instructors and at least in one instance the chairman was the department. Other than the English Department, the departmental units were really not very functional. It was not until the spring semester of 1961, however, that the entire faculty was organized into effective departments. Meanwhile, there were only three departments: English, Mathematics and Electrical.

The Middle States committee also noted that no rank was given to the faculty except that of instructor and suggested the possibility of establishing professorial ranks. Again, more than ten years were to pass before this recommendation became a reality.

While the committee was satisfied with the transfer offerings, it felt that the terminal courses needed to be strengthened and that it might be well in this regard to hire someone with an industrial-vocational background who would give encouragement and support to this aspect of the institution’s program.

About two months after the Middle States visitation, Dean Price received word that the College was now on the Association’s list of accredited institutions. MJC had won its spurs!

We rightfully gained accreditation in the eyes of the examiners on the strength of our faculty, the integrity of our course offerings, our ability to achieve the objectives we said we were working for, the adequacy of our facilities, and other such questions concerning quality and respectability.⁶⁷

While the College learned of its regional accreditation in the spring of 1950, Professor Louis Bliss, head and principal stockholder of the Bliss Electrical School, Takoma Park, Maryland, announced to his faculty that he was planning to close the school which had been in operation for more than half a century. “About half the faculty, then and there, got their walking papers.”⁶⁸ However, “Prof.,” as Bliss was affectionately called by the faculty, gave each man a year’s salary in advance.

Apparently Bliss and his son Donald hoped to get the County to take over the school with the possibility that the school would be called Montgomery-Bliss.⁶⁹

In the meantime, Dean Price and the faculty were looking for a permanent site. Some interest was shown momentarily in an estate south of Rockville on the Rockville Pike and also in the campus of Chevy Chase Junior College on Connecticut Avenue. But when it was learned that the Bliss Electrical School was for sale, attention quickly shifted to the possibilities of acquiring it.

On the first of August 1950 the Montgomery County Board of Education purchased the Bliss Electrical School at Takoma Park, its campus of almost seven acres, six buildings, and all the equipment for the sum of $350,000. In addition, the county appropriated $15,000 for such remodeling as could be done for that amount, to adapt the buildings for the use of the college.⁷⁰

At last, MJC had its own campus and a ready made one at that. Mr. Arthur Joseph, Executive Assistant and a stockholder of the Bliss School and a member of the Montgomery County Board of Education, negotiated the purchase of the campus and buildings and took a broker’s fee for doing so. Professor Bliss objected to this, believing that in as much as Joseph was an officer and stockholder in the school, he should not have taken the fee.⁷¹ Unfortunately, there was a falling out between the two men over this matter.

Just four years from the time it opened under quite modest circumstances, MJC, thanks to its administration, faculty, board, and devoted student body, had achieved Middle States accreditation, had acquired its own campus, and had commenced to enjoy a modest recognition in the community. The next decade and a half on the Takoma Park campus would see the enrollment rise from 541 to 2,780 (See Appendix A.), and inevitably frustration and failure were to be intermixed with accomplishment and success.

1. Report of the ad hoc committee on the Junior College (mimeographed), 1946, Montgomery College Records: Takoma Park Campus.

2. Hugh G. Price, “Montgomery Junior College First Convocation” (unpublished), p. 35, Folder: “Convocation Data,” Montgomery College Records: Takoma Park Campus.

3. Ibid., pp. 35–36.

4. Ibid., p. 36.

5. Elbert K. Fretwell, Jr., Founding Public Junior Colleges: Local Initiative in Six Communities (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1954), p. 87.

6. Jerome W. Kloucek, Toledo, Ohio, letter, 19 May 1970, to the author. Kloucek was a member of the first faculty, was the first chairman of the English Department, and served as registrar from 1947 to 1950 when he resigned to pursue his doctorate.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Golda S. Payne, personal interview with the author at Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus, 7 Oct. 1969. Miss Payne became the first emeritus professor of the College upon her retirement in 1960.

13. Beginning with the Price administration, the practice has been to include the administrative officers as faculty.

14. Montgomery Community College, as it is now legally designated, or Montgomery College as referred to in public information and publications, may justly claim to be the first community college in Maryland although Hagerstown Junior College also commenced operation in the fall of 1946. Price, op. cit., p. 9.

15. Montgomery Junior College Bulletin of Information and Announcements of Courses 1946–47, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 32. Hereafter cited as Catalog, 1946–47.

16. Ibid., p. 4.

17. William Lloyd Fox, “The First Ten Years and After — At Montgomery Junior College” (unpublished address), 9 June 1956.

18. Catalog, 1946–47, p. 8.

19. Fox, op. cit.

20. Price, op. cit., p. 35. Dean Price reported a registration of 184 but the official count is 186.

21. Wailes was the first of the 25 graduates in 1948 to receive his degree, having been the first to register two years before.

22. Knights’ Quest, 7 Nov. 1946.

23. Catalog, 1946–47, p. 6.

24. Accolade, 1948, p. 3.

25. Knights’ Quest, 7 Nov. 1946. In 1969 the Takoma Park Campus adopted blue and gold as its colors.

26. Ibid.

27. Accolade, 1948, p. 34.

28. Although women students served on the Student Council from its beginning, it was not until 1955–56 that a woman, Sue Curtis, was elected president.

29. Knights’ Quest, 11 Dec. 1946.

30. Hugh G. Price, “Five-Year Report of the Dean, 1946–1951,” (unpublished report to the Superintendent of Schools), 4 Sept. 1951, p. 7.

31. Knights’ Quest, 27 March 1947.

32. Ibid., 10 May 1951.

33. “Convocation Data” Folder, Montgomery College Records: Takoma Park Campus.

34. William L. Fox, Takoma Park, Md., letter, 4 April 1955, to Elbert K. Fretwell, Jr.

35. Lander, p. 59.

36. Price, “Five-Year Report of the Dean, 1946–1951”, p. 2.

37. Lander, p. 39.

38. The baccalaureate service was retained as a part of the commencement week program until the Class of ’52 voted to replace it with a charge to be given during the commencement program.

39. Knights’ Quest, 22 Mar. 1948.

40. Catalog, 1948–49, p. 11. Lander, p. 55.

41. Knights’ Quest, 3 Nov. 1947.

42. Ibid., 17 Dec. 1947 [sic]. The date should be Dec. 1.

43. Ibid., 20 Oct. 1948. Price was elected president of the Junior College Council of the Middle Atlantic States at its annual meeting in November 1949.

44. The budget for the College in 1946–47 provided in income $16,000 from the Board of Education; $10,000 from the State; and $49,435 from student tuitions. For many years more than half of the College’s income was derived from tuition.

45. “Report of the Committee to Study the Future of Montgomery Junior College to the Board of Education” Folder: Bd. of Ed. – Committee to Study the Junior College, Montgomery College Records.

46. “Annual Report of College Counselor 1948-49,” (unpublished), Montgomery College Records.

47. Stephen G. Wright, personal interview, Takoma Park, Md., n.d., with the author.

48. Knights’ Quest, 30 Sept. 1948.

49. Lander, p. 39.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid., p. 46.

52. William L. Fox, mimeographed letter, 2 Oct. 1959, to the faculty. Dr. Himstead signed the nominating applications of the charter members since there were no active members of AAUP then on the faculty and the signature of a member was then required on the application blank.

53. Ibid.

54. Knights’ Quest, 30 Oct. 1953. In 1953, James Standish won the one and only prize which the Chapter ever gave for his paper on “Theologics,” in which he set forth an answer to man’s age-old question as to why he exists.

55. William L. Fox, letter, 26 Oct. 1950, to Mrs. Edward Salner, Exec. Sec., Md. Civil Liberties Committee and Associates.

56. Committee of The American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters, “Montgomery Junior College: Its Place in Our Community” (mimeographed report), 1949, pp. 14-15, Montgomery College Records.

57. See Catalogs, 1956-57 and 1957-58.

58. Knights’ Quest, 11 Oct. 1949.

59. Accolade, 1950, p. 39.

60. Ibid., 1953-54, p. 53.

61. Kloucek, op. cit.

62. Report of the Inspection of Montgomery Junior College Made on February 22, 23 and 24, 1950 by an Inspection Committee Representing the Commission on Institutions of Higher Learning of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (mimeographed), p. 4, Montgomery College Records.

63. Ibid., p. 5.

64. Ibid., p. 6.

65. Ibid., p. 7.

66. Ibid., p. 9. Even after the College secured its own campus and was thereby able to offer day as well as evening classes, the proportion of women to men students failed to increase. See Appendix A.

67. Kloucek, op. cit.

68. Harold S. Wood, Professor emeritus, Montgomery College, and a former member of the faculty of Bliss Electrical School, personal interview with the author, Takoma Park, Md., 10 Feb. 1970.

69. Ibid.

70. Price, “Five-Year Report of the Dean, 1946-1951,” p. 2.

71. Wood. See Footnote 68.