IN MEMORIAM, DOSIA CARLSON

The above photo of Dosia is dated 1972. She was a DC religion professor for 14 years in the 60s and early 70s, serving in many administrative positions such as advisor to the Campus Christian Fellowship students, and was in charge of the Forum program. She was ordained in 1979, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. She was stricken with polio as a young woman, and became intimately acquainted with the problems of the chronically ill. She published a book on her own experiences in 1968. Here she is with DC bookstore manager Mark Randall (’62) at a book signing when the bookstore was in the basement of Dana Hall:

And below is another photo of Dosia with two DC students, Linda Griffin and Mari Wheaton, when the students helped conduct a church service for the First Congregational Church in Columbus; its pastor Rev. Chalmers Coe is at left, beside Dosia. We think it was taken in 1963:

Dosia moved to Arizona in 1974 and became active in hospice and aging issues, and served as Associate Minister of the Church of the Beatitudes, a retirement center in Phoenix. She published further books, one of hymns she composed, and another on ministry to older adults. She returned to campus in 1987 to give a workshop on aging. She continued being active in the United Church of Christ, and in the late 1980s, was given an award by the UCC:

UCC official?, Dosia Carlson, and DC Prof. Richard Howard receiving awards from the UCC, ca. 1987

DC profiled her in a 1983 DC Bulletin, and you can read her obituary here. A “simple search” in DC Memory will bring up 25 documents that mention her name.

Barb Sedlock

Lead Librarian and Coordinator of Metadata and Archives

DIARY OF STUDENT LIFE AT DC IN 1963

Title page of William Bagley’s diary

A professor at a university in Virginia contacted the DC Archives at the end of November 2020 to ask whether we would be interested in a donation. He said he purchased it at an antique store in Cincinnati years ago. Naturally, we said “Yes!”

From what the information I’ve been able to gather, William Bagley entered DC as a freshman in the fall of 1963, and this is a detailed diary of his life on campus that fall. His entry for September 8 talks about his arrival on campus, being assigned to a room on the top floor of Sisson Hall, and attending required meetings. He reports on details like what he ate in the cafeteria at meals, the weather, going to a dance, and how tests were administered in Schomburg Auditorium. He was apparently taking music classes, joined the choir, and writes about purchasing classical music albums.

This page from the 1964 Oraculum has a photo of a William Bagley among the freshman class, so I assume this is the author of the diary–he’s in the bottom row.

What really interested me in this diary, since it was from 1963, is what Bagley had to say about the assassination of President Kennedy. DC’s student newspaper only had a brief article and a memorial page with a drawing of Kennedy, so I’ve always wondered what the campus’s reaction was to such a momentous event. Bagley says in his entry for November 22:

“This is the most fantastic day I will ever record in this diary…I was napping when someone ran down the halls saying ‘I don’t believe it.’ After awhile I heard them say that the President had been shot! I did not know what to think. Miss Burke did not have class, so I listened to the radio station radio. It was a little after 2:00 when I heard that the President had been shot, and that he was dead. Everyone was shocked….An unbelievable tragedy. I wonder where our world is going now.”

In subsequent entries he mentions watching Kennedy’s funeral services on television.

I haven’t been able to find much else on Bagley other than a Bill Bagley is listed on the editorial staff of the “Bricklayers Amalgamated” newsletter in 1967. If he was a freshman in 1963, he would normally have graduated in 1967, but he is not listed in the 1967 Commencement program. What is also confusing is that the 1987 alumni directory lists a William Bagley as being of the class of 1963. He’s not listed at all in the 1979 alumni directory, nor in those published after 1987.

I have not scanned pages from the diary for this blog post because of possible copyright restrictions; works like this created before 1978 are normally protected up to 95 years after creation. The original volume can be viewed by visiting the DC Archives; you can use the Library’s staff page for contact information to arrange a time.

Our grateful thanks to the professor who recognized the value of the diary to purchase it in the first place, and then took the trouble to contact us and donate the volume.

Barb Sedlock

Lead Librarian and Coordinator of Metadata and Archives

IN MEMORIAM, GERALD MALLOTT

Rev. Gerald E. Mallott in 1984

We learned this weekend of the death of Rev. Gerald E. Mallott, who has long been a pillar of the Defiance College Community.

According to the Fall 1998 DC Magazine, Gerry was from Fulton County, Pennsylvania and came to DC as a student after attending two other colleges. Here is is senior photo from the 1951 Oraculum:

While at DC, he met Marilyn Loar in a Bible class, where he impressed Marilyn with his Bible knowledge. They both graduated in 1951, and married in 1952. At the invitation of DC President Kevin McCann, they returned to campus and Gerry took up the post of Director of Admissions and Church Relations. Here’s his picture from the 1955 Oraculum in that position:

Gerry served in many administrative positions over the decades besides Admissions and Church Relations, including Financial Aid, Registrar, interim Dean, and Dean of Students. He worked for 4 DC Presidents: Hopkins, McCann, Johnston, and Ludwig, and was on the search committee which recommended that DC hire President Harris.

Gerry retired in 1993. Here is a photo of him receiving the Pilgrim Medal from Dr. Harold McMaster and President Ludwig:

After his retirement, he remained active in community service, at St. John United Church of Christ, on the Defiance Public Library board, and in Rotary.

Gerry’s loss will leave a gaping hole in the Defiance College community. View the Fall 1998 DC Magazine for more about Gerry, Marilyn, and two of their children, Martha and Phil, who are both alumni and have also contributed greatly to DC. If you go to DC Memory’s landing page and choose “simple search” and search on “Mallott,” you will retrieve 69 documents, evidence of the family’s long involvement in DC’s history.

Barb Sedlock

Lead Librarian and Coordinator of Metadata and Archives

EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT TO THE DC ARCHIVES

INTERIOR OF DC’S HICKORY HUT DECORATED FOR A DANCE, LATE 1940s

This week, the daughter of DC alumnae Ruth Koop Heins (’50) offered items from her mother’s time at DC to the College Archives. There are over 100 snapshot photos of students and student life from the later 1940’s, which is really exciting, because the Archives didn’t have much documentation from that period before this.

I was especially excited to receive the above photo and three others of the inside of the Hickory Hut. We had hardly any pictures of the interior of the Hut before this gift. It looks like this was a dance with a barnyard theme; other photos show cornstalks and hay bales and one dancer is wearing a farmer’s straw hat.

“FRESHMAN INITIATION AT CHAPEL ON FRIDAY” IS WRITTEN ON THE BACK, ALSO THE GIRLS ARE NAMED AS RUBY MILLER AND VALETTA JORDAN. OLD CAMPUS FOUNTAIN DIRECTLY BEHIND THEM, AND TROWBRIDGE HALL IN THE BACKGROUND.

This is a photo of girls undergoing freshman initiation, but it’s not dated. The Sept. 9, 1949 Tom-Tom has an article listing requirements for freshmen during initiation week, such as not being able to use the front door to enter a building, having to carry shoe polish and be ready to shine an upperclassman’s shoes, carrying their books in a pillowcase, etc. The signs the girls are wearing in the above photo say “I ain’t married,” and “I ain’t either.”

HERE’S RUTH’S STUDENT ACTIVITY TICKET

The tickets were used to gain admission to campus activities. Students must have been in the habit of lending theirs to friends, because an article appeared in the Jan. 18, 1947 Tom-Tom cautioning students that if they get caught doing that, they will be banned from all activities. And the May 12, 1950 Tom-Tom surveyed the students about a proposed increase in student activity fees.

RUTH’S COMMUNITY CONCERT TICKET

DC participated with community organizations to present a music/arts series of performances in the late 1940s, and this was the ticket Ruth purchased to be able to attend. On the back it says that a baritone from the Metropolitan Opera, an operatic trio, a pianist, and the Indianapolis Symphony were to perform during the 1947/48 season.

ON BACK IS WRITTEN “KNOOP” AND THEN “ROBERT WEBBER, BETTY STRALING, NOVEMBER 3, 194[ILLEGIBLE]”

These are students posing under the old DC arch, which stood between old Defiance Hall and Clinton Street. Here’s a color slide of a full view of the arch, taken about the same time as the above photo.

Among the other donated items from Ruth’s estate are a framed panoramic photo of campus, a May Day program and ticket to the dance, and two photos of the DC choir, which Ruth sang in. Ruth was a student at DC at the same time as noted alumni Ray Derricotte and Gerald and Marilyn Mallott.

We are extremely grateful that Ruth’s daughter Helen took the trouble to sort out the DC items from her mother’s estate and drive 80 miles to bring them to our door.

Barb Sedlock

Lead Librarian and Coordinator of Metadata and Archives

A BREAK IN DC’S THANKSGIVING TRADITION

CAROLYN SMALL SERVES THANKSGIVING DINNER TO STUDENTS, PROBABLY 1997

Among many things that Covid-19 has disrupted in 2020 is DC’s Thanksgiving Dinner tradition, where students eat family style served by faculty and staff. Because of social distancing required due to the virus, the faculty/staff-served version of the meal has been switched to a Thanksgiving lunch on November 19, served by Hallmark Dining food service staff.

Here’s a picture of Prof. Randy Buchman serving Thanksgiving dinner sometime around 1990. Older alumni will be able to tell this is in the old Enders Student Union cafeteria:

And here’s another one from 1991, also taking place in Enders, with Academic Dean Maureen Evans (L.) and Chaplain Jan Bechtel (R.) serving beverages:

Skip forward a decade plus a couple years, here’s students in 2003 in Serrick Center. You can see the Pilgrim Library through the window in the background:

I haven’t been able to document exactly when the faculty/staff-served meal began, was told it was the 1970s but I haven’t found documentation on that in the archives, just notices in newsletters that the Thanksgiving Dinner was to take place on a certain day and time.

While trying to research that, I came up with some other interesting tidbits about Thanksgiving in DC’s past. Students who didn’t go home for TG in 1909 stayed and had a taffy pull. In 1914, they had another taffy pull, and after a basketball game, the resident students roasted marshmallows in the fireplace of Trowbridge Hall. In 1920, one of the literary societies on campus re-created a Pilgrim church service, with everyone in Pilgrim or Native American costume. In 1921, President Caris invited the students still on campus over to his house for games, coffee, and donuts. In 1958, students petitioned the administration to be allowed to go home on Tuesday evening instead of Weds. noon, and the request was granted. And in 1965, students successfully convinced the administration to give them the day after Thanksgiving off.

Barb Sedlock

Lead Librarian and Coordinator of Metadata and Archives