Page:Shimer College History 1853-1950.pdf/13

 the school began to emerge from the uncertainties of the transition period. Through Dean McKee's faith, demonstrated by his works, faith in the school and its future was restored, the tide of public opinion turned, students and dollars began flowing into the Academy and the crisis was passed.

At this time the youngest and most attractive member of the faculty was Miss Florence Turney, a graduate of the Seminary, who had been retained as an instructor. She was a young woman of fine sensibilities, sympathetic insight, highest integrity, and unswerving loyalty. A romance bloomed quietly between these two superior people. His marriage to Miss Turney proved to be a fortuitous turn of fate for the Dean both personally and career-wise. His wife was a precious link with the school's past, cherishing its ideals and traditions, beloved by its alumni and trusted by its Mount Carroll supporters. Throughout the thirty-three years of his headship, she was an invaluable help-meet, helping to shape this school policies and to improve his public relations.

Dean McKee was primarily a builder, -- not only a builder of buildings -- though all twelve Georgian colonial structures ranged around the campus quadrangle were erected through his initiative and resourcefulness. He was also a builder of faith in the school's future possibilities. He organized a comprehensive, well-coordinated curriculum of academic studies, supplemented by strong departments of music and art, courses in domestic science, plus a well-rounded program of physical education, including outdoor sports, tennis, hockey and golf, all of which provided superior opportunities for cultivating the latent powers of a young woman. He surrounded himself with a capable, devoted faculty who shared his hopes and dreams and gladly helped to translate them into reality. An elevated moral and spiritual tone pervaded the school throughout the thirty-three years of his administration, attributed by some to his inspiring chapel talks and Sunday evening vesper thoughts.

Knowing that his projected building program called for a large amount of money, he first borrowed a little in 1899 so as to start tearing down the old south wing, antiquated, dilapidated and wholly inadequate for dormitory purposes with its little stoves, lamps, candles and absence of plumbing. Then, making use of money-raising techniques, he secured the needed funds from friends of the school who responded liberally. The obsolete south wing was replaced by the new South Hall which provided an auditorium seating 400, three recitation rooms, twenty dormitory rooms and a modern gymnasium.

In 1900 the Dean started to raise a $100,000 endowment. Again the school's friends responded. Dearborn Hall, named for Isabelle Dearborn Hazzen, was built to house the music department. In 1905 Hathaway Hall, a new dormitory, was dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Mary L. Hathaway Corbett ('69), a sister of Mrs. Hattie N. LaPelley, a former trustee, who gave liberally toward the erection