Page:Shimer College History 1853-1950.pdf/16

 presentation of a 75th Anniversary Pageant, entitled, "Frances Shimer's Gift to Education." This was an open air performance with music at commencement time in 1928, participated in by 150 students, alums and townfolk, many portraying their own grand-parents.

During these years there were May Fetes with a May Queen, a traditional event staged on the lawn against a sylvan background, the audience seated on a grassy slope forming a natural amphitheater. These dramatic presentations were put on by students who composed the plot, wrote the lines, arranged the music, designed and constructed the scenery, designed and made the colorful costumes, danced and acted -- a triumph of creative, artistic talent.

During fall and winter, entertaining plays were staged by the Green Curtain Dramatic Club. Then there was the Diversion Club, that arranged delightfully diverting programs. Branches of the Frances Shimer Alumni Association were organized in various metropolitan centers to help maintain interest in the school and to make some helpful contribution to it. These groups sponsor a Shimer Scholarship Fund.

The Shimer Record and Alumni News reported noteworthy school happenings and items of interest about alums. The cultural life at Shimer was elevated by lecture and recital courses at modest cost. Not only were outside speakers and artists brought to the campus, but the Dean himself gave a "Riley Evening" of readings from the Hoosier Poet that was so much enjoyed it became an annual affair.

November 29, 1929, Dean McKee, not in the best of health, tendered his resignation. May 19, 1930, Floyd Cleveland Wilcox was elected president to succeed him, and Mr. McKee was given the title of President Emeritus. On June 10 a Testimonial Luncheon, honoring Dean and Mrs. McKee was given by the Board of Trustees as a farewell gesture of appreciation for the Dean who "did not build the institution around himself, but built himself into the institution." Three years later death claimed this man of quiet courage, breadth of vision, firmness of decision, tenacity of purpose, great tolerance, and the strength of conviction of his Scottish forebears. His greatest contribution to Frances Shimer Academy was the unconscious influence of his cultured personality.

Dr. Wilcox came to the presidency of Frances Shimer following thirteen years' experience in China as teacher and principal of a private school, and as instructor and dean at Shanghai College. He was a graduate of Kalamazoo College and Union Theological Seminary, received his masters from Columbia and had worked on his doctorate in Education at Stanford, specializing in the field of Junior College education. He had a genial, likeable personality and during his five years at Shimer gave a good account of himself.

In 1931 the Board authorized a reorganization of the school to provide for a four-year junior college course (grades 11 through 14). In 1932 Beta