Celebrations planned as Baker turns 150
Joanne Tolkoff, chairwoman of Baker University's 150th anniversary celebration, prepares Wildcats
Brenda Day, Baker museum director, displays a photo of students who would become Delta Delta Delta sorority members.
Photos of Former Baker University classmates are shown among other memorabilia from the school's past 150 years. Baker was chartered Feb. 12, 1858, and is now the oldest university in Kansas.
The first senior class from Baker University was, clockwise from top, Olive Willey, James Cavaness, John Wesley Horner and James Hall.
Baker’s history
Baker University can trace its roots to an 1857 convention of the Kansas Educational Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held along the Santa Fe Trail at Palmyra, 15 miles south of Lawrence.The church organization received proposals for establishing a university at several area locations, including Palmyra and Lawrence. A year later, in 1858, the governor of Kansas Territory signed the Baker charter, making it the first university – now the oldest – in Kansas. Its campus is at the heart of Baldwin City. It was named after Bishop Osman C. Baker, who presided at the first session of the Kansas and Nebraska annual conference. The university has continued its affiliation with the Methodist Church.A stone building was built for the university after it was chartered. It became known as the “old castle” and still stands today.Baker granted its first degrees to two men and a woman in 1866. In 1890 William Alfred Quayle became the first Baker alumnus to be the university’s president. Also that year, Baker played Kansas University in the state’s first intercollegiate football game. Baker won 22-9.Baker’s graduates include four Rhodes Scholars and two Pulitzer Prize winners. It is consistently ranked among the top 100 private schools in the nation by Money magazine and has been recognized in Barron’s Best Buys in College Education.A board of trustees oversees the university. They are elected by the Kansas and South Kansas conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. When Dan Lambert retired in 2006 as Baker president, he was replaced by Pat Long, who became the university’s first female president.Source: Baker University
The phrase “happy birthday” will be heard often during the next academic year at Baker University.
The university marks its 150th anniversary with a yearlong series of special events and activities.
“This is an exciting time for Baker,” university president Pat Long said. “There are a lot of good things happening here.”
“We’re going to kick off the whole celebration in August when the students come back,” said Annette Galluzzi, Baker’s vice president for marketing, who is chairwoman of the anniversary steering committee.
On Aug. 20, faculty and students will have their annual kickoff dinner, but this year there will be a difference: The Baldwin City community will be invited to attend as well.
“We’ll have a giant birthday cake, and it will be a party atmosphere,” Galluzzi said.
Baker was chartered Feb. 12, 1858, and is now the oldest university in Kansas. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
The Sept. 18 special opening convocation at Baker will feature Cokie Roberts, a political analyst for ABC News and National Public Radio. She will be the speaker in the Loreine Collins Dietrich Distinguished Lecture Series.
During Baldwin City’s Maple Leaf Festival, Oct. 20-21, Baker again will join in the celebration by staging special activities on its intramural fields. Plans call for bands to perform there. Decorated wooden wildcats – the university mascot – will be on display.
The wildcats are expected to be a special attraction to anniversary celebrators, Galluzzi said. Personnel in Baker’s maintenance shop have volunteered to initially make 100 of the wildcats, which will be 4 feet long and 3 feet high. They will consist of three wooden panels that fit together. Individuals, businesses and organizations will be able to buy the wildcats for $30. They can then decorate the mascots as they please and put them on display. A contest will take place to determine the best decorated wildcat and the winners will be announced during the Maple Leaf Festival.
“I think this is really going to be a lot of fun and catch on quickly,” Galluzzi said.
Throughout the year, characters from Baker’s rich history will appear at various functions. Students in a joint history and theater class under Brenda Day have been researching the stories of some of those characters. Next year students will dress and role-play the characters while mingling at events.
“I think that will add to the sense of the age of the institution,” Galluzzi said. “It’s hard to go back 150 years and realize what life was like back then, and I think these characters will bring that to life.”
One of those characters will be Lizzie Keiffer, an 1860s student who wrote a journal while at Baker.
“She had an opinion on just about everyone,” Day said. “She was just a wonderful character.”
Other characters will include William Alfred Quayle, a bishop in the Methodist Church who was a Baker student, professor and president; and professor William Charles Bauer, who created the physics department and wired Baldwin City for electricity service.
“It’s not a matter of finding characters. It’s deciding who to leave out,” Day said.
Baker’s top past athletes will be invited to attend the Hall of Fame Banquet, which will be Oct. 5 in Kansas City.
“It will be a big affair,” Galluzzi said. “Athletics has always been a big part of student life here.”
In April 2008, a special Alumni Auction and Gala will take place in Kansas City to raise money for scholarships. It is a new event intended to coincide with the 150th anniversary, Galluzzi said.
A group of Baldwin City individuals and business owners are going to have a fountain installed downtown as a gift to Baker. Plans call for it to go on the northeast corner of High and Eighth streets.
The fountain gift shows how much the community appreciates Baker, City Councilman Ted Brecheisen said, adding that the university is one of the largest employers in town.
“It’s just been good for the town to have an institution of higher education,” he said. “It brings in a good mix of people; educators and students. It also brings a lot of business to town.”
In May 2008, during alumni weekend, special groups will be invited back to campus. The spring commencement will honor the 150th university class.
“I think it is just going to be a big year,” Galluzzi said.