Covers Contents - Past Issues - Wake Forest University

Left to right: Richard Reynolds, Jens Larson, and Charles Babcock survey campus plans in1956 with the newly completed Reynolda Hall in the background.town (signifying commerce) that ranthrough the chapel steeple (symbolizingGod).By early 1951, the relocation’soriginal cost estimate had more thandoubled and opposition to the movewas gaining momentum. It was at thatmoment, when he needed every iotaof political influence he could muster,that Tribble became embroiled in controversy.Douglas “Peahead” Walker,the winningest football coach inCollege history and hugely populardespite his reputation for off-thefieldimproprieties, abruptly resignedafter Tribble refused to give him afifteen-hundred-dollar pay raise.Tribble explained that granting Walkerthe raise he wanted would have hikedhis salary above that of any memberof the faculty, but critics were not mollified.The incident would come backto bedevil the president.Fortunately, there were compensatingpositive developments. To keep pacewith the cost and rejuvenate fundraising,Tribble that spring announced thelargest concentrated fund drive in Collegehistory. Anonymous donors (laterrevealed to be William Neal Reynoldsand his niece, Nancy Susan Reynolds)offered to donate two million dollarsto campus construction if an additionalthree million dollars were raised byJuly 1, 1952. Tribble knew that to fuelthe challenge-grant drive and quell theraging controversies, the groundbreakingceremony, scheduled for October15, 1951, had to be extraordinary. Herejected as too unacademic and pedestrianthe suggestion of Eugene Olive—director of alumni affairs and formerchaplain and pastor of Wake ForestBaptist Church who had been instrumentalin convincing the trustees toaccept the Reynolds offer and thenfundraised indefatigably for the move—to highlight the event with a footballgame against Carolina. Instead, Tribbleparlayed Gordon Gray’s contacts fromhis time as a White House assistant,along with the influence of alumnusGerald Johnson (1911), an esteemedcolumnist for the Baltimore Sun, intosecuring the President of the UnitedStates, Harry S Truman, as speaker.Conservative Baptists weren’t thrilledabout the choice of Truman, with hisSEPTEMBER 2006 23