A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

egistration and record system resulting in expediting the process. I continued as Associate Registrar until1953 when the North College Hill Board of Education offered the Superintendency at almost double thesalary Miami was paying me.The Superintendency was a challenge. Under the former Super, things had deteriorated both staff andplant wise. I instituted a new salary schedule, got the people to pass a levy, repaired and equipped theschool plant and developed a future building program with the aid of Ohio State U. The new salaryschedule enabled us to improve the teaching staff and things were looking up.In the summer of 1954 Clarence Kreger, Provost of Miami University under the new President JohnMillet, called me and offered the position of director of Extension and Summer Sessions. The salary andopportunity were tempting but I was reluctant to leave the superintendence just when I had so manythings going. Kreger and the Board held several meetings and the Board decided they could not matchMiami’s offer. I assumed my new position in March of 1955.The new position was also challenging. John Millet wanted the Extension reorganized into centerswith a definite program of studies. This we did, setting up Centers in Dayton, Hamilton, Middletown,Piqua and Norwood in High School buildings after hours. The program flourished so that by 1962 we had3,200 students at Dayton and nearly five hundred in each of the other centers. In 1960 my title waschanged to Director of Academic centers and Summer Session. After President Millet left to becomeChancellor of the Board of Regents, Dr. Wilson changed my title to Dean of educational Services, withresponsibility for Branch Campuses, Extension, Summer Sessions, Admissions and the Registrars Office.In 1962 we opened in conjunction with Ohio State University, the Dayton Campus which was tobecome Wright state University three years later. This was the first of three campuses to be built awayfrom the Oxford campus. When we had increased our enrollment in Dayton to 3200 part-time students itbecame obvious that we needed more permanent space then we were able to have at Nettie Lee Roth HighSchool. After several attempts to obtain a site and the means to build a campus, Mr. Allyn, chairman ofthe Board of National Cash Register met with John Millet and President Fawcett of Ohio State andbrought about an agreement for the two schools to jointly develop a new campus. Three million dollarswere raised from contributions by industry and private individuals as a nucleus for the campus to be sitedadjoining the Wright Patterson complex.We worked with the Ohio State people to develop a campus offering full programs in Arts andScience; Education and Business Administration; which were under the direct administration of Miami U.Ohio State took on the development of the Sciences and Engineering. In spite of expert predictions to thecontrary, we opened with 1235 full time students and some 3000 part time students in 1962. Allyn Hallwas the first building followed by Oehlman, Millet and Fawcett Halls. Many more have been added sincethe campus became independent and chartered as Wright State University.We had no sooner had the Dayton Campus underway when a movement in Middletown for a Juniorcollege led to the development of a second branch campus for Miami U. At a community meeting at theBoard of Ed. offices I convinced the interested people that a higher education facility under theadministration of Miami University could do more for the community than a Junior or a Communitycollege. Herman Lawrence who had been the director for our Academic center at Middletown wasinstrumental in interesting Logan Johnson of Armco, Bob Milan of First National and several otherbusiness leaders in the idea. The result was a drive to raise a million and a half dollars as a nucleus for thecampus. The money was raised under the chairmanship of Logan Johnson and the Armco Corp. whodonated Armco Park in University and Breol Blvds. with 120 acres for the campus site. The first twobuildings were dedicated in September 1966. They were Logan Johnson Hall and the Gardener HarveyLibrary. The Armco Girls Clubhouse was contributed by that group for a student center and money for itsdevelopment was contributed by Calvin Verity. In 1867 the third building was started and dedicated in1968. It was the Science Technology building and is now designated as Earl V. Thesken Hall. In themeantime Mrs. Gladys Finkelman contributed over a million dollars for the erection of the DaveFinkelman Auditorium, which was dedicated in 1970.About the time the Middletown Campus was underway a group headed by Peter Rentschler ofHamilton started a move to build a Miami U. campus there. After receiving encouragement from John258