Faculty Pioneers

Dedicated visionaries helped launch successful 'Normal College'

When Nina Humphrey, longtime Kent State art professor, died in 1968, her Record Courier obituary noted that she was the last surviving member of the original 21 faculty members at Kent State Normal College, later named Kent State University. John T. Johnson, another of the original faculty, recalled in a WKSU-FM interview in the early 1950s that there were 25 instructors.

The true number lies somewhere around this figure. 

Kent State Normal College’s first president, John E. McGilvrey, had an incredible vision for the institution he took charge of in 1911. He dreamed of it becoming a four-year college, offering master’s degrees and Ph.D.s, and he had an aggressive plan for growth. One can only assume that this man with such big dreams took equal care in selecting his first faculty members. 

McGilvrey brought at least four faculty members with him from the Western Illinois Normal School in Macomb, Ill., where he had been employed as the head of the Department of Education and supervisor of the training school. 

Two of those individuals were Johnson and May H. Prentice. Johnson began as director of science and agriculture and later became head of the photography department, based on his longtime hobby, when the agriculture department ceased to exist. He spent nearly 40 years teaching at Kent State before his death in 1957. Johnson Hall, now home to the Honors College, was named in his memory when it was originally constructed in 1957.

Prentice was the first female faculty member hired at Kent State Normal College in 1912. She originally served as director of the training school and later, director of elementary practice teaching and professor of education. She retired in 1930, and the Prentice Gate was dedicated in her honor. Funds for her gate were contributed by graduating classes.

George E. Marker was the first faculty member to arrive on Kent State’s campus as it was being constructed in September 1912. As he recollected:

“There was no road where the paved driveway now extends across the college campus; no sidewalks of any kind; few outside lights; a very treacherous swamp existed between [the site of] Moulton Hall and the present [site of] Rockwell Library.

The brush and trees were so thick that one positively could not see from Merrill Hall down to Main Street” (From Phillip R. Shriver’s The Years of Youth, page 38).

Marker had previously served as the dean of the school of education at Dakota Wesleyan University. He came to Kent State to be the head of the education department.

Even though buildings weren’t fully constructed, McGilvrey saw to it that classes at Kent State Normal College began on May 19, 1913, two days after the end of the school term for Ohio’s rural and village schools. He felt the urgency to respond to the tremendous need to educate teachers in Northeast Ohio and was determined to open his college as soon as possible. Ten more faculty members were hired in time for this important opening day: Dr. David Olson, Joseph and Lida Meredith Layton, Francis M. Dickey (“Miss Dickey”), Nina Humphrey, Margaret Dunbar, John Faught and Training Supervisors Gladys Fishleigh, Ruth Dowdell and Elsie Mabee.

Shortly after this group was hired, McGilvrey fell ill with typhoid fever, and Johnson continued the hiring process. He added John W. Dinsmore to head the Department of Rural Schools, Harvey L. Eby to be an extension teacher, Clinton Van Deusen to serve as the head of the Department of Manual Training, Lucy M. Tompkins as instructor in public school reading, Edith Olson as training supervisor for seventh and eighth grades, and Lemuel A. Pittenger as head of the Department of English. 

McGilvrey recovered from his illness and resumed responsibility for the hiring. He added Ellis Seale, a Latin professor at Berea College in Kentucky, in November 1913, to the faculty in field work and extension training when enrollment of Kent State Normal grew to 1,262 students.

In addition to the faculty, there were three other employees of Kent State Normal at its beginning: Adaline King, who served as school clerk; Helen Atkinson, assistant to the president; and of course, President McGilvrey. 

Humphrey later recalled “the spirit of the students” as the most memorable thing about the early days of Kent Normal College. Many of the students, current teachers in local school systems, had no previous opportunity for instruction beyond high school and were extremely appreciative for any guidance and knowledge the faculty could provide. 

These faculty members, from a variety of cities and backgrounds, came together in Kent to provide the college’s first lessons. In 2010, Kent State University will celebrate its founding and the multitude of successes made possible by the original faculty and staff, as well as the many dedicated individuals who followed.