‘Presidential Partners’

Book shares histories of university’s first ladies

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

University presidents tend to get the ink when it comes to recording institutional histories.

But at WSU, the stories of the wives of the men who led Fairmount College, the Municipal University of Wichita and now Wichita State are being shared through a new book published by the WSU Foundation this month.

"This is a topic that never comes up in other histories of our university – the role of the first lady," says Jim Rhatigan, who’s gotten to know several presidential couples during his 37-year tenure as dean of students and now senior vice president at WSU. "The primary story of any university’s activity is the president. Women’s roles have always been complementary, but significant nonetheless."

Rhatigan led the effort to publish "Presidential Partners: First Ladies of the University," raising the money to fund the book he edited.

"We’ll never know exactly all these women did, but we’ve brought them out of the shadows a bit to show they had interesting lives and did interesting things," Rhatigan says, noting the difficulty some authors had in researching the lives of WSU’s early presidential wives.

Twelve authors, nearly all WSU faculty and staff members, wrote the book’s 13 chapters on the university’s 12 first ladies and the wife of the founder of the institution that later became Fairmount College.

For Jane Rhoads, director of WSU’s Office of Undergraduate Success Programs, putting together the history of Mabel Rollins, the wife of the university’s third president, meant calling upon all her sleuthing and research abilities.

She perused clippings in the special collections archives and the Wichita Social Register. She contacted the Haverhill, Mass., and Fort Myers-Lee County public libraries, the receptionist of a White Plains, N.Y., church the Rollinses attended after his presidency and a national women’s service organization that Mrs. Rollins had belonged to.

The stacks of articles and information and a search on the Internet White Pages helped her track down two of the Rollinses’ daughters and four grandchildren.

"They seemed so excited when I told them that this was for a book on presidential wives," says Rhoads, who has a degree in history. Eager to share their grandmother’s story, the two granddaughters provided tremendous insight into who Mrs. Rollins was.

"It was a wonderful experience. I felt like I was being adopted," Rhoads says.A self-professed WSU promoter, Rhoads sent each family information packets to show how the university had grown from Rollins’ presidency nearly nine decades ago.

She also shared all her research material on Mrs. Rollins, some of it unknown even to the family members.

For the family members, it helped them connect with a loved one. Mrs. Rollins’ daughter Helen Gould wrote to Rhoads, "I had no idea of all this information." The granddaughters shared the material and photos with their children.

Other connections were made through the book, as well, Rhatigan notes. Special collections, which didn’t have a single photo of Miranda Morrison when the book project started, now has several, thanks to her great-great-grandson who had kept Mrs. Morrison’s photo album. A family member donated the Bible the Rev. Henry Thayer used as a seminary student to special collections, as well.

The Foundation has printed 2,000 copies of the book. The Foundation and Shirley and President Don Beggs will use the book as a special gift to donors and other guests of the university. Copies will also be made available to those particularly interested in obtaining one. Contact Rhatigan at 978-3001 or james.rhatigan@wichita.edu.

Back to index

• ‘Presidential Partners’

• ‘Presidential Partners’ potpourri

• Oatman named entrepreneur in residence

• Bridge finally dedicated

• Preparing for the unexpected

• WSU would distribute drugs in case of bioterrorism attack

• ‘Cool’ science

• WSU guest artist concert to feature jazz quartet

• Teach among the tulips

• ’Trailer Girl’ author to give reading

• ’The Vagina Monologues’ helps violence prevention campaign

• Exhibit mixes environmentalism, art

• Four artists show recent trends in wheel-thrown ceramics

• A musical treat

• FAA gives award

• Making a connection

• Internet2 helps researchers, frees up Internet traffic