Students on the Lawn

The Dayton Campus Center on the left, Kirk Hall (a dorm) in the center, and the Dewitt Wallace Library beyond the students in the sunlight. Old Main is mostly hiding behind the trees.

Dewitt Wallace grew up on this campus, then founded Readers Digest, which made him rich. Wallace money was crucial to the school's development in the fifties and sixties. We sixties and seventies students were painfully (yes, painfully) aware of that. My impression is that current students mostly think of Wallace as the guy whose name's on the library. Things change.

James Wallace, Dewitt's father, was the college president for a decade or so, and a professor for several decades. One of the dorms is named after him. And the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center is named for Dewitt's mother.