Ohio History Journal

Historical News

 

 

 

Virginius C. Hall, director of the Historical and Philosophical Society

of Ohio since 1945, died in Cincinnati on June 8, 1957, after a brief illness.

Mr. Hall, a native of North Carolina and a graduate of Trinity College

(Duke University), came to Cincinnati in 1923, where he engaged in the

advertising business and later in stockbroking until 1934. In that year he

joined the faculty of the Cincinnati Country Day School and then in 1942

became a master in the French department at Groton School. Returning to

Cincinnati in 1944, he became part-time director and librarian of the His-

torical and Philosophical Society in 1945 and full-time director in 1946.

In addition to his duties as director of the society, he wrote many articles

for the society's Bulletin and other historical publications. He was made an

honorary life member of the Ohio Historical Society in 1954.

Mrs. Alice P. Hook, librarian of the society, has been appointed acting

director until Mr. Hall's successor is selected.

The annual meeting of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio,

now in its 127th year, will be held Monday, December 2, at the Cincinnati

Art Museum. Dr. Walter C. Langsam, president of the University of Cin-

cinnati, will give the address on that occasion.

Rear Admiral Webb C. Hayes, a trustee of the Ohio Historical Society

for twenty-five years and president of the Rutherford B. Hayes and Lucy

Webb Hayes Foundation, died at Fremont on July 10, 1957. Admiral Hayes,

a grandson of the nineteenth president, was born in 1890. He graduated

from the United States Naval Academy and served with distinction in the

navy during World War I. Having retired from the navy in 1928 to engage

in business management, he returned to active duty before Pearl Harbor

and served from 1942 to 1944 as director of recruiting and induction. In

the latter year he was given command of the troop transport West Point,

which carried 175,000 troops to combat areas before the end of the war.

In May 1946 he retired from active service to return to business activities,

the administration of the Rutherford B. Hayes Library, and various civic

duties.

Laurence H. Norton, president of the Western Reserve Historical So-

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HISTORICAL NEWS           419

 

ciety, has announced the appointment of Meredith B. Colket, Jr., as director

of the society. Mr. Colket holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Haverford

College, where he served for a time as an assistant in government. Since

1937 he has been employed in the National Archives, specializing in the

fields of local history and genealogy. Mr. Colket also has been a profes-

sional lecturer on the faculty of American University.

C. D. Penner, chairman of the history department at Baldwin-Wallace,

has a leave of absence for the year 1957-58. He will be lecturing on a

Fulbright award at the Hochschule fur Sozialwissenschaften at Wilhelms-

haven.

Themistocles Rodis has returned from a teaching assignment in France

and Germany on the University of Maryland overseas program.

At Bowling Green State University, Virginia B. (Mrs. G. C.) Platt has

been promoted to the rank of professor.

Grover C. Platt has resigned as chairman of the department. He has

been succeeded as chairman by R. Stanley McCordock.

William Darcy has left the history department at Capital University to

devote full time to graduate study. His position as instructor of Greek and

Roman and church history has been filled by Richard Trost.

At the University of Dayton, Rocco M. Donatelli has been promoted to

the rank of associate professor of history.

Thomas L. Moir of Heidelberg College has been promoted from assistant

professor to associate professor of history and integrated courses. The new

rank became effective at the beginning of the 1957-58 academic year.

Martin J. Havran and Robert Jones have been added to the history staff

at Kent State University, and Harold Schwartz has been promoted from

instructor to assistant professor.

Phillip R. Shriver has been relieved of teaching duties for the fall and

winter quarters (1957-58) to write a history of Kent State.

A. A. Skerpan was the featured speaker at a northeastern Ohio under-

graduate historians conference at Mount Union College in April.

Philip L. Ralph, chairman of social studies at Lake Erie College, was

visiting professor of history at Western Reserve University during the

second term of the summer session.

Alfred D. Low, a member of the history faculty at Marietta College

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since 1946, resigned his position there to accept the post of associate pro-

fessor of history at Youngstown College. Dr. Low (Ph.D., University of

Vienna) received early this year the certificate of the Russian Institute

of Columbia University, having studied under a Ford faculty fellowship at

Columbia during the year 1953-54. Dr. Low served as visiting professor of

history during the past summer at New York State Teachers College.

At Muskingum College, Gerrit De Jong has retired, and William L.

Fisk has succeeded him in the chairmanship of the department of history.

David Sturtevant has completed his doctoral dissertation on "Agrarian

Unrest in the Philippine Islands" at Stanford University.

William Hoglund, who has recently received his Ph.D. degree from the

University of Wisconsin, has been added to the history staff. His field of

specialization is American intellectual history.

Klaus Schoenthal has been appointed visiting instructor at Muskingum

for the first semester, 1957-58.

Robert S. Fletcher, chairman of the department of history at Oberlin

College, has announced the appointment of George M. Kren from the

University of Wisconsin as instructor in history during the second semester

of the current year.

Ellsworth Carlson's leave of absence has been extended so that he can

continue lecturing and studying in the Far East during 1957-58.

An article, "The Work of the Indian Claims Commission under the Act

of 1946," by Thomas LeDuc appeared in the Pacific Historical Review for

February 1957.

Albert T. Volwiler, professor of history at Ohio University, died on

June 19, 1957. Dr. Volwiler, whose degrees were from Miami, Chicago,

and the University of Pennsylvania, came to Ohio University in 1933 from

Wittenberg College. The following year he was promoted from associate

professor of history to full professor, and from 1944 to 1952 served as

chairman of the history department. His special field was United States

history and his best-known writing was George Croghan and the Westward

Movement, 1741-1782, published in 1926. For more than twenty years Dr.

Volwiler was a member of the board of editors of the Ohio Historical

Society.

Dr. Volwiler's place on the history staff will be taken by Harry R. Stevens

(M.A., University of Cincinnati; Ph.D., University of Chicago), who

has been assistant professor of history at Duke University since 1947. At

Ohio University he will hold the rank of associate professor.

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HISTORICAL NEWS          421

 

Frederick D. Kershner, Jr., resigned in July 1957 to become associate

professor of history at the Columbia University Teachers College. His

replacement is Robert L. Daniel, who holds an M.A. from Miami Univer-

sity and a Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin. Another new member

of the staff, Richard Thompson (Ph.D., Wisconsin), will teach Latin-

American history and United States diplomatic history.

Chairman John F. Cady's A History of Modern Burma is being published

by the Cornell University Press. It will appear early in 1958.

George Lobdell spent much of the past summer at the Library of Congress

and the National Archives, working on his biography of John Knox.

Eugene H. Roseboom, professor of history at Ohio State University, is

the author of a 568-page book, A History of Presidential Elections, published

in July by the Macmillan Company.

Arthur R. Steele, formerly of Teachers College of Buffalo, State University

of New York, has been appointed an instructor in history at the University

of Toledo. Dr. Steele has his Ph.D. degree from Duke University.

Bruce Bugbee, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, has

been appointed lecturer in history for the first semester, 1957-58.

James W. Wolfenden, who became head of the department of history at

Wittenberg College upon the retirement of Benjamin H. Pershing, spent the

summer in study in England. Dr. Pershing maintains his interest in history

by active participation in the Clark County Historical Society. He is serving

as president of that organization.

David B. Chan, who received his Ph.D. degree from the University of

California in June, has been named instructor in history. He will conduct

classes in western civilization and in the Far East, his special field of

interest.

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