Romney visits Ripon College

But not that one.
'Tis the season for politics with the Iowa Caucus right around the corner. In February of 1968, Gov. George Romney, father of current GOP Presidential nominee contender Mitt Romney, visited Ripon College while campaigning for the GOP nomination. He eventually lost to Richard Nixon, but was later named by Nixon the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
The primary in Wisconsin is scheduled for April 3rd, 2012--though there are no plans (yet) for Mitt Romney to make any appearances in Ripon.

Journey's End (1931)

The Ripon College Theatre department is presenting The Tempest starting tomorrow evening and running through Saturday. For more information, check: here.
The above images are from Journey's End, put on by the Mask & Wig theater club at Ripon, eighty years ago in 1931. For more images from Ripon's past, check out the digital collections made available through Wisconsin Heritage Online. You can find Ripon College's collections: here.

Ripon College Cycling

Congratulations to the Ripon College Cycling team for their third consecutive Midwest Collegiate Conference Cycling Division II championship! Several of the members will compete this week at Nationals in Angel Fire, New Mexico. Best of luck to all. Go Hawks!
Pictured above: Ripon College Cycling club ca. 1901

Pickard Commons, October 1961

In October of 1961, construction was begun on Pickard Commons behind Lane Library on Elm Street. Harwood Memorial Union served as the dining hall before the Commons was built and before that, students lined up outside of West Hall for their meals until 1942.
Fifty years later Pickard Commons now also houses the Student Activities offices, a Starbucks as well as the newly named David and Lynne Joyce Student Lounge.
Many thanks to Mary Brandt for her gift of the above photographs to the Ripon College Archives.

WRPN

The Ripon College FM radio station, WRPN, just celebrated its 49^th anniversary last week on February 15^th. The school had previously had an AM station which began broadcasting on September 25^th, 1957 and experienced a number of technical problems. These were sorted out over the next few months and the college began broadcasting regularly a few months later on December 2^nd. The campaign to acquire FM equipment and establish the FM station was led by William Jochimsen, Class of 1961.

Some of the programs during that initial year may have looked like the following:

Sunday schedule:

12:00-2:00 Noon Musicale w/ Paul Apman

2:00-5:00 A Sunday Afternoon w/ Dick Johnston

5:00-6:00 Off the air

6:00-7:00 Spin Cushion w/ Darryl Johnson and Dick Brian

7:00-9:00 Double Talk w/ Bill & Peter Jochimsen

9:00-10:00 Library of Music w/ Larry Egdahl

10:00-11:00 Jazz Contemporary Style w/ Cam Clapp

11:00-1:00 Invitation w/ Bob Krauss

Ice skate to class!

For those of you in Ripon or have been in town during the past few months, you may have seen the new ice skating rink adjacent to downtown and the campus. The rink is located on land owned by the college and is managed by community volunteers including Howard and Bear Hansen (no relation to the Speech professor), Brandon Haas and Craig Tebon.
The photo above shows that ice skating is nothing new to campus as two students ca. 1940s skate to class. If you can identify these students, please email me at prellwitza@ripon.edu

Ripon College Speech Department

Pictured above is Prof. Howard Hansen, '37 (far left) leading a Speech class outside of Lane Library. Prof. Hansen taught from 1955-1964 at Ripon College and established the major in Speech, which is now the Communication Department. Ripon has a lengthy tradition of being strong in speech, forensics and debate. During his tenure, Prof. Hansen continued that tradition while serving as coach of the debate team and developed several outstanding teams. At the time of his death in 1964, he was President of the Wisconsin Speech Association.

Ripon College's commitment to excellence in Speech continues n February 9th, when Ripon will be host the 2010 Forum on Ethics and Oratory with keynote speaker Kathryn Olson presenting on Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.