Regents History: March 6-7, 1952
Board Membership
- Dwight Rider, President, Fort Dodge
- Estelle Archie, Shenandoah
- Harry Hagemann, Waverly
- Vincent Hamilton, Hampton
- Arneda Kyseth, Clarion
- Robert Munger, Sioux City
- Richard Plock, Burlington
- William Rupe, Ames
- Roy Stevens, Ottumwa
Highlights
University of Iowa President Virgil Hancher presented Biennium (1953-55) Financial Needs to the Board. In his presentation, Hancher noted that student enrollment would be at a “low ebb” from 1953-57, but “in the absence of all-out war, will rise appreciably beginning about 1956-57 and abruptly thereafter.” Hancher distributed annual United States and Iowa birth rate tables to the Board, which showed dramatic increases from the 1933 baseline to 1948. Hancher used these tables to argue against reducing staff as enrollment fell following post-war G.I. Bill increases. Hancher’s tables represent an early example of the Board recognizing and preparing for the dramatic campus expansions that would take shape a decade later under Presidents Alfred Noehren and Stanley Redeker.
The Board appointed Chalmers Elliot as assistant varsity football coach at the University of Iowa under head coach Forest Evashevski. “Bump” Elliot served as an assistant at Iowa for five years before leaving for the University of Michigan in 1957. He returned to Iowa as its Director of Athletics in 1970, a position he held until 1991. During his tenure, Elliot hired legendary Hawkeye coaches Hayden Fry (football), Lute Olson (men’s basketball), Dan Gable (wrestling), C. Vivian Stringer (women’s basketball), and Dr. Tom Davis (men’s basketball).
Helen LeBaron was appointed dean of the Division of Home Economics at Iowa State. LeBaron led ISU’s Home Economics program (now Family and Consumer Sciences) until 1975. She was a member of the National Committee for the 1960 White House Conference on Children and Youth and the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. She married retired ISU President James Hilton in 1970, was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993 and was the inaugural recipient of the Carrie Chapman Catt Award from the League of Women Voters of Ames. LeBaron Hilton is honored in ISU’s Plaza of Heroines and Lebaron Hall was named in her honor in 1975.
