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Between UGA presidents Fred C. Davison and Charles B. Knapp, there was Henry King Stanford. Stanford was known as a friendly ambassador for UGA; he is much less known for the fact that on the day he was to be introduced as interim president, he rode to Athens from Americus by bus. His wife, Ruth, had a hair appointment, and they shared a car.
That little gem was revealed along with many others when Fran Lane, director of UGA’s Visitors Center, interviewed Stanford in Americus for the ongoing “Going Back: Remembering UGA” oral history project.
The idea for such a project occurred to Lane after witnessing a similar project that Georgia Tech has run for the past 10 years; talking with an elderly relative sealed the deal.
“I have a 101-year-old aunt who graduated here in the late 1920s, who only a few years ago could talk with great passion and joy about UGA,” said Lane. “She can’t do that anymore. It occurred to me that we’re losing a lot of history, because people can’t talk about it anymore.”
At the Visitors Center, “The goal is to provide a warm welcome to visitors, collect and provide accurate information and help people accomplish the task they’ve come to campus to do,” she said.
Working with the 36 student staffers is a highlight of the job, she said, as is “the super variety. You’ll never know what opportunity or challenge will present itself, or what interesting person will walk through the door.”
Such as football legend Charlie Trippi, who came to the Visitors Center last December to be interviewed for the oral history project. Trippi also happens to be Lane’s neighbor, and before the interview Lane and Trippi chatted amiably about Lane’s dogs and about how many interviews Trippi has given.
The cameras were ready, and Lane shifted into proper interviewer mode, drawing out tales of Trippi’s youth during the Depression, growing up in a coal-mining town in Pennsylvania that he desperately wanted to leave. His fond memories of UGA yielded glimpses into campus life of yore: a time when a much smaller student population knew each other well and rarely left campus, except maybe to get a Coke at a drugstore.
“No one had any automobiles, and no one had any money, period,” he said. In fact, he only joined his fraternity because it paid for him to join.
So far, about 10 people have participated in the interviews since March; Louise McBee, retired legislator and former vice president for academic affairs, was the first. Lane said that the videos will be archived mid-year and available to viewers in UGA’s media archives, and perhaps online or on DVD. Suggestions for more interviewees are welcome, Lane said.
“I’d love to do it forever,” she said. “There’s a limitless pool of prospective interviewees. I think this could go on.”
Building the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
Taking part in a recent Georgia History Project interview are (from left): Bill Evelyn, UGA videographer; Claude McBride, Alumni Association; Fran Lane, director of the Visitors Center; and Charlie Trippi, former UGA football player and coach.
