Bound Volumes, Hometown History
October 26, 2023
70 Years Ago
All of Oneonta and the surrounding area have been invited today to attend the inauguration of Hartwick College’s fourth president, Dr. Miller A.F. Ritchie. Some 1,000 delegates and official guests, including leading educators from throughout the United States will participate. Special busloads have been chartered from Rochester and other cities. Today is also Founders Day at Hartwick. Oneonta’s Mayor, Roger Hughes, has proclaimed Saturday, October 24, “Inauguration Day” in Dr. Ritchie’s honor. Special programs are to be broadcast over station WDOS. Automobile dealers will transport the delegates. Inauguration ceremonies are scheduled for the morning with a reception in the afternoon and a semi-formal inauguration ball in the evening. Tickets are available for a luncheon at the State Armory. Among the dignitaries will be newly elected officers of the college’s board of trustees—Dr. Morris C. Skinner, Albany, who was re-elected board chairman; Charles Ryder, Cobleskill, vice-chairman; Clyde Bresee, treasurer; and Warren Shaver, Elsmere, secretary.
October 1953
50 Years Ago
The State University Board of Trustees has approved the naming of the newest and largest dormitory at SUCO in honor of Burton Hulbert, a prominent Oneonta civic leader and banker who, at the time of his death on January 7, 1972, was a member of the College Advisory Council. The dormitory is in its second year of operation. Officially the building was designated Stage XV Dormitory and Dining Hall Complex. It was unofficially dubbed “Phippie Hall” by students. Located on the right hand side of Ravine Parkway at the entrance to the college campus from West Street, Hulbert Hall opened in the fall of 1972 with 452 beds and seats for 492 in the dining area. Burton Hulbert had a long and distinguished career at the Wilber National Bank where he started as an employee in 1918.
October 1973
40 Years Ago
President Reagan asked the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Friday to take no offense from his remarks about whether King had been a Communist sympathizer. In a personal letter written 18 days ago, to New Hampshire’s Governor Meldrim Thomson, Reagan had expressed reservations about creating a legal holiday in King’s honor, but said the perception of King as an “immoral man who associated with communist agents” was “based on an image, not reality.” On Wednesday night, a few hours after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to establish a holiday honoring King, the president told a news conference he would sign the bill. Governor Thomson had asked President Reagan to veto the bill, calling King “a man of immoral character whose frequent association with leading agents of communism is well established.” Reagan telephoned Mrs. King before leaving Washington for a weekend of golf at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, which has no black members.
October 1983
20 Years Ago
The number of American women ages 15 to 44, who are foregoing altogether, or putting off motherhood, has grown to 44 percent according to U.S. Census Bureau data collected in 2002. An estimated 26.7 million women of child-bearing age often cite getting an education and establishing a career as priorities that have affected their decisions about child-bearing. The percentage has increased by 10 percent since the 1990 census when roughly 24.3 million women were in that class. “It’s just difficult to explain to people that we don’t hate kids,” said Anne Hare, a married fitness program coordinator from Georgia. “It’s just that we don’t want our own.” In a counter trend, more married couples are choosing adoption as an alternative.
October 2003
