While buildings on the University of Missouri campus were formerly named for campus leaders, major donors have gained more recognition in the last generation. KBIA's Audrey Snider used oral histories and recent interviews to explore how the business school has exemplified this trend.
This piece is part of Reverberations, a series from KBIA that uncovers the wealth of historical information housed within the State Historical Society of Missouri's archives and its Haskell Monroe oral history collection from the 1990s.
This episode of Reverberations features the voice of:
- Hugh Stevenson, Jr.
- Mary Beth Marrs
- Max Meystrick
Reverberations is a grant-funded, collaborative project from KBIA, the Missouri School of Journalism, and The School of Visual Studies, with support from Missouri Humanities. Special thanks to the State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSMO) for partnering with this project to digitize and explore the Haskell Monroe Oral History Collection.
Transcription of this episode is as follows:
Music: St. Louis Blues
Intro: This is KBIA News. I'm Trevor Harris. We are traveling back in time to the 1930s and 40s with Reverberations, a new series at KBIA. Producers have spent the past few months creatively engaging with recordings from the State Historical Society of Missouri's Haskell Monroe Oral History Collection to bring the past to the present in rich soundscapes.
Today, KBIA's Audrey Snider explores how buildings are named in a piece that draws on an archival interview and her own interviews.
Audrey Snider: Have you ever wondered where a building got its name On MU’s campus, we casually refer to places like “Ellis,” “Cornell,” or “Middlebush" when describing the location of where we’re going, but the names of buildings, schools and colleges around campus tell a bigger story. Older buildings often honor university leaders, like Elmer Ellis, and Frederick Middlebush, both presidents of the University during a period of growth. Newer buildings reflect the growing role of alumni and donors in shaping the University.
Today we’ll explore building names and how those shifts impact the university, focusing on the business school. Originally housed in Middlebush Hall, the school moved to Cornell Hall in 2002, honoring a major donation from alumnus Harry Cornell. In this piece, we’ll hear an archival interview from 1995 with Dr. Hugh Stephenson Jr., who himself was so influential that MU’s Department of Surgery is named in his honor. Dr. Stephenson knew Frederick Middlebush while he was Dean of the business school and then later President of the University. We’ll also hear from recent interviews with Dr. Mary Beth Marrs, Director of the Cornell Leadership Program, and MU finance and math student Max Meystrick. In a story that connects past leadership to present-day student life.
Sound: Door opening to Middlebush, ambient sound of walking through the empty halls, light conversations and doors are opening.
Hugh Stephenson (OH): “The University administrators I think were very highly regarded in those days. Middlebush was president during part of that time, he was president I think nineteen years and the University grew a great deal under Middlebush's tenure. He was followed by Elmer Ellis. The medical school was actually conceived under… the expansion was conceived under Middlebush but it was dedicated under Elmer Ellis. The curators used to be more generic in their interest in the University.”
Sound: Door Closes
Sound: Elevator in Middlebush opens, “what floor?” “uh 3” continued by the sound of the elevator
Mary Beth Marrs: “So whenever Middlebush was built… it was groundbreaking, because he advocated really strongly that they put in an elevator and air conditioning, so I think it was the first air-conditioned building on campus.”
Sound: Elevator door shuts and footsteps fade
Sound: Wind sound
Sound: Footsteps walking into Cornell
Mary Beth Marrs: “There was no place for students to interact… no atrium… no place for you to sit around and engage with one another.”
Sound: Atrium ambiance from recording the interview]
Max Meystrick: “Yeah, I definitely would call the business school home despite also belonging to arts and science. I think a huge reason for that is the community I've found in the business school. I think the business school, both in the building itself, in the organizations in it, really help cultivate that, specifically with an organization called Alpha Kappa Psi. It's a professional business fraternity. kind of feels like home. And then also just the atrium in Cornell Hall is a big part of why I like the business school so much. I can walk in any day of the week. And I will know probably a handful of people sitting in there and I'll immediately have a group of friends to go chat with and I'll even get to class early just to hang out with said people. And so it really does make a class size, feel smaller and make it, you know, a campus of 30, some months, 30, some 1000 students, really breaks it down to a more manageable size.”
Music: St. Louis Blues
Trevor Harris: That was the work of Audrey Snider, KBIA producer and business school Alumnus, with Reverberations, a project produced using sound from SHSMO's Haskell Monroe Oral History Collection. For more Reverberations, go to kbia-dot-org. I'm Trevor Harris, KBIA News.
