Former Southwestern College archivist Jerry Wallace will present “The Story of Southwestern College: Its Beginnings” on Saturday, April 16, at 8 p.m. in Messenger Recital Hall inside the Darbeth Fine Arts Center.  There is no admission charge.

“This wonderful presentation is a great story to have as a part of our year-long celebration of Southwestern's 125th anniversary,” says Susan Lowe, director of alumni programs at Southwestern.  “We are honored that Jerry put in the time and effort to research and write this story and will tell it to us in his own words.” 

From his earliest years growing up Wallace has been interested in history. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in the field. After serving in the Peace Corps and U.S. Army, he joined the National Archives, where he was employed as an archivist for 30 years. During this time he served as historian-archivist for three presidential inaugural committees. Wallace retired in 1999 and moved to Oxford. In retirement, he helped organize the Southwestern College archives between 1999 and 2002.

Although Wallace’s period in history is the 1920s, he is interested and challenged by his work with local history. He is a director of the Cowley County Historical Society and serves on the Celebrate Winfield History Committee. For four decades he has been a member of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, having served as a trustee and now as a member of its national advisory board.

Wallace is author of numerous publications on Calvin Coolidge, among which are his book, “Calvin Coolidge: Our First Radio President (2008),” an essay, “An Honest Public Servant,” in the recently-published “Why Coolidge Matters (2010).” His papers on local history have appeared in various issues of the “Celebrate Winfield History” publication. They include “Dry Bones on the March: The Great Winfield Anti-Saloon Uprising of 1901” (2006); “The Jack Welfelt Story: Building Modern Winfield” (2008); “The Story of Southwestern College: Its Beginnings” (2009); “Edwin Cassander Manning: The Founder of Winfield, Kansas” (2010); and “Leighton Price Ravenscroft, 1860-1945: A Live Dedicated to Service” (2011). Among his writings on Southwestern College are “The Fire That Refueled Us” (2000) and “1962: The First Lady of the World [Eleanor Roosevelt] Visits SC” (2001, both of which appeared in “The Southwesterner.”

“The Story of Southwestern College: Its Beginnings” was first presented at the 2009 Celebrate Winfield History conference.