Chapter 3 From Church School to State College 1920-1933 WHEN Weber Normal College and Ogden moved into the decade of the 1920s, as with all of America, the decade began to roar. Prohibition had started, the move to generally isolate America from the world in foreign policy was underway, and American women were becoming more liberated. Joel E. Ricks presided over the College for the first two years of the decade (1920-1922). Ricks had been chosen by the College Board of Trustees from a group of applicants including William Z. Terry, John M. Mills, Professor Merrill of Jordan High School, Superintendent Stewart of Duchesne, Superintendent Nelson of Kane County, Leroy Cowles, and M. Rich Porter. On October 21, 1920, John M. Mills, chairman of the faculty committee on college work suggested that college curriculum, college activities, and a college attitude be pushed, and that we have a Weber Normal College, not a Weber High School. The faculty approved Mills recommendation that the college classes dominate the curriculum. Those attending college began to be designated as freshmen and sophomores. The action of the faculty was an endorsement of the actions of the Church Board of Education and the Colleges Board of Trustees which had taken place over the past six months. During the 1922-1923 school year the last official high school courses were taught at Weber. Although many had urged a complete move to college courses, many prospective high school students were placed in limbo. The only high school in Ogden City and in Weber County was Ogden High School. Many students in the county did not want to attend Ogden High School which at this time was located on the southwest corner of 25th Street and Monroe Boulevard. Some Weber College faculty members and others felt the option should still remain for county high school students to attend Weber. In part this was in the interest of the students and in part in the interest of Weber College since enrollments dropped after 1923 when high school students were not admitted. Some Weber faculty noted that the admission of high school students would help to preserve Weber as an institution in difficult times and others noted that high schoolstudents would get a good religious education as well as an academic education at Weber. The high school solution was in part solved in the fall of 1926 when the Weber County High School was opened at 11th Street and Washington Boulevard. In November of 1921, President Ricks suggested to the college Board of Trustees that a Founders Day be inaugurated to focus on Webers past and present to insure a greater future. The first Founders Day celebrations were held on January 5 and 6, 1922. Plans for the Founders Day Celebration were organized by Ricks, the Board of Trustees, and Aaron Tracy, president of the Alumni Association and teacher at the college. The program would serve not only to celebrate the college, but also to welcome home David O. McKay who had spent much of the previous year on a church assignment visiting foreign missions. On Thursday evening, January 5, a program was held in the auditorium for Weber alumni. Friday mornings events included music, speeches and poetry regarding Webers past including participation from John Watson, Elijah Larkin, and Squire Coop. At the close of the mornings program, a parade was formed of those in attendance, and the group marched to the former homes of the old Weber Academy. The pattern of this parade was used for other founders days: to march to the early college sites for the college. After the parade a banquet was held in the college dining hall. The speakers for the afternoon program were David O. McKay and Adam S. Bennion. McKay noted that We are here to learn three things: to laugh, to love and to pray, and that students should learn to do all well at Weber. Bennion suggested that the word Weber should remind each of the following: W stands for the will to achieve, e is for earnestness of devotion, b for beauty of purity, e for eternity which is your God, and r for reverence for the divinity which God has given you. The Girls Dance at the Berthana Dance Hall on 24th Street was the closing event of the day. The Mormon Church education system had undergone a change in 1918 under the leadership of new church President Heber J. Grant. Grant had decided to create a church commission on education to assume administration of church schools and to remove the First Presidency of the Church from time spent in governing the school system. David O. McKay was appointed church commissioner of education and his two counselors were Apostles Stephen L. Richards and Richard R. Lyman. They appointed as superintendent of church schools Adam S. Bennion an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. McKay served as church commissioner of education until 1922 when he was replaced by John Widtsoe. McKay maintained his membership on the Weber Board of Trustees while he was church commissioner. He had a longterm interest in Weber beginning with his days as a student, and continuing through his days as principal, and his activities as a Weber Trustee, church commissioner of education, and an Apostle. Through the difficult days of the decade of the 1920s and into the problems of the depression, McKay was an important advocate for a strong church college in Ogden. A major theme addressed throughout the first Founders Day program was the need to complete the gymnasium. Discussions concerning a gymnasium had been