College will build centennial court Directors and of the early members of An outdoor monument that honors the college and highlights groups and the board. individuals who had an important role in Weber State’s growth will be constructed on campus as part of the college’s centennial celebration. College administrators have dubbed the exhibit the Centennial Court and the school’s first principals. say it will be eight feet tall, 30 feet wide, be made mostly of cement and include plaques, a walkway with a terrazzo ““W,” and a time capsule. The structure will sit just west of the retention pond, facing Harrison Blvd. and will pay tribute to Weber State’s orld-class_entertainment, a wide eee and the dedication of array of activities, new campus struc- tures will highlight the year-long centennial celebration of Weber State which runs through June of 1989. Weber State officially opened its doors January 7, 1889 as an LDS school and was | known as Weber Stake Academy, and the college plans to celebrate that event with a full year of activities. | Two faculty members and 98 students attended that first day in the old LDS Louis F. Moench, the first principal, was constructed on 24th and Jefferson. The college experienced years of extreme financial pressures in those days and early administrators mortgaged their During the next year WSC will bring to the community such entertainers as the Moscow Classical Ballet, the Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston homes to keep the school open. Through the years the college’s curriculum grew and the name changed a number Noted composer Crawford Gates is composing a symphony in honor of the of times. The college survived an attempt Richard Roberts are writing a 100-year history of the college. to return the school to church ownership centennial, and Drs. Richard Sadler and The after it became a state school, and in the late 1950’s moved to its present campus location on Harrison Blvd. Weber State has grown from a small- town school to a major college that is recognized world wide, and in recognition of past achievements officials have designated the 1988-89 academic year as the official centennial celebration. second ward chapel. The Academy taught high school courses in those frontier days | and enrollments were shaky at best. At | times the school appeared headed for closure as students left the classroom to work in the fields. But by the early 1900’s the school finally caught hold and a new building, ‘later named the Moench Building for The official kick-off was June 10 when Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, spoke at the 100th commencement exercises of the college. college plans to create a natural amphitheater east of the Browning Center, and will construct a centennial pavilion west of the Lindquist Plaza and pond which will honor those who have contributed to the development in the of the college. A time capsule will also be sealed into the wall of the centennial pavilion court. Sharon Young, controller for Peerless Products of Ogden and chairman of the WSC centennial committee, said, “People marketplace today because of hopes to up with a structure that would contain a brief history of the school and honor those instrumental in its first 100 Weber State.” The “Pops” Orchestra. first 100 years, said Dean W. Hurst, assistant to the president. “This started from wanting to come they have to have a commitment to the school for it to continue. A lot of us are centennial committee emphasize the academic achievements of the school during the year-long birthday party. A subcommittee of WSC faculty has been organized to help bring an awareness of how important the college is to the years,” Hurst said. The project has an estimated $30,000 price tag, which is being paid for by private donations, he noted. The plaques, the largest of which community, and how the two can and do work together for the benefit of education, measures three by four feet, will contain a history of the college and a listing of the founding Board of Ms. Young said. “Ogden needs to be very proud of the college they have. It fulfills a real need. A lot of people over the years have put in countless dollars to make the school work so that my children and your children can have a good education. I don’t think that should go unnoticed,” she said. need to realize what an excellent job the college is doing. They also need to realize ew book outlines college's history the early financial struggles of the fledg- “At the November 12, 1898 Board Meeting, Treasurer Robert McQuarrie reported that “Prof. Moench spoke of the necessity of wing smaller lessons until the Christmas plidays than are usually given; that the iudents may not become discouraged and main away from school after the holiays.” (Faculty minutes, December 14, §96) the Academy was in debt $19,660. ... For the next year individual members of the Weber Stake Board of Education continued to keep the Academy open and solvent by their individual and collective efforts. Charles F. Middleton, First Counselor to (LDS) Stake President Lewis W. Shurtliff and a member of the Centennial Overture The premiere performance of an original symphony written for the college’s centennial by composer Crawford Gates will be held Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. in the Austad Auditorium. The WSC symphony orchestra will perform “Honor Forever” under the baton of Dr. Gates in the first performance of the piece which was commissioned by the college from private funds. Dr. Gates is widely known to Utah audiences for such major musical scores as “Promised Valley,” and “Sand in their Shoes.” He has also recorded a number of albums featuring orchestral arrangements of LDS hymns. More recently he has written a new score for the LDS Hill Cumorah Pageant in New York when his original score was retired after 31 years of use. He currently resides in Wisconsin where he serves as music director for the Beloit Janesville Symphony. The balance of the evening's performance will include numbers by the WSC orchestra. Admission for the centennial symphony is $2 for adults, and $1 for students and senior citizens. : That piece of Weber State’s history, and any like it, are part of a new book iblished by the college as part of the tennial celebration. “Weber State College: A Centennial istory” was compiled by Drs. Richard adler, dean of the School of Social jences and Richard C. Roberts, chairan of the history department, and inludes highlights of the college’s first 100 ars, a series of essays by 12 long-time ulty and staff members and a section f historic and modern photographs. 1The book contains anecdotes from the bllege’s founding as an LDS Church hool, including a section that illustrates Academy Board noted in his diary: November 6, 1899. At night my wife Martha C. and I signed two notes and mortgage on the Stake Academy for the sum of $6,000.00 to take an old note for the same amount.” The history campus by Dr. Robert A. Clarke, recollections of Weber State by Dr. Larry Evans, science at Weber College by Dr. Walter R. Buss, athletics by Dr. Lee Sather, “Subduing the Barbarian: Freshman English at Weber State” by Dr. Levi S. Peterson, “Imagining Eden” by Wayne Carver and many others. The book includes 100 black and white photographs of past people and buildings and eight pages of color photographs of the new campus, Dr. Sadler said. The 400-page volume also includes lists of faculty and administrators from 1889 to 1988, student body officers from 1904 to the present, and enrollment figures. Dr. Sadler said the book will be available by Thanksgiving. “This volume of history, like all of Weber’s history, has been a team effort. It goes to press one hundred years from the Fall of 1888 when Lewis Shurtliff and his also tracks the school’s growth to a junior college, a state institution, and eventually to four-year status at the present location. “What this is, is a book for people to find what they were associated with at Weber The book, in addition to historical facts, contains essays on Weber State culture by Dr. Gordon T. Allred, the move to the new ling school. State,” said Dr. Sadler. colleagues first met and breathed life into Weber Academy,” wrote Dr. Sadler in the book’s preface. To order the history mail $19.95 plus $4 for postage, handling and tax to: Centennial History, WSC Bookstore, Weber State College, Ogden, UT 84408-2103. Plaques will also recognize “This school came close to closing sO many times, but even in the struggles of those early days college administrative minutes state that one day the names and pictures of the college’s founding fathers would be displayed and honored. This is a kind of fulfillment of that statement,” Hurst said. Other plaques will include a list of all WSC presidents, past members of the institutional council, and a list of donors to the centennial gift campaign. College faculty and staff will also be honored, he said. Dedication is tentatively scheduled for next founder’s day. A 50-year time capsule containing memorabilia from the centennial will be placed in the structure during homecoming activities later in the year, Hurst said. ‘We want this to become a lasting tribute to the college and to the people who shaped its 100 year growth,” he said. “It seems to be a very appropriate thing to do during our centennial.”