- Stockbridge alums got acquainted or reacquainted over lunch at the Mullins Center before receiving associate’s degrees.
The rich history of Stockbridge School of Agriculture was palpable
at the Mullins Center on June 10. About 300 alumni from the classes
of 1920 to 1960 gathered for a special commencement ceremony, in which
they were awarded associate’s degrees. (Until 1961, Stockbridge grads
received certificates for completion of the two-year program.) Accompanied
by families and friends, the alums had many stories to tell—funny,
poignant, and still vivid decades later—about their campus experiences.
Taken together, their memories created a powerfully moving portrait
of the spirit, scholarship, and camaraderie of the place.
Over the course of the day, which included a luncheon and a post-ceremony reception,
alums also offered up testaments to the value of their Stockbridge education.
Allan Johnson ’42, for instance, recounted that he put his floriculture training
to work running his own business, Johnson’s Greenhouses, which specialized in
the propagation of geraniums. Mary Bangs ’43, another floriculture student, worked
for many years as a gardener. A plant lover to the bone (her daughter Ruth Nowicki
said Bangs probably had her garden shears in her bag at that very moment “just
in case”), Bangs recalled of her Stockbridge years, “I had a wonderful time.
I loved being here.”
Joe Broughton ’37 traced his public-speaking ability, which came in handy when
he went into politics, to a class play he was in during his Stockbridge years.
He reminisced with classmate Bob Smith ’37 (the two were getting to know one
another nearly 70 years after graduation), who fell in love with agriculture
as a child, scooting over the backyard fence to the farm nextdoor. At Stockbridge
during the Depression, Smith “drank a lot of water from Sunday noon to Monday
morning,” because where he boarded, he didn’t get any Sunday supper and couldn’t
afford to buy it. He applied what he learned on a farm in Michigan, eventually
went into insurance sales, and sold turkeys as a sideline: “I had over 50 years
in the turkey business.”
Another Smith, Jack Smith, UMass Amherst alumnus and former chairman of General
Motors, spoke about his late father, John “Frank” Smith. Frank’s life story had
much in common with those of other alums. Part of the Stockbridge class of ’29,
he grew up on a farm and came from a family with a lot of mouths to feed and
little money. He loved Stockbridge and put the education he got there to lifelong
use as an ice-cream manufacturer and in his public-health career.
When Cleve Willis, dean of the College of Natural Resources and the
Environment, addressed the audience at the ceremony, he too celebrated
the love—and great memories—that Stockbridge alumni have for their
school. The high point of his speech, though, was when he announced
that the campaign Stockbridge Forever had raised $1.5 million to create
an endowment for the school.
Stockbridge Forever got its name and a lot of its momentum from the
man Willis described as its “heart and soul,” Jim Mulcahy ’60. Mulcahy
was among the degree recipients in a wheelchair, broken leg and all,
demonstrating that heartfelt allegiance. The campaign, the dean explained,
“gained its first real credibility” from a very generous six-figure
gift from Mario DiCarlo ’48. Other substantial contributions came from
Fred Wall ’56, Christopher Frank ’82, Christopher Joyce ’95, John Davis
’56, and George Mosley ’67. Hefty gifts from the Stockbridge Foundation
and Alumni Association boards and a sizable bequest by Russell Davis
’36—whose cousin, George Dean, was on hand to receive Davis’s posthumous
degree—followed. Donations from alums belonging to Alpha Tau Gamma
(ATG) brought the total to the naming level. Altogether more than 500
alums made a gift to the cause.
By creating the ATG Fred P. Jeffrey Professorship and Directorship
of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture, named for the school’s director
from 1954 to 1971, the endowment ensures that Stockbridge School will
always have a director—and that the school will continue.
In concluding his account of the campaign, Dean Willis returned to
Mulcahy, saying of him, “He is not through. He and I will not rest
until we make it the most generous endowment on this campus.”
If the enthusiasm for Stockbridge manifested at Mullins is any indication,
they will have plenty of help in achieving that goal.
