Rockford College
Location: 5050 E. State St. Rockford,IL 61108
Enrollment: As of 2/1997 ---- 1,013 Undergraduates (722 full time, 291 part time); 272 graduate students (53 full time, 219 part time).
Faculty: 85 full time
Majors: 30
Degrees offered: Four bachelor's, Two master's.
Buildings on campus: 26
Size: 130 acres.
More: One of 10 Phi Beta Kappa schools in Illinois; more than 20 per cent
of teachers in Rockford and surrounding school districts have earned degrees at the college; more than 75 per cent of area teachers have taken at least one course from the college; an estimated 2 per cent of teachers statewide have degrees from the college.
Rockford College Chronology
1839: Rockford incorporated as a village.
1847: Rockford Female Seminary incorporated.
1849: Classes start with 70 girls, most under 10 years old.
1851: 100 Students enrolled. First collegiate course offered.
1852-56: Middle, Linden and Chapel halls built.
1853: Anna Sill makes fund-raising tour of the East, returns with $5,000.
1857: 330 students enrolled.
1863: To save money on maid services, students required to clean.
1881: Jane Addams graduated with the class in 1881 and became a notable American social worker and humanitarian, who founded Hull House in Chicago and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. She delivered her graduation address in Greek.
1882: First bachelor degrees awarded to seven recipients, including Jane Addams
1884: Honor code established.
1892: Name changed to Rockford College.
1896: Sarah Anderson becomes first leader with title of president.
1919: William Arthur Maddox becomes first male president.
1920's: Sister college relationship with Kobe College in Japan, which was founded by college graduate Julia Dudley and Rockford resident Eliza Talcott.
1922: Jane Addams delivers 75th anniversary address.
1924: Enrollment is 588.
1929: Blanche Walker Burpee and friends take option on 400 acres for a new campus near State Street and Alpine Rd.
1931: Jane Addams receives Nobel Peace Prize.
1940: John Hall Sherratt Library built.
1947: Centennial celebration.
1950: Jewett Lab built ( current site of Winnebago County Health Department).
1952: First master's of arts in teaching degrees awarded.
1953: Phi Beta Kappa chapter founded.
1955: Trustees approve creation of men's college.
1956: Intercollegiate varsity athletic program begins.
1959: Trustees approve coeducational enrollment.
1960: John Howard becomes president; grading begins for new campus; old campus sold.
1964: Campus moved to new location.
1968: Demolition of old campus.
1971: Enrollment of 743 full time students.
1976: Rockford College Institute founded; Addams arch moved and reinstalled on new campus; Chip Geiger wins national collegiate diving title.
1980: Athletic Hall of Fame founded.
1984: Rockford College acquires Regent's College in London. The college found itself in financial difficulties primarily caused by the establishment of an engineering program that lasted one year and the the leasing of the Regent's College in London. The startup costs far exceeded expectations. A $6 million loan from Rockford businessman, John Martin, provided a short-term fix. The most controversial move to erase the debt that reached $11 million was to sell 75 acres along a rolling stretch of East State St., much of that frontage has been turned into commercial property.
1987: Gretchen Kreuter becomes president.
1991: Women's soccer begins.
1992: William Shields becomes president.
1996: Construction begins on new entrance; Jane Addams Memorial Park dedicated in Chicago.
More:
Larry Gloyd, Chairman and chief executive officer of Clarcor said, "We have put together a vision for the future, and that is going to play out with a lot of exciting things at the college".
Notable Rockford College graduates
1854: Anna Allen: The first graduate of Rockford Female Seminary, married on July 18, 1954, commencement day to the Rev. F. A. Douglass, a missionary bound for India. They lived there for 15 years. Allen had nine children and 19 grandchildren.
1868: Mary E. Holmes: Became a missionary in the South. She founded the Mary Holmes Seminary in West Port, Miss., for "colored girls" in 1904.
1871: Mary P. Wright: Spent her life as a teacher in Iowa, Kansas and Illinois. In 1874, she became the first woman elected as school superintendent in the United States. The election was contested but upheld by the Supreme Court.
1878: Julia Lathrop: First director of the United Nations Children's Bureau; first resident and longtime participant in programs at Hull House in Chicago.
1886: Flora A. Read: After nurses training, she attended medical school and began her practice in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
1895: Grace McGaw: Married D. Willard Lyon, a missionary in China. During the Boxer Rebellion, they lost everything they could not carry with them. They were taken by English gunboat to Korea, then to Japan and back to the United States.
1896: Fanny Rebecca Jackson: After graduation, she attended library school. In 1903, she became an instructor at the Illinois State Library School. The state archives building in Springfield is named for her.
1918: Beatrice Winters Warner: She was the only female health department inspector in Michigan in the 1920's.
1927: Doris Emrick Lee: She was a noted artist and muralist for the U.S. Supreme Court Building.
1963: F. William Parker: A successful character actor in numerous films and commercials. Most recently, he appeared in a TV episode of "Murder One".
1967: Charles Branham: Wrote and hosted Emmyaward winning series " The Black Experience" on PBS during the 1970's. He a senior historian at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago.
1969: Marc and Janice Pfeffer: Established use of captopril to treat patients who have had heart attacks. With the drug, thousands of people have reduced their risk of a second heart attack or dying from the results of their first. Both are on the faculty of the Harvard School of Medicine.
1971: David Roth: President of Cleveland Works, a pioneering and successful social service agency that gets people off welfare and into jobs. It has been modeled in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
1973: Jacquelyn Mitchard: A syndicated columnist whose best seller, "Deep End of the Ocean," will be filmed by Michelle Pfeiffer in April.
More:
In 1997 Rockford College is celebrating 150 years, "A committment to community service continues".