TEG
FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
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Good Evening
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Chin up, Eureka.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
EUREKA TORNADO CAUSES DAMAGE, NO INJURIES REPORTED
by
Stephen Coleman
[email protected]
Marvin “Bud” Repstine has
lived in Eureka all of his life, with
his residence at the intersection
of 12th and Walnut Street being
called home for upwards of 30
years.
And for now, it will stay that
way.
Repstine was one of many Eureka residents who avoided major catastrophe after a tornado touched
down Thursday night, causing
damage to hundreds of structures.
Greenwood County Emergency
Management director Levi Vinson
confirmed at 12:30 a.m. that there
were no injuries, as — between
9:45 and 10 p.m. — the storm
wove its way through northern
parts of Eureka.
Repstine returned to his home
soon after serving as a storm spotter on the town’s outskirts when
severe weather approached. He
had seen the light flashes from
snapping power lines, but hadn’t
been in position to witness the tornado itself, settling for a surprise
when he got home.
“I came back to find the neighbor’s trailer in my front yard,” he
said.
A vacant mobile home originally stationed across Walnut
was torn in two, with the largest
body becoming wedged against a
giant tree in front of his house.
Another large tree, on the south
side of the home, had been toppled, but to Repstine’s relief, had
Please see Tornado, Page 12
G A Z E T T E
H I S T O R Y
O F
P H O T O S
T H E
B Y
F O R M E R
S T E P H E N
C O L E M A N
C O L L E G E
O F
E M P O R I A
FALLING ON HARD TIMES: THE END OF C. OF E.
By Bobbi Mlynar
Special to the Gazette
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth
in a series of articles about the former College of Emporia, a private
Presbyterian institution that operated here from 1883 through 1973.
Alumni will be in Emporia this
weekend for their annual reunion,
related tours and activities.
The booms in enrollment, programs and buildings that had flourished in the 1960s faded away quickly as the 1970s decade began.
According to a history of the College of Emporia published by The
Gazette in a tabloid section Aug.
24, 1987, enrollment was well over
1,000 students in 1966 and hovered
around that level until 1970.
“Students from the East continued to attend the college,” the article stated, explaining part of the
increase.
The resulting demand for housing prompted the college to arrange
for student rooms off-campus, in the
former Broadview Hotel at Sixth Avenue and Merchant Street and in a
large brick building on South Prairie
that previously had been a home for
elderly people. Small groups of students also found homes to rent in
town.
Other buildings sprang up on
campus. The DeVore Campus Center had been built in 1965 between
Dunlap Hall and Mason Gymnasium.
Laughlin-Lewis Library, just west
of Kenyon Hall, was added, financed
by a long-term government loan. The
loan required the college to change
from a Synod-owned college to a private institution bearing a covenant
relationship with the Presbyterian
Synod of Kansas.
Enrollment ebbs
By the time the “baby boom”
students had graduated, all colleges
were competing for a reduced number of students, the tabloid article
VOL. 125, NO. 6
COURTESY OF THE LYON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
A C. of E. student garbed himself
as a Fighting Presby in support
of the team.
stated. New colleges had sprung up
and existing colleges had expanded
enough to accommodate the stillelevated numbers of baby-boomers
after the first, and larger, wave had
graduated.
As student numbers began to
dwindle, Dr. Barkev Kibarian assumed the presidency from 1969
through 1971; Ronald A. Ebberts succeeded him from 1971 through 1973.
Enrollment at C. of E. dropped to
631 in 1971-72 and to 510 in 197273. Administrators slashed some
department budgets while expanding others as they attempted to find
a solution to the rapidly escalating
financial emergency.
The million-dollar Wallingford
challenge had ended successfully in
1972, and had allowed a reorganization of administrative staff, reduced
expenses and introduction of several “new and innovative study programs,” an Oct. 30, 1972, Gazette
article reported.
The possibility of a merger was
rumored and held a grain of truth.
The Oct. 30 story included an announcement from Elvin D. Perkins,
then board of trustees chairman,
saying “that the college has not contemplated any plan to merge with
another college.”
Southwestern College officials
PHOTO COURTESY OF LYON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Stuart Hall, shown here in a photograph from 1897, was the first building on the C. of E. campus. It was
later destroyed by a fire.
had inquired a few weeks earlier
whether C. of E. would be interested
in merging, he said.
“But no details were given as to
what they had in mind,” Perkins was
quoted as saying, “so there was little
or no discussion of the matter.”
Music became minor
The college and the community
were surprised when C. of E. administrators sliced deeply into one of C.
of E.’s most high-profile and successful programs.
“Three years ago, the Music Department was riding high,” Gazette
Managing Editor Ray Call wrote in
an editorial on Dec. 8, 1973. “The
department had just presented The
Beatitudes featuring Stan Kenton
(who came to Emporia twice without charge).
Please see C. of E., Page 3
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LYON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
A photo of a classroom in the 1956 Alla Rah shows C. of E. students.