A signed portrait of the University’s founder was among the photographs donated by Lillian Ferris.	This intriguing photo, one of a group donated by Lillian Ferris, shows Woodbridge N. Ferris and two other men surrounded by American flags. Displayed along with the flags are enlarged photos, which appear to be of the three men. A magnifying glass reveals the names “Alton Brooks Parker” and “Henry G. Davis” beneath two of the portraits. Parker was nominated for the presidency of the United States with Davis as his running mate in 1904, the same year Ferris made his first bid for the governorship of Michigan.	This brass band was among several groups who marched in Woodbridge Ferris’ funeral procession.	A series of photos from those donated to the University by Lillian Ferris shows Woodbridge N. Ferris’ funeral procession through the streets of Big Rapids in 1928.

As the remodeled Timme Building becomes the new Center for Student Services, it won’t lose its links with the past. If anything, Harry Dempsey thinks they will be even stronger.
“On the first floor we’re going to have a display dedicated to alumna and benefactress Abigail Timme,” says Dempsey, associate professor of Music and chair of the University’s History Task Force. “On the third floor where the President’s office will be, there’s going to be a historical area right as you get off the elevator. In that area we’re going to have a big center display with a University timeline.”
Dempsey and the task force are “carrying on the historical torch,” as he puts it, from Professor Emeritus Richard Santer who for many years was the primary source for information on school history.
Dempsey has his own unique credentials for taking on the task of preserving and showcasing Ferris State history.
In 1999, he composed a wind symphony to commemorate the University’s entrance into the new millennium. “Woodbridge” premiered in February 2000, with current Ferris President William Sederburg acting as narrator for the piece.
After researching Woodbridge Ferris for the composition, the greatest legacy Dempsey sees the University founder as having left behind is his name. “We’re in such a unique position here at Ferris,” he says. “Of all the state institutions, we’re the only one named for a person, which gives us some really long-seated guiding principles we still can look to. No one else has that.”

Bringing It Home
One of the hopes that Dempsey and the history task force have is that alumni and others associated with Ferris State will send historical artifacts to the University.
“We’re looking for just about anything that has some historical connection to Ferris,” Dempsey says. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be about Woodbridge Ferris. For example, it could be a mug that says ‘Ferris Institute’ somebody bought 30 years ago in the bookstore. Ferris memorabilia of just about any sort would be great.”
But that doesn’t mean the task force won’t gladly accept material about the University’s founder.
Lillian Ferris, mother of Woodbridge Ferris III, great-grandson of Woodbridge N. Ferris, recently sent a package of photographs and a book of speeches delivered in the U.S. Senate in memory of Woodbridge N. Ferris. The book also contained a speech the late senator was to give (“The notion widely prevails that education is for human beings from five to 21 years of age—that education is simply a preparation for life, whereas real education is life”), and memorial addresses by a half-dozen senators (“He built himself into the generation in which he lived until there is a Ferris attitude of mind through the young life all over the great State which he honored.”—Sen. Simeon D. Fess of Ohio).

Honoring the Founder
In 2003, the University will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Woodbridge N. Ferris. Among the events already being planned is a play portraying his life.
Additionally, the President’s Room in the Rankin Center will be transformed into the Founder’s Room and be dedicated solely to Woodbridge N. Ferris. Most importantly, a Woodbridge N. Ferris museum is planned for the University. Tentatively set to open in 2003, the museum will be housed in the Alumni Building, which also will be the new home for the University archives.
If you have items of historical interest you would like to donate to the University, contact Dempsey at (231) 591-2539, or via e-mail at dempseyh@ferris.edu. Future issues of Crimson & Gold will feature artifacts that relate to important dates in University history, or that bring to light neglected aspects of University history.

 

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