The year 2003 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of Kendall College of Art and Design—now of Ferris State University. The College is named in honor of David Wolcott Kendall (1851-1910), who is remembered today as a furniture designer, but who in his lifetime represented the integration of the theoretical and the applied. Kendall was an artist whose paintings and sculpture enjoyed some reputation in his time, a designer whose work earned him the title of Dean of American Furniture Designers and a business leader credited with saving the Phoenix Furniture Company. During the years he served as the company’s treasurer, he exemplified the values of Kendall College of Art and Design: the connection of art, design and the professional world.
   Yet Kendall probably had no idea such a college would bear his name or espouse his values. The existence of Kendall College of Art and Design, its 75-year history and its impact on the lives of so many students, are all owing to Helen Miller Kendall, the founder of Kendall College of Art and Design, and the person whom we primarily celebrate during this 75th anniversary year. Compared to her husband, relatively little is known about her. She was active in the Grand Rapids art community, especially as a person who encouraged creative people to pursue their gifts by providing them an environment through which they could meet other artists.
   The marriage to Helen was David Kendall’s second marriage. A newspaper account reports that although the marriage surprised their many friends, those friends nonetheless congratulated them and wished them well. The marriage ended with David Kendall’s death in 1910. Helen Kendall died 15 years later in 1925, and the College did not get its official start for another three years.
   Kendall College of Art and Design is one of the few colleges started by a woman. Unlike some colleges, which religious or other women founded, Kendall College of Art and Design was not started as an exclusively women’s college. Indeed, in somewhat famous words from her will, Helen Kendall spoke of starting a school for “boys and girls.” From the beginning, the College was an inclusive school dedicated to providing an opportunity for women and men to enter the professional world and to spend a lifetime doing work, whether in art or in design, that they love.
   During our 75th year, Kendall College of Art and Design has emphasized the role of the College’s founder who, through her vision and her financial support, made possible an institution that has had a remarkable history and which today looks forward to a remarkable future.
   I am fond of quoting Emily Dickinson, who said of her poems, “Their message is committed/To hands I cannot see.” Kendall College of Art and Design was Helen Kendall's “letter to the world.” The responsibility of all associated with the College, of course, is to recognize ourselves as the stewards of that gift, and in our turn to leave for those who will come after us a Kendall College of Art and Design strong in its mission and prepared to continue its remarkable and significant history.

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