Vinnie Taylor (guitarist)
Late Sha Na Na guitarist, Chris Donald (1949-1974), a.k.a. Vinnie Taylor, playing at the Spring Fling, 1973.
1973
Student candid outside dorm
Student candid - yearbook photo, 1975
1975
Student candid, outdoors
Spring weekend
1975
Student candid with sign
8 x 10", black and white print
Spring weekend. Female student with sign "I forgot my beanie"
1975
Students posed at Litchfield Hall
Yearbook photo, 1970s
ca. 1974
Joseph Batchelor (interview)
65 min; 2 cassettes
1999-09-21
Herb Janick Papers, MS012
The content of the second 60 min cassette contained 5 min of pertinent audio (tape #2; item 4)
0-20 min: When he met Ruth Haas, Ruth’s education background, Ruth’s parents’ relationship and siblings, chemical branch in Canada, Ruth’s first teaching job, Ruth’s father’s involvement with the Franco-Persian War, fleeing Germany to go to England, aristocratic family tendencies, Ruth’s characteristics
20-40 min: When Joseph met Ruth, Joseph’s education and military service, Joseph’s family and work life, Joseph’s teaching career, Ruth’s interests in school, Frank’s death, moving to Danbury and legal issues with residency in Canada, connections with Nazi Germany, Joseph’s association with teachers
40-60 min: How Joseph remembered Ruth and her sister, Joseph’s wife and Ruth’s sister Fritz, Joseph and the interviewer share early photos of the university and the Haas family, Ruth’s death, Joseph’s family, humanitarian efforts, Ruth’s religious ties,
0-5: Family gatherings, Ruth’s friends, Ruth’s stock investment group, Ruth’s athletics, library renovations
Howard Williams (Interview)
~80 min; 1 cassette
Herb Janick Papers, MS012
Rob Cappelli; Mike Hennesy
Howard Williams
~80 min
Side A
0-20min.:Interest in music; both parents were involved in music; his family was heavily music oriented; learned to play the trombone during hard times of the Depression; worked in a church in his youth singing in the choir; Start in music; Mansfield College in Pennsylvania during WW II; got degree in music education; played trombone in Air Force for 4 years; first teaching job was in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and built music program; Offers to play w/ bands; Ralph Flanagan Band; WestConn; came in 1965 to teach music; taught until 1988; department chair at time was a friend from Mansfield College; Student/faculty changes; it was still primarily a teacher's college when he first came; began a jazz ensemble 5; 6 years after arriving; taught jazz last 10 years at WestConn; Music department; was large by 1970s; bachelor of arts program in music; later bachelor of music added; Business school; many dropped out to join business school in 1970s; many teacher's programs were affected by the addition of business; Standards; higher now than they were then; some students were just average then; interest varies w/ student (more dedicated today); Relationship w/ administration and faculty; Dr. Haas was great for the music program; school was closer in beginning because of size of the college; music department grew over the years (originally located in Berkshire); Business program effect on school; music department felt not enough money going into department; feeling was music was getting left behind; now music and business are more balanced;
20-40min.: Music preferences; in classroom, focused on the music there; outside classroom, their favorite style (like rock); Charles Ives; knew little about him before coming to WestConn; Vietnam War; hard for teachers to get students to listen; felt students believed the world owed them; no respect for teachers; many protests back then; Prejudice at WestConn; didn't see any problems; James Furman; shared an office w/ him; Teaching philosophy; changes in type of music; make students more rounded through various types of music; computers changed how music is used and taught; Marching band; school wanted one for the football team; hard to establish because of economic reasons; Mr. Smith got it going eventually; didn't need to be music major to be in marching band; Concerts; Relationship between departments; always some problems; feels slowed down; problems became very serious at one point; always some problems; feels slowed down; problems became very serious at one point;
40-60min.:Relationship between departments; Relationship w/ presidents of college; Dr. Haas always supportive and came to all concerts; Dr. Bersi and Dr. Feldman never been close to department; they attended the occasional concert; Dr. Haas; open door policy; great person
Side B:
0-20min.:Local music programs; Newtown has a great one; others have poor programs; when CT is going well, music is as well; the reverse holds true as well; High school music programs; start preparing students for college; Ways in which people listen to music; Type of student; most came from middle; class backgrounds; usually dedicated and hard working; Relationship w/ students; always great; holds his first class in fond memory because being his first class; class of 1969 also has fond memories for him; Course development; History of Jazz; Music Appreciation; Jazz; evolution of jazz; big band music; origins in rock and other types of music; Advent of the CD; brings new appreciation to jazz; more younger people are listening to jazz today; Retirement; still tries to make concerts and recitals at WestConn; holds emeritus title, so he has full campus privileges
Professor Janick (Interview)
~60 minutes; 1 cassette
Herb Janick Papers, MS012
Herbert Janick
~60 min
Side A:
0-10 min: Time at Western; Came to WCSU 1969 but has taught since ’59; Previous teaching experience; Getting Doctorate degree; Teaching offers from all over country; Accepted Fordham Prep ’62; Taught while getting Doctorate; Earned degree ’68, started looking for permanent teaching job; Vietnam War; Teaching then vs; now; Robert Kennedy assassination; Political protests; Deciding factors for choosing WCSU; Hard to get job teaching history; Almost stayed at Fordham; Friends with Dr; Warner; Course curriculum and style; Wanted to teach himself along with students; Curriculum changes; Didn’t like how the school looked;
10-20 min: Asked to be chairman of history department in early 70’s; History department original location; Preferred teaching methods; Process of doing history; Learn by doing; High School students; Discussion of courses; Being chairman of the History Department; Undergraduate and Masters Programs and courses; Methods of historical writing; What promotes learning the most? Philosophy of History Department; Restructuring of major;
20-30 min: Wanted to build the department up, not just maintain it; Student body changes; Communication between students and faculty; Women and minorities at WCSU; Teaching Jesuit, all-male schools vs; WCSU; Learning gender equality; Why choose teacher as a career? Why teach history? Younger brother; Getting drafted vs; graduate school; Graduate school in Buffalo, NY; Coaching freshman basketball; The draft; Teaching at Rochester University;
30-40 min: Faculty at Rochester University; Best school teachers; Making decisions; Coaching and teaching; Students coaching experience; Motivation changes and reaching students; How to teach; Enthusiasm and fairness; Compromising; Cutting back on teaching time; Historical influence; Recent Connecticut history; Dissertation on Progressive Era; Richard Hopstead;
40-60 min: Publishing dissertation; Public history; Public programs; WCSU vs; other schools, student perspective; Local history; Pressures and values; Emphasizing what WCSU does well; Need state funding; Future of the school and history department;
Side B
0-10 min: Grassroots level; Final discussions; Retirem
Richard Targett (Interview)
~30 min; 1 cassette
Herb Janick Papers, MS012
Ed Biebel; Aaron Lieberman
Richard Targett
~30 min
Side A:
0-10 min: Military service; he was stationed at Fort Dix; 1955 got report of flood emergency; granted emergency leave; Targett Laundry; family owned business located on White St.; stared by great-grandfather in 1879; building was two stories and built over the Still River; Still River; prior to flood, was not flowing; Damage to Danbury; by the time he got to Danbury, White St. had been devastated; debris and mud and rocks all over; Damage to Targett Laundry; sustained no structural damage; left a lot of mud behind; Removal of mud; he had to shovel the mud into wheel barrel; Damage to equipment and files; motors removed from machines; some office machines were salvaged and others weren't; files and ledgers were illegible; Politicians; several visited the area including Sen. Prescott Bush (father of George Bush) and Sen. Abraham Ribicoff; People of Danbury; worked together during the disaster; firefighters from NY came to help pump out basements; Damage to other buildings; wooden structures suffered most damage; After the flood (August flood); left Danbury five days later to report back to service; the building was still not restored to capability to be used; Targett Laundry employees; there were about 50; 55 at the time; they all pitched in and helped; Targett Laundry after the flood; hit by August flood, then later hit again by October flood; two years later, his father got out of the business;
10-20 min: Danbury restoration; White St. had to be restored; businesses had to be located; Changes in Danbury after the flood; White St. and Main St. businesses had to be located; some streets now no longer exist; Memories; the way people bonded and worked together to help in clean; up effort; Danbury before and after the flood; Downtown was filled w/ many "Mom and Pop" stores prior to flood; greatly populated in Downtown before; flood displaced many out from center of town to outside; everyone travels by car today; the friendly atmosphere disappeared, lead to decline in private business;
20-30 min: Tragedy; only time people ever come together today; Time between floods; most businesses were back by October flood; businesses that were more financially strapped took longer to recover; the amount of damage also factor in time it took to recover; most likely w/in 30 days business were back running; October flood was deviating; Coverage of flood; the media not as big back then; most coverage was print or radio; Danbury wasn't hit as hard as other places; didn't get amount of coverage other places harder hit got; media today do things to be seen, back then they did things to do them; Other sources; Jerry Davis, resident historian
Dr. Robert Wolsch (Interview)
~85 min; 1 Cassette
Herb Janick Papers; MS012
Marc Garrety; Andy Davidson
Dr. Robert Wolsch
(Side A):
0-10 min: Background; traveling salesman; Navy before that; decided to go to college to become a teacher; speech and hearing therapist in elementary schools in NY; received PhD in language arts; Moved to CT; he and his wife wanted to work together; WestConn; interviewed by Adam Atchinson; communication department was part of English department; was impressed w/ WestConn and plans for the future; Westside; initially planned to be built where the Ethan Allen Inn is; Atchinson called it "Gateway to New England"; CTA programs; 1st language arts person to go into this field; help start many of the CTA programs at WestConn; Dr. Haas
10-20 min: Dr. Haas; sent his daughter a stuffed animal when she was sick in the hospital; admired her; great woman; Commuting; lived in Long Island when first hired; commuted back home in non; winter months; family eventually moved to CT; English/Communication; always tradition in the country to place the two together; specialization of communication lead to split from English; Changes at WestConn; competition between the schools (CSU system); less interaction lead to hostility; two campuses
20-30min: Haas made the staff feel like family; Increasing interaction; His office; initially in Berkshire Hall; when his office needed to be painted, nothing was done so he placed old copies of the NY Times on his wall; told it was a fire hazard; moved to Higgins Hall after he requested a new office; found the move beneficial in opening lines of communication; asked later to move White Hall, but denied; Recommendations for interaction; get involved w/ clubs; began the Thomas Jefferson Society;
30-40 min: Jefferson and Danbury; 1802 letter to Danbury Baptists when they asked for more rights; explained the importance of separation of church and state; something Madison wrote for the U.S. Constitution; during Danbury's Tercentennial, he was able to get that letter shown; told to make 35 copies to have distributed among the Danbury schools; Political events while teaching; Vietnam War; felt compassionate towards grading as failing meant subject to draft; came up w/ ways to avoid failing any student;
40-50 min: Change of attitude in people; more interaction, the better; the egg story and committee of different academic departments; enjoys meeting people of different backgrounds; encourages students to take courses outside their major; Changes in students; saw students grow and mature
(Side B):
0-10 min: Committees; knew Dr. Janick from time on environmental committee; Campus changes; seems every 5 years Old Main was being refurbished; expelling of Memorial Hall contractor; on original committee to design buildings for Westside; his idea was to have a "pie; shaped" building; nothing done at Westside for 10 years; Berkshire Hall Theater; poor conditions it was in; story of rain falling on fuse box w/ someone placing wood board over it and nothing else before a show and told if he cancelled it, the theater department might he shut down;
10-20 min: Problems w/ individuals; competition between people lead to disagreements; Student body changes; social and attitude changes; more easy to flunk a student in past; Society today; NY, for example, was safer then; Retirement; had to because he would lose 1/3 medical insurance and needed it; he and his wife had been experiencing health problems; recap
20-30 min: Substitute teaching; society now and then; New York; NYU in the 40s; Starting discussions; Ellis Island quotas; Test skewing and fast tracking; Book writing; Immigration; Catholic oppression; Separation of Church and State; Religious competition
30-40 min: American customs; Writing editorials during retirement; Racial segregation experience; Asian girl bullied racially; Becoming Catholic Chaplain; last Chaplain to do graduation; Demonstrations at WestConn; International students; No rallies at WestConn; People sent kids there because there was nothing disrupting their studies