51 long years ago.....

In August of 1966, yr fthfl srvnt was granted a Bachelor of Arts degree at nearby Houghton College (“HO-tin;” as in “hoe,” not “how” or “who”) — despite his inability to master French.
Houghton is about 80 miles south of Rochester.
I was first in my family to do so, although I’m sure my father coulda done it, but he was Depression, when the imperative was to Get a job.
I also owed them 400 smackaroos, which I quickly paid after graduation.
I did well in other courses, so they graduated me anyway.
Houghton was founded in 1883, but not as a college. It’s evangelical, affiliated with the Wesleyan-Methodist Connection. It was a reaction by Willard Houghton, a Wesleyan-Methodist minister, to what the town that later became Houghton was, a den of iniquity.
The town was originally named “Jockey Street,” and was along the Genesee Valley Canal (“jen-uh-SEE”), from Rochester south to Olean in vast Genesee valley.
The canal shipped grain (mainly wheat) north to Rochester, where it might get shipped east on the Erie Canal. Rochester also had mills powered by the Genesee river.
Genesee valley was this nation’s first bread-basket.
Jockey Street was rife with bawdiness, taverns and prostitution to serve the “canalers” (“kin-ALL-ers”).
The town was so-named because people raced their horses over the town’s long main street.
So Willard arrived and decided to clean up the town. He established a seminary (a high-school), a “little island of decency.”
In 1899 a few college classes were offered; the college department’s first diploma was awarded in 1901. Houghton College received its provisional charter from New York State in 1923, and awarded its first 19 baccalaureate degrees two years later. A permanent charter was granted in 1927, and accreditation by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges came in 1935.
Houghton acquired its first academically-trained president, James S. Luckey, who served until his death in 1937. He was succeeded by Stephen W. Paine, who served until 1972.
Under Paine’s leadership the college expanded from about 300 students to 1,200, necessitating new buildings. The percentage of faculty with earned doctorates tripled.
Under Paine Houghton became the second-best evangelical college behind Wheaton College near Chicago.
I’m sure for Paine it was a constant wrastling-match = his evangelical desire to make Houghton serious, versus the protective Wesleyan-Methodist zealots.
Paine got a compromise that allowed the National Defense Student-Loan program by no longer requiring chapel-attendance.
No doubt the zealots wrung their hands = “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
“Hell in a handbasket,” I tell ya!
If not for the National Defense Student-Loan program (NDSL) I woulda never attended college = dead, a ‘Nam-victim.
“Chapel-checkers” recorded attendance, and if you failed to show you got fined. But you weren’t required to attend — at least I don’t think you were; I always attended.
NY state seems to have nurtured who-knows-how-many fervent religious institutions. Nearby in the Town of Lima (“LYE-muh;” not “LEE-muh”) is Elim Bible Institute. It’s not a four-year college — all it offers are two-year associate degrees.
Yet what buildings it has remind me of Houghton’s old buildings. Like Elim crashed whereas Houghton didn’t. No Steve Paine.
My going to Houghton resulted from a great compromise with my hyper-religious father, who wanted me to attend Moody Bible Institute like he did in the late ‘30s.
Trouble at that time, about 1960, was Moody wasn’t a college. All it could render was a two-year Associate Degree. I wanted a four-year college degree. (I think by now Moody is a four-year college.)
In summer of 1960 my family took a vacation including through Chicago to visit Moody, and also Wheaton.
We stayed overnight in a Moody dorm, and I was nervous. Moody was urban, and I’m from the suburbs. —My father was from the city.
So Moody was comfortable for him, but not for me.
Moody was also hot to convert students into brow-beating street evangelists = rendering judgment on anyone other than themselves.
Not this kid! No way was I gonna scream at some vagrant = hellfire and damnation.
In the summer of ’61 I worked at a Christian Boys Camp that had Houghton students on staff.
Houghton sounded interesting, so we visited, probably early in ’62.
Thus ensued “the Great Compromise” (my terminology) = Houghton or Wheaton instead of Moody — since both were evangelical colleges.
I applied to both, but Wheaton turned me down. Houghton would admit me if I proved I could do college-level study = six weeks of Houghton Summer-School.
My course would be Bible Introduction; somehow I managed a “B.” Pass-or-fail; and “‘Nam for you baby” if you fail!
“So what did you get outta Houghton?” friends ask.
“A wife, “ I always say.
“And a really good one,” I add. “Also an unbeliever like me;” totally unexpected at Houghton.
My father was angry; Houghton had not “straightened me out.”
Instead of beating me to a pulp, adult authority figures valued and solicited my opinions.
This was revelatory compared to the way I was brought up. Always declared stupid and rebellious, even by my parents.
I’ve never regretted Houghton. My younger sister (deceased), who also attended Houghton, but only two years — she didn’t graduate — said I “flowered” there. Discussion replaced intimidation.
I majored in history — two good professors instead of only one — and minored in secondary education. I set about to teach high-school history, and even did a short stint of student-teaching.
But high-school teaching seemed loaded with politics, or so seemed my mentor teacher. So I didn’t complete my student-teaching.
Houghton had other presidents since I graduated, mainly Daniel Chamberlain from 1976 to 2006.
I’m probably misreading him, but I always felt he was a clown; that he was cashing in on the extraordinary legacy Steve Paine left.

Faire Shirley.

The current prez is Shirley Mullen, who graduated Houghton in 1976.
I’m told a college president’s ability to generate funding is all-important, and apparently Shirley is good at it.
I felt she was a shill at first, but now I’m impressed. She’s a good discussion; my wife was like that. Also a cousin I knew long ago. That cousin was such an excellent discussion I wanted to marry a girl like her. And I did.
Houghton e-mails a monthly newsletter, and Shirley leads. Although Shirley and I are far apart, I always read her.
I attended my 50-year class reunion last year. Quite a few were pleased to see me, although there were the usual judgmental nay-sayers.
I never really fit at Houghton, almost canned on an attitude rap.
Others in my class are far more religious than me.
I graduated unprepared for the work-a-day world, but I’m glad I attended. It set my values; mainly because adults cared about me, which made me a bleeding-heart Liberal (gasp!) like them.
I graduated with the makings of a self I could accept. I was able to walk away from parental badmouthing.
My “self” has been tenuous ever since. Houghton was the start.
I was finally able to shut down my father.