Education: Courageous College

The future never looked darker for the business of U.S. higher education (see col. 1). So the obstinately optimistic citizens of Portland, Ore. (home of one of Henry J. Kaiser’s miraculous shipyards) thought it was just the time to launch moribund little Albany College on a bigger career with a new name, new president and fantastically lush new campus.

The new college owed its life to a real-estate bargain. Last spring 75-year-old, coed Presbyterian Albany College seemed to be on its last legs. It had lost its accredited standing, was rapidly withering away in two downtown Portland buildings. Then trustees heard that the fabulous, $1,300,000 M. Lloyd Frank estate could be bought for $50,000.*

The college raised the money overnight. Promptly the trustees gave their “dream college” a handsome new president, firm-chinned Dr. Morgan Samuel Odell of Los Angeles’ Occidental College. A brave new name topped the transformation—Lewis & Clark, for the Northwest explorers.

Last week Lewis & Clark’s president, students and faculty started their fall term by scrubbing & polishing their dream campus. The 35-room mansion, a wonderland of curving staircases, imported glass and secret panels, became administration offices and a women’s dormitory. The 20-car garage, complete with carillon, was converted to laboratories and sun rooms. Students disported themselves in a swimming pool with underwater lights, a beach of Belgian sand, two athletic fields, 60 acres of gardens.

Trustees noted with satisfaction that Lewis & Clark’s freshman class (100) was twice as big as last year’s.

* The estate had been closed ever since its owner, onetime treasurer of Portland’s famed Meier & Frank department store, was divorced by his wife in a 1932 scandal.