Shenandoah University: "50 Years"
Shenandoah University is launching a year-long celebration of its time in Winchester, which began Sept. 12, 1960
On Oct. 17, 1960, the ceremonial passing of a gold key is conducted as James R. Wilkins (second from right) hands it to school President Forrest S. Racey. The key symbolized entry to the present and future buildings at Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music.
Reprinted with permission from the Winchester Star
Story by By Cynthia Cather Burton
Nearly 50 years ago — on Sept. 12, 1960 — a small college opened here on a shoestring budget with two buildings and a couple hundred students.
Money was so tight that board members were often asked to open their own checkbooks to cover shortfalls.
“They had to stop doing that because people wouldn’t show up at the meetings,” laughed James R. “Richie” Wilkins III, whose late grandfather was instrumental in bringing Shenandoah College and Conservatory to Winchester in 1960.
The senior Wilkins, then chairman of the Winchester-Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, felt the community needed an institution of higher learning if it was going to thrive economically and culturally.
From those humble beginnings, the college grew into Shenandoah University.
The private institution now has:
3,600 students.
860 full- and part-time employees.
A $60 million annual operating budget.
A physical plant valued at more than $100 million, with 120 acres and 29 buildings.
And six schools with nearly 90 programs of study at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels.
“He would be thrilled,” Wilkins said of his grandfather, who died in 1996 but lived long enough to witness the university’s tremendous evolution.
This weekend, Shenandoah will launch a year-long celebration of its 50th anniversary in Winchester. The school spent its first 85 years in Dayton, a small town in the Shenandoah Valley about 70 miles south.
Tracy Fitzsimmons, who has been president of SU since 2008, said the milestone is a chance to honor the university’s past.
“We also see it as an opportunity to showcase how far we have come in the last 50 years and to think about the next 50 years, as we create an ever greater partnership with the City of Winchester and Frederick County,” she wrote in an e-mail.
The festivities, which Richie Wilkins is leading, will start Saturday at the main campus off Millwood Avenue with the unveiling of a special 50th anniversary logo.
The event will coincide with the annual gathering of the Dayton Alumni Society.
“Shenandoah is as much of an asset to the community as U.Va. is to Charlottesville or William & Mary is to Williamsburg. It’s part of the fabric of what this community is and will be.” - Randy Collins, president and chief executive officer of the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber
“A wonderful story”
In 1960, Shenandoah graduated its last class in Dayton.
At the time, the school was a two-year junior college under the auspices of the National Evangelical United Brethren Church. The university is now affiliated with the United Methodist faith (the EUB Church merged with the Methodist Church in 1968).
Even though the Dayton campus was struggling financially, moving the college to Winchester wasn’t easy.
People on both sides needed to be convinced it was the right thing to do. The local community also had to raise $250,000 to bolster the $300,000 the EUB planned to give. When the senior Wilkins went to the Rotary Club and other groups to make his pitch for money, he often brought along a quartet from the Dayton campus called the Troubadors.
“He felt he needed to show people what they’d be getting by bringing the college here,” his grandson said.
The Troubadors will make a special appearance this weekend. “They’re going to sing again,” Wilkins said. “I think that’s really cool.”
In 1985, the senior Wilkins published a book about the five years required to relocate Shenandoah to Winchester. He titled it “The Impossible Task.”
“It’s a wonderful story about a community that just wouldn’t give up,” said Mitch Moore, Shenandoah’s vice president for advancement.
Now, it seems impossible to imagine the city without the university.
“Shenandoah is as much of an asset to the community as U.Va. is to Charlottesville or William & Mary is to Williamsburg,” said Randy Collins, president and chief executive officer of the Top of Virginia Regional Chamber — a different name, but the same organization that helped to bring the university to Winchester a half-century ago.
“It’s part of the fabric of what this community is and will be,” he said. “It’s a big asset.”
“So many opportunities”
Every year, Shenandoah awards diplomas from its Conservatory, which is still a vibrant part of the university, as well as its College of Arts and Sciences, Harry F. Byrd Jr. School of Business, Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy, School of Health Professions, and the School of Education and Development.
“Wow” is Pat Connor’s impression of Shenandoah in the 21st century. She and her husband Raymond — from the Classes of 1959 and ’58, respectively — met and married while studying music in Dayton.
“It has grown so much, and there are so many opportunities at the new Shenandoah, so to speak,” said Connor, a Stephens City resident who like her husband is a retired Frederick County school teacher.
Winchester resident Murrell Bolliger, Class of 1955, recalled humorously that dancing wasn’t allowed on the Dayton campus.
“Things have really changed — for the better,” the 75-year-old said.
In addition to music, plenty of dancing now takes place on the campus. Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, in its 27th year, brings in audiences of 25,000 annually.
“A huge difference”
Nineteen years ago, Shenandoah became a university under the leadership of president James A. Davis.
During his 26-year tenure, from 1982 to 2008, the university experienced rapid growth.
Davis, who lives in Winchester, said Shenandoah’s operating budget when he arrived was $3 million. Student enrollment was 600, and faculty members were paid less than public school teachers. The campus had seven buildings and 41 acres. Over the years, the marriage between Shenandoah and the Winchester community has been a good one, said Davis, now a senior consultant for a company that helps universities to find new presidents.
“Jim Wilkins Sr., along with a group of community leaders, felt that an institution of higher learning would improve the quality of life in Winchester and Frederick County economically and culturally,” Davis said. “That was one of the main motivations in bringing Shenandoah here. I think it’s quite evident that it has done all those things.”
Richie Wilkins cited the relationship between Winchester Medical Center and Shenandoah as an example of the economic growth his grandfather was envisioning.
SU has programs in athletic training, nursing and respiratory care, occupational therapy, physician assistant studies, and physical therapy. Many of the university’s graduates go on to work at WMC.
“They have helped strengthen each other,” Wilkins said.
Culturally, thousands of people have been exposed to music, dance, and lectures through the university.
Area schoolchildren are regularly entertained by Shenandoah performers.
“Any community that doesn’t have an institution of higher learning doesn’t have the opportunities of one that does,” Davis said. “They make a huge difference.”
For a schedule of events for the Dayton Alumni Society Weekend, call SU’s office of marketing and communications at 540-665-5422 or visit http://www.su.edu/.
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