Stephens: A Look Back: Stephens: A Look Back

It’s 1965 in the Look Back series, the final year the Stephensophia is archived online.

This is a significant school year for Stephens. It’s the year the James Madison Wood Quadrangle is dedicated. We’re told:

President Seymour A. Smith, along with extensive outside consultants, has worked over a period of five years to complete the Learning Center. The components of the quadrangle include the Hugh Stephens Resources Library, Science Hall, Louise Dud-ley Hall, Fine Arts Center, Walter Hall, and Multi-Purpose Areas. The latest experimental devices have been incorporated to further the educational potential of the college. Faculty and students enjoy a wide range of aids and programs through progressive technology. The quadrangle is an exterior example of Stephen's constant projection into the future. Here is a place where the finest educational equipment is made available giving a student the unique opportunity to develop her mental capabilities, unhindered by time-consuming technicalities. They have eliminated them to the best of the college's ability. Stephens is rightfully proud of the James Madison Wood Quadrangle.

Today, of course, this learning center is the academic heart of campus.

The Stephens Concert Series this year brought in Madame Anita Dorfmann and Lola Fisher.

Portfolio, the campus literary journal, remains strong this year. You’ll recall it began in 1962 as a reimagined version of the Stephens Standard, which debuted in 1921. Today, the journal is Harbinger, and has won Outstanding Literary Journal four out of the past five years.

The editor of Portfolio is Peggy Richardson. Richardson would go on to devote her life to training horses and teaching children to ride. She owned and operated Peggy Richardson Stables in Oklahoma.

Sandy Riggins is editor of this year’s Stephensophia. She would go on to be Sandra Morrison and worked for the Navy department as head of public inquiries and research in the office of the Chief of Information at the Pentagon and later at the Dept. of Air Force in the Office of the Surgeon General at Bolling Air Force Base.

And Stacy Holland, president of the 1965 senior class, would go on to be president of Exceptional People International, a staff and recruiting firm based in the San Francisco Bay area.

Missing this year are photos of the women who represent each of the Ten Ideals. In fact, there’s not much about the Ideals in the book other than a new Ten Ideals Emphasis Committee.