News of President Paul Boynton’s death was “just like slapping us in the face with a brick,” said Dr. Robert Maxwell, Regents Professor of History. “We, of course, had not anticipated that there would be any change in administration in the foreseeable future.” The Regents selected Dr. Ralph Steen as SFA’s third president on October 24, and he assumed his position on November 1, 1958. He would hold this office until the middle of the summer of 1976. His tenure would become the most explosive period of development in the history of the institution, an exciting period of change brought on by the arrival of the baby boomers from the 1940s and climaxing in a peek year of building activity in 1972. SFA and Nacogdoches, called by one pamphlet, as “A Campus Boom Town,” would never be the same.

The fall Homecoming in 1958 came after Dr. Paul Boynton’s death and before the arrival of Steen. It was the largest ever. Bob Murphey was the presiding officer of the Ex-Students Association (Ex-SA). At the Banquet, Murphey led the 305 members in praising the memory of Dr. Boynton’s unselfish work for the college. The officers recommended and the members approved an expansion of the Board of Directors to ten members. It was the 25th anniversary of the class of 1933; Madge Stallings had just put together her famous “missing annual” for the Depression class. As the Ex-SA entered a new year under a new SFA President, the funds on hand stood at stood at $1,842.50, the scholarship fund stood at $15,242, and the college’s enrollment at 2054.

One of the most difficult of the Association’s undertakings had been the publication of a monthly newsletter. The first publication of Alumni News came out in 1951, but it ceased after five issues due to the lack of information sent in by the exes. The next year a new attempt called Logging News of Exes also failed. Then in 1954 came Timber Talk, followed in 1956 by the Report to All Ex-Students. In 1957-58 the Alumni News headline came back for a while. In the invitation to the 1958 Homecoming, the Ex-SA mailed out news on exes, but the Association’s attempts to publish a monthly newsletter were more or less a failure. The 1962 incarnation took the funny name Ex-Communicate. In 1963 a more substantial form came under the moniker Monday Morning Matters and continued into the late 1960s. It was not until the appearance of the Sawdust in 1972 that the Association succeeded in putting out a polished, consistent news publication. Collection of information–always difficult–coupled with a shortage of staff and no editor was the problem.

Some traditions and routines came easier. On September 17, 1960, as the plans for Homecoming were being finalized, Miss Louisville Marshall wrote to Sugene Spears and Madge Stallings that she had “had a brain storm!” She had asked several from the college’s early days to come back to campus that year. “Now the storm is this: we want to get as many former faculty people to come as we can, especially those who were there during the first ten years.” After she sketched off a list of possible prospects, she continued, “I want to see as many of my friends of former days as possible while I am there and want your aid to help get them there. This is my Macedonian call. Can’t you get out a special letter inviting, urging, compelling them to come? …We might have a special breakfast or luncheon for these ‘early birds’ at S. F. A.” Thus began one of the most popular and enduring Homecoming gatherings: The Early Bird Breakfasts, which continues today. The first breakfast held at the Student Center (this was before the University Center), cost $0.75 per person, and included a free ticket to the football game! While there is no record of how many attended, the next year 51 attended even though the price went up to $0.85. Each year they honored a special member of the early faculty or staff at SFA; Helen Snyder was the first, then Lucille Norton, Bob Shelton, Edna Phillips McGrath, Lois Blount, Sugene Spears, Gene and Tillie White, Ruth Fouts Pochmann, and many others in turn. At every breakfast there was a theme, a prominent master of ceremonies, and the singing (later, the reading) of the first SFA song “The Pine Tree Hymn.” In 1984, Mrs. Dossey was presented a plaque for her years of service for Early Birds.

In October of 1961, the Association honored Madge Stalling; this would be the first of many celebrations of her work. At a special dinner at the Hotel Fredonia, Congressman Martin Dies, President at the time, presented Madge with a diamond-studded engraved wristwatch. In tribute he called Madge “the spirit of Homecoming to thousands,” “a distinguished lady,” and the “driving force” within the organization who had given generously of her time and talents.

In the 50th anniversary year of the college in 1963, Chuck Darden reviewed some history from the Ex-SA’s key event of each year: Homecoming. In discussing the parades, banquets, and the dances in the gyms, he recounted an interview with Dr. Lawrence T. Franks about some anxious moments surrounding the 1957 dance. It seems they had had to guarantee Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians $3,000 to perform an afternoon concert in the New Gym. The door receipts were not going to cover the costs. The Ex-SA President Jerry Sadler graciously “stepped in with a contribution that more than made up a $300 shortage.” The Waring concert was one of the biggest and most successful events ever held on the campus, according to newspaper accounts of the event. Franks said the leaders of the Association frequently had to step in to help with finances.

In the interview, Franks lamented that while parades and floats in downtown Nacogdoches had been part of the Homecoming celebrations since the 1930s, “The number of floats seems to be getting smaller each year.” In explanation he quickly added that the ones entered “are much larger and show more work by the various groups. At one time we had well over 20 floats each year.” The tradition of themes in the parades started with the honoring of President Birdwell back in 1952, the most successful one to that date. Its success that year was mainly due to Robert Shelton, an original faculty member from 1923, who rounded up many of his former colleagues and the remaining members of the first Lumberjack football team for the occasion. Similar efforts in 1954 in honor of Dr. T. E. Ferguson, former Dean of the College and Chairman of English, were also very successful, but the idea of themes did not become annual occurrences until the late 1950s when the Homecomings became two day affairs.

John Lynn Bailey as Executive Director

In 1965, Dr. Steen named John Lynn Bailey as the first full-time “Executive Director” of the Association; Bailey had served as Ex-SA President at the outbreak of World War II. (Franks had found that the managing an organization expanding so rapidly was impossible while continuing his teaching and administrative duties at the college. The College paid all of the Director’s salary at the time.) Bailey was a Nacogdoches native, a graduate of both high school and college in town. He lettered four years in football, and later worked as a coach at the Nacogdoches High School. Bailey had helped organize the Nacogdoches Junior Chamber of Commerce, and he had worked as the East Texas sales manager for Texas Farm Products. He had many contacts in the area.

When Bailey assumed his job, the big initiative on Steen’s agenda was to get the name and status of SFA moved from college-level to university-level. Bailey threw himself whole-heartedly into organizing the alumni to help in this effort. At the same time, Steen called on Bailey and the Ex-SA to work for the passage of “Amendment One” on the fall ballot in 1965. The amendment, if passed, would authorize the colleges in Texas to tap federal money to build classrooms. Steen told the alumni: “In former years, I have asked you to go home and send us all the students you could. This year, I am asking you to go home and call everybody you know and people you don’t know and ask them to vote for Amendment One. If we don’t get that passed, then I will have to tell you not to send us any students because we won’t have any room for them.” Based on then current growth rates, Stan McKewen, registrar, was predicting an enrollment of over 10,000 students at SFA by 1975. Steen and Bailey prepared a brochure explaining the amendments to students and asked them to inform their parents.

Bailey’s own big innovation was to start a series of special awards to be given out by the Association. The Distinguished Faculty Award came first, followed rather quickly by the Distinguished Alumnus Award. The faculty award which first honored Dr. Robert Maxwell in the Department of History seems to have come before the Association established criteria to make the award an annual affair. When they actually wrote the rules in 1966 for the on-going award, Maxwell certainly fit the criteria, but they added specifics: they emphasized teaching by an active faculty member of at least three years service and stressed “well-rounded citizenship” and “contribution to academic excellence and overall program of SFA.” When the rules were actually adopted, they dropped the rule which ban consideration of department heads for the award. After Maxwell, the early recipients were: F. Doyle Alexander (1967), James L. Nichols (1968), N. Lucille Norton (1969), Edwin W. Gaston, Jr. (1970), Robert Capel (1971), W.W. Gibson (1972), Joe E. Ericson (1973), and June Irwin (1974).

R. E. McGee of Houston, President of the Ex-SA, seems to have insisted on a parallel award for a distinguished ex-student. Bailey announced this would be an annual award, not limited to graduates. Any former student, who had made a “distinctive contribution to his particular profession, business, or vocation” and who “evidenced his continuing interest” in SFA, was to be considered regardless of the amount of his financial support. A secret committee was to present three candidates to the Board. The first award came during the Homecoming festivities in 1966 and went to Savannah Cross Lockey. Lockey had attended SFA from 1923-27, had helped to found the Ex-SA, served as a faculty member in the 1930s, and later served in many state education offices including the State Board of Regents for colleges. The second alumnus award in 1967 went to Congressman Martin Dies, Jr., of Lufkin, a former President of the Ex-SA. Other recipients immediately following were: Ottis Lock (1968), R.E. McGee (1969), Victor Fain (1970), Homer Bryce (1971), Bob Murphey (1972), Leon A. Fults (1973), and Denton Kerr (1974). Bailey also started a third award about this same time: the Association’s Coach of the Year Award, a tribute to honor exes who had outstanding records as high school coaches. It was presented at the Annual SFA Lettermen’s Banquet.

Under Bailey’s leadership, the various funds of the Association grew, but their growth was not dramatic considering the explosion of the university’s enrollment during the same period. In 1965 the Scholarship Fund stood a $24, 964; this grew to $37,895 in 1971. The push for endowment would come later under a later regime. One fund, however, did grow rather rapidly considering its origins. In the fall of 1966, Madge Stalling explained how the Ex-SA came to have a Student Loan Fund. “It all started with $5.” It seems one of the volunteer student helpers sent them $5 to help with the coffee and donut pool. “Well, I put that $5 into a cigar box,” she continued. Students borrowed from it, “and then they would pay it back and somehow, that $5 always remained in the box.” The Ex-SA decided the loan idea was a good one and it grew to $8000 by 1966. “There are presently 21 students who have loans from the E.S.A. fund,” said Madge.

Although off to a good start, Bailey felt the need to explain the Ex-SA’s purpose and goals more effectively. In a series of letters and pamphlets he stressed the value of the Homecoming activities, the class reunions, the existing scholarship programs, the loan fund, the regional county clubs, the dues, and, in general, the ways the Association and its members promoted the college to prospective students and to the public. He reported the number of ways board members represented SFA throughout the state at inaugurals, funerals, dedications, and other important occasions. All in all, it was an effective public relations campaign.

The idea of a Parents Day started in 1969. In the spring of the year, the Sylvan Club hosted a celebration to which parents were invited to visit with faculty members concerning the SFA forestry program, to have dinner with the students, and to see demonstrations of activities. The Ex-SA liked the idea and co-opted it for the next fall. Although somewhat makeshift and attended mainly by the parents of SFA football players, the idea grew into another SFA tradition almost immediately. Parents Day tapped into the natural interests of parents in their children and in university offerings. Once the Student Government Organization was recruited, a Parents Club was formed and a Dad’s night followed, with a “Dad of the Year” award presented to the father of an SFA football player. The Parents Club did, as the Association hoped, promote a closer fellowship among the parents of students attending SFA, parents of former students, and parents of prospective students. The second Parents Day, in 1970, was and has continued to be a story of successes.

In December of 1970, the Ex-Students Association formally established an Alumni Foundation to handle the monetary side of its operations. The officers who signed the legal instrument of incorporation were G. Myrph Foote of Dallas, Homer L. Bryce of Henderson, and John Lynn Bailey. The non-profit corporation was “to assist in developing and increasing the scholarship and student aid programs and facilities of SFA State University for broader educational opportunities” and to handle funds for scholarships and student aid “other than those for which the State…makes sufficient appropriations.” This step seemed necessary in order to handle the Association’s first large contribution by Charles A. Carter, a 1936 graduate and former president of Detroit Steel Corp. The Ex-SA did not change its name immediately. The motion to change the name to the Alumni Association came in 1972 on a motion by Board Member Peggy Wright.

Bailey loved “resolutions” and proposed them at almost any opportunity, whether for students, faculty, exes, legislators, building names, etc. His first substantial resolution concerned naming the newly built woman’s dormitory after Gladys Steen, the recently deceased wife of the college president. He continued this practice and lobbied to name almost every other building constructed during the active expansion of the college in the late 1960s. The Ferguson and Kennedy buildings were examples of successful efforts. It is hard to tell if these resolutions were coming from the membership or from Bailey, but sometimes, the initiatives were inopportune. Bailey began to use the resolutions as an instrument of policy to declare his opinions on just about every issue. The Ex-SA Board of Directors had, on more than one occasion, to modified Bailey’s suggested resolutions or rewrote many of them to bring them in line with university policy. The exes, frequently, were less tolerant of trends on campus than Dr. Steen thought wise. While Dr. Steen took a rather hands-off approach to Bailey’s resolution phenomenon, he later drew the line when Bailey tried to make university policy statements on such issues as student demonstrations and integration. Steen had a keen sense of what was beginning to occur around the nation and even on campus. According to his biographer, he avoided inflammatory words, interpretations, and absolute positions that prevented room to maneuver.

Crisis

By 1971 the tension between John Lynn Bailey and Dr. Steen was serious. At first the Executive Board responded by trying to put a defined job description in place. When Bailey submitted his version, the group rejected it as too broad. Bailey responded by trying to expand the Executive Committee to include more people. When the committee refused this move, Bailey attempted to lobby the new local Board of Regents directly by hosting a reception. The Executive Board, despite its close connections with individual Regents (two former presidents, Walter Todd and R. E. McGee, and the rest active members), decided not to sanction Bailey’s request without obtaining Steen’s approval.

Because the University paid the salary of the Executive Director ($12,600) and Article III of the Constitution of the SFA Ex-Students Association states, “The Executive Secretary shall be chosen by the President of Stephen F. Austin State College and shall serve at his pleasure,” the President of the University had the determining vote on the matter. Steen, by this time obviously wanted Bailey out. The Executive Committee (John Asaff, Charles Ruth, Ozella Talbott, Madge Stallings), without Bailey, requested a meeting with Steen to determine what the latter wanted in an Executive Director. In reporting on this meeting, John Asaff informed the Ex-SA Board that R. E. McGee, Myrph Foote, and Homer Bryce had even told Mr. Bailey to ease up on criticism of Steen. To address the deteriorating situation, some members suggested the Association go independent by Homecoming 1971 and retain Bailey as their chief officer; others pointed out the problem of underwriting the budget. With emotions high, the motion for major changes failed or was tabled. When Bailey asked to attend the National Conference of the American Alumni Council in Washington D.C., the motion died without a second. Everyone knew the trouble at home had to be resolved before there could be any more expenditure.

By the time of the Third Executive Board Meeting on June 26, 1971, the SFA Board of Regents had acted by refusing to fund the position of Executive Director after Aug 31, 1971. They agreed to “look at” this position for two years and to study the direction it should develop, but they were not willing to continue as long as Mr. Bailey held the job. In the interim, the Regents expressed their desire to work with the Association by funding a part-time person. Bailey explained his position on various campus activities, but ultimately the Ex-SA Board felt that a resignation from Bailey was the best course of action. Orally, Bailey submitted his resignation to be effective August 31, 1971. The Board accepted it.

John Lynn Bailey’s resignation did not appear in the Pine Log until August 6, at which time Dr. Steen announced that Dr. Richard Voigtel, Assistant Director of Grants and Research, would temporarily assume Bailey’s job until the Association’s Board could meet “to decide the future of the organization and a new director.” Obviously, the Association had to rethink its relationship to the university and the times.