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7. Breakthrough
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Breakthrough President Jesse combed the countryfor possible candidates, even at the instructor level. An important, though unofficial, part of such an interview was the entertainment ofthe candidate by members ofthe faculty. Dinners would be followed by evenings "beside the Anheuser-Busch" and reminiscent ofthe Germany most ourfaculty had known. There is nothing like loosening up his reflexes to tell you what a fellow is really like. Next day and before an appointment was offered Mr. Williams would make his contacts with some ofhis trusted faculty members. "Well, what did you fellows think ofhim?" If we turned thumbs down there was little chance that the candidate would be offered a place on the faculty. -Winterton T. Curtis, Professor of Zoology, 190I 7 For Walter Williams, being "inside" of the particular power structure that mattered most to him meant only one thing: a seat on the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri. There was no pathway toward the creation, and funding, of a school of journalism that did not lead straight through the curators. Created in 1839 as an unofficial steering committee to establish and govern the University of Missouri, the Board of Curators later came under control of the state government. Individual curators were confirmed by the legislature or, when the legislature was not in session, appointed by the governor. Because of the difficulties in obtaining a quorum for the meetings-travel was difficult and there was no financial incentive to attend-Columbia and Boone County were typically overrepresented on the board. Seldom would more than ten of the fifteen curators be present for any meeting; usually eight of those ten, the six appointed by the governor and the two elected by the legislature, were local people from Columbia and its immediate environs. While any appointment to the Board of Curators was an important honor, an appointment from Boone County carried with it more than ordinary clout. The curators tended to be 114 Breakthrough 115 affable, well-connected individuals with strong personalities, men who were at times deeply caught up in partisan politics. Outwardly, however, they appeared to have been cut from similar cloth: by law, each curator was required to be a "free, white, male citizen who had lived in Missouri for at least two years."! E. W. Stephens had spent a number of years as a curator, following his graduation from the university in 1867, and, despite his persistent, and possibly tiresome, campaigning for the creation of a school of journalism, was well liked by his fellow members of the board. Indeed, when the curators had caved in, or so it had appeared, to legislative pressure in 1898 and voted to create (but not fund) a chair of journalism, they offered the position to him. But Stephens, who had a business to run and was disinclined to grovel for monies to develop an untested and controversial academic program, turned down the offer.2 Realizing he was being told, in effect, by the curators and the legislature to put up or shut up, Stephens backed away. He passed the baton to Walter Williams, who was eager for it, and the timing was perfect . Walter's old friend and former boss from Boonville newspaper days, Lon V. Stephens, was now governor. Anxious to place his political allies in key positions, Lon V. happily rewarded his friend, former neighbor, and fellow Democrat with a spot on the university's governing board. Almost as an afterthought, the governor asked Williams if he had any recommendations for two other vacant spots on the curators. Williams did indeed. He suggested the name of J. F. Gemelich of Boonville, a longtime friend of the Williams family. And for the other vacancy, Williams nominated D. A. McMillan.3 Then living in Mexico, Missouri, Professor McMillan had been Walter Williams's beloved tutor in Boonville, the man who perhaps more than any other had instilled in his receptive young pupil a love for learning. Governor Stephens promptly appointed both men. Thus when Williams began his initial six-year term, effective on May 23, 1899, he brought his own power base with him. As he did with everything else, Williams plowed into his assignment on the Board of Curators with enthusiasm and intensity. Blessed with a flexible, relatively undemanding work schedule-the Columbia Herald by now seemed almost to run itself-and situated only a few minutes' walk from the campus, Williams soon found himself devoting more and more time to university 1. Frank F. Stephens, A...