Today’s Project 100 entry is the second one about Harold Wilson, the third chairperson of the Department of Social Studies.  It includes a long overview of his distinguished career before turning to the first-person memories of his former students.

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Born in 1903 in Bethel, Vermont, Harold Fisher Wilson graduated from the University of Vermont in 1926.  While an undergraduate, he met Beatrice (Bea) Herberg.  Harold studied history, while Beatrice was an American Studies major.  She went on to best him in the class rankings, finishing as the class valedictorian.  Harold and Bea married in 1929, while he was pursuing a doctorate in American social history at Harvard University under the guidance of famed historian Arthur Schlesinger. 

While completing his doctorate, Harold taught at St. Stephen’s College and at Columbia University.  After Harold finished his doctorate in 1932, he and Beatrice became teachers in the Canal Zone (in what is now Balboa, Panama).  In 1935, he moved to southern New Jersey after accepting the position as chairperson of the Department of Social Studies at Glassboro State Normal School, replacing the retired Eda Willard.  

The Wilsons chose to live in nearby Pitman, and Harold would later write a short book about the history of the former camp meeting town.  Bea spent time raising their children, volunteering at their church and other local organizations, and occasionally speaking at events on campus and in the region.  They had two children, Barbara Anne and Richard Chase.  Barbara followed her parents and became a history major at Middlebury College and then a teacher at Pacific Grove High School in California.  Richard became a cardiologist and had a long career in medicine before retiring.

Harold Wilson immediately became one of the leading faculty members on campus.  He was just the second faculty member (not counting administrators) to possess a doctorate.  Moreover, during his second year on the faculty, Columbia University Press published his first book, entitled The Hill Country of Northern New England: A Social and Economic History, 1790-1930.  More than a dozen journals – including the American Historical Review, the Economic History Review, and the American Sociological Review – positively reviewed the work, which was based on his dissertation.

Wilson was aided in his writing by his wife, Bea, who acted as both proofreader and typist.  Wilson wrote that “it is quite impossible to express my indebtedness to my wife” and flashed his famous humor when he dedicated his first book, “To Bea, whose merciless pen has struck out some of my most noble thoughts.”

Wilson’s first book had been regional history and based on extensive research, especially in locally available sources.  After he moved to New Jersey, his method remained the same, but his regional focus shifted to his new home.  Over the next quarter century, he authored or edited six more books, all on the history of New Jersey.  He also became a statewide leader in the teaching of New Jersey history, being selected chair of the State’s New Jersey History Committee.  As part of this work and aided by grants from the American Philosophical Society, he edited two studies of New Jersey history, the first being History of New Jersey: A Syllabus and Summary of Readings for Use in College Classes (Jersey City, 1946) and the second being An Outline History of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press, 1950).

Harold Wilson’s crowning achievement, however, was a multi-volume study entitled The Jersey Shore: A Social and Economic History of the Counties of Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth, and Ocean.  Published in 1953, the two volumes totaled 1,137 pages.  In his review, Russell Francis of Rutgers University noted that the book was a “generous contribution” that highlighted the “importance of local and regional history.”  He concluded by saying those “who know the shore and love it as thousands do, and those who would know the shore will find in these attractively bound and easily read volumes a treasure of pleasure.”  Wilson, however, was not yet done.  In 1964, just two years before he became ill with the condition that would force his retirement, he published a revised, shorter volume on the Jersey Shore.  Roy Nichols in the American Historical Review praised Wilson’s ability to connect the “recreational shore region to the culture developing in the hinterland.”

As Robert Bole, the premier historian of the College’s first fifty years, wrote “Harold Wilson brought recognition to the college by his research studies and publications.”  Indeed, no one from Glassboro State College would equal Harold Wilson’s scholarly output, which included many other shorter writings, until the arrival of Robert Hewsen, Q. Edward Wang, and Joy Wiltenburg.  They all went on to careers of international prominence as historians but long after Wilson.

Wilson also excelled as a chairperson.  He was responsible for the hiring and mentoring of almost all of the faculty members in social studies for three decades.  Among the faculty that Wilson hired and who made major contributions to the Department:  Samuel Witchell (1937), Marvin Creamer (1949), Maurice Blanken and Sidney Kessler (1958), Thomas Barker (1959), Marius Livingston (1960), Anne Edwards, Jesse Kennedy, and Richard Porterfield (1961), Eva Aronfreed (1962), and Aaron Bender (1964).

Under Wilson’s leadership, the Department continued its focus on current events and international affairs initiated by Eda Willard.  In his very first year, he arranged a lecture series featuring foreign diplomats from China, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, and Panama.  Wilson was also the founder and faculty advisor for the Café (Current Affairs in Education) Club, one of the largest on campus.  His support for educating GSC students about world events led the Medallion Award in International Affairs to bear his name, even while he remained an active faculty member.  As Bole noted, “Harold Wilson’s department brought forth culture and world understanding to the campus when it conceived, organized, and carried out a series of noteworthy projects: Russian Emphasis Week, Latin American Week, Symposium on World Affairs, and the never-to-be-forgotten Uganda Day extravaganza held in October 1962.”  Bole saw the work of the Department of Social Studies in the early 1960s as a breakthrough for the entire College.  “Not only did the department conceive big projects they also assumed major responsibility for carrying them through to completion,” wrote Bole, but the “organizational and administrative skills which made possible the Social Studies Department’s Symposium on World Affairs and the Uganda Day event were of high order,” and they “represented triumphs which signalized that Glassboro’s academic departments had come of age.”

Readers may not believe me, and it may not seem fair that one man should be this talented, but I would like to suggest that Harold Wilson was an even better teacher than he was a researcher or an administrator.  I believe that there is much evidence for this in the surviving record.  First, he followed another tradition started by Eda Willard in planning and leading extensive field trips for students.  On March 16, 1936, Robert Bole reported that Harold Wilson, “a newly appointed faculty member,” took students from his history “classes” on a bus trip to Trenton.  They stopped at Washington’s Crossing before going to the state house where they “observed a bitter Legislature debate over an emergency relief appropriation bill.”  They then visited with the Governor Harold Hoffman.  Years later, Wilson appeared in Bole’s work again for leading an exceptional field trip, this time with fellow social studies faculty member Helen Wright.  Bole noted that, for two days, “virtually the entire senior class” travelled the length and breadth of New Jersey “visiting historical sites and interesting geographical locations.”

Wilson also arranged for a wide number of extracurricular activities for students over the years.  The most popular of these were probably the mock elections that he organized.  In the years when the voting age was still 21, he brought election machines on to campus and demystified voting for students through an election that as close to genuine as possible.  The voting was proceeded by mock debates with different faculty members taking on the role of the presidential candidates.  Bole remembered that Wilson’s mock 1940 election was especially compelling because students “that year broke a long South Jersey tradition” by voting for Franklin Roosevelt.  The faculty, Bole observed, “kept the South Jersey faith intact” by voting for Wendell Willkie.  One of the last mock elections organized by Wilson took place in 1960 with new English faculty member Nathan Carb representing Richard Nixon and Maurice Blanken representing John F. Kennedy.   

As important as extracurricular activities were (and are) in connecting with students and being an inspiring teacher, it was Wilson’s work inside the classroom that most resonated with students.  Below are comments from students about his as a teacher.  The first comes from the OAK yearbook, and the others are from interviews that I conducted this year for Project 100.  These comments are all the more impressive for two reasons.  First, even as chair, Harold Wilson, like all faculty at the time, had a very high teaching load.  In the 1953-1954 academic year, he taught nine classes (27 credits)!  Second, student reaction below only covers those students who had Wilson in the late 1950s or 1960s.  Student voices from Harold Wilson during his prime surely would have burnished this record even more.

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“We know him for his enthusiasm, his unique humor, his anecdotes.  We have promised him often that we’ll ‘never teach history,’ and we have written innumerable notes on the margins of our looseleafs.  We have laughed at his feigned distress when we volunteered an incorrect answer.  And we have caught his enthusiasm as he explained history’s influences on today.  We are familiar with his contributions to our school.  The Current Affairs for Education Club, one of the largest organizations on campus, and the national social studies fraternity, Pi Gamma Mu, were brought to campus through his efforts.  Perhaps some of us did not know that he received both his master’s degree and doctorate in history from Harvard University, that he has written four books, three of which deal with New Jersey history, or that he is a member of the highly selective New Jersey Historical Society. But these achievements, significant as they are, do not explain our affection and admiration for him.  We know him best as a man of excellence, one who possesses the qualities that make a truly memorable instructor – love of knowledge and love of teaching.  To you, Dr. Harold F. Wilson, we proudly dedicate the 1961 OAK.” – The staff of the OAK

“My mentor was Harold Wilson.  He was a great guy with a wonderful sense of humor.  Whenever a student made a mistake in class that he thought was particularly egregious, he had them stand up and promise that they would never become a teacher.  It was all in fun, and I still chuckle thinking back on it today.  He studied at Harvard under Arthur Schlesinger.  He was a wonderful storyteller and teacher, but he also cared tremendously about me as a person and about all of students.  He continued to advise me long after I graduated and became a teacher, especially when I was taking graduate classes.  I took those classes at Trenton State, Rutgers in Camden, but I ended up finishing the MA at Glassboro State in 1968.  My master’s thesis was on privateers and piracy in southern New Jersey during the American Revolution.   Wilson was a fascinating person.  He wrote the first true history of southern New Jersey and fell in love with the state even though he was from New England.  He certainly deserved to have Wilson Hall named after him.”  Al Tanner (’61)

“I remember taking Harold Wilson’s American history class.  I loved his course.  He was a good lecturer, and I learned a lot from him.”  Suzanne Barrett (’62)

“Who could forget Dr. Wilson's American History class?  Not me.  He lectured, always sitting down.  He had a wonderful sense of humor and stories to tell.  I took both of his survey classes.  I wish I could remember some of the specific stories that he shared because he made learning so enjoyable.  At graduation, I received the Harold F. Wilson Award for International Relations in 1962, and I still have the Medallion that came with that award.”  Betty Bowe Castor (’63)

“Harold Wilson was always challenging me.  He seemed to pick on me as I was older, but I knew he wanted me to reach my full potential.  He never settled for anything less than your best, and he pushed me to become a better student.  I think he also liked the fact that I challenged him from time to time.”  -- Jack Gillespie (’63)

“I really liked Harold Wilson. Ron and I, and Pauline and Lois, had him for two semesters of US history during our sophomore year. I enjoyed his class more than any history class I took at Glassboro. I was surprised how much I enjoyed his class, how much I liked both him and the subject and how well I did. That year was the turning point of my academic career. I realized I could excel and subsequently made an effort to excel. His class was a big part of the change in my perspective."  David Tarr (’65)

“I certainly recall Harold Wilson. I had him for U.S. History.  One anecdote is that he would ask questions to students and if we made a mistake or couldn't answer, he would say: ‘raise two fingers up and promise me you will never teach.’ It was of course more in fun.” Ron Weisberger (’65)

“Harold Wilson was also an important influence on me.  Not only was he a well-regarded and accomplished scholar of New Jersey history, he was a wonderful teacher with a brilliant mind.  I remember a fascinating series of lectures on the Panama Canal.  He didn’t stand up and read his notes when he lectured.  He lectured without notes and talked just from a structure in his mind. This approach was not only impressive but also very engaging.” Frank Esposito (’65) 

“I remember several faculty members in the social studies department, including the chair Harold Wilson. By the time that I was a student, he was at the end of his time at GSC.  Interestingly, he had my uncle as a student three or so decades before I arrived on campus, and he remembered him and our shared last name.” Michael DiDomenico (’67)

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According to his daughter, Harold Wilson appreciated his students as much as they appreciated him.  He dedicated his 1964 volume, The Story of the Jersey Shore: “To the students, faculty, and alumni of Glassboro State College who for the past 29 years have taught a Vermonter to appreciate New Jersey.” 

In 1966, Harold Wilson became ill and went on medical leave.  On April 5, 1968, President Thomas Robinson in the Faculty Bulletin noted that “Dr. Harold Wilson, Professor of Social Studies and former department chairman, who has been ill for more than two years, has submitted his request for retirement at the end of this academic year.  It is a stalwart bulwark who leaves us!”  Less than two years later, on January 10, 1970, he died.  In 1972, Glassboro State College named their newest building after him, one of the very few buildings on campus not named for an administrator or a donor.  When it opened, Harold F. Wilson Hall housed 17 classrooms, 90 music practice rooms, faculty offices, and a 1,000-seat auditorium. 

When I began Project 100, I did not even know for whom Wilson Hall was named.  I am grateful that the Rowan Centennial prompted me to learn about the man who helped, with Eda Willard, to create the Department of History I so deeply love.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff.  One memory will be released per day in the 100 days leading up to October 20, 2023, the date of a reunion celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  The reunion will take place at 7pm at the Summit City Farm and Winery in Glassboro, New Jersey.  Registration for the reunion will be open from July 11^th and will remain open until the venue reaches its 100-person capacity (or October 13^th if capacity never reached).  We do anticipate that the reunion will sell out, so please register as soon as possible by visiting the Alumni Office’s registration page here:  alumni.rowan.edu/historyreunion2023.

You can also find the up-to-date set of Project 100 memories on the Department of History’s webpage or by clicking this link:  go.rowan.edu/project100. 

William Carrigan arranged, interviewed, transcribed and/or edited these memories.  Laurie Lahey proofread and helped edit the final versions.  If you wish to share your own memories, please email Dr. Carrigan at carrigan@rowan.edu.  Alumni with Facebook accounts are encouraged to join the RU/GSC History Alumni group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/251485937221524.