The Establishment of the Cockefair Chair

The dawn of the 1960s found Kansas City at a crossroads in its development. During the previous decade, the city had celebrated its centennial and acquired its first major league baseball team. Its population had grown to 475,000, part of a metropolitan area of more than 1,000,000 people.

The city’s growth was due, in large part, to agricultural services, and year after year the farms of the Midwest boasted higher production. In addition, Kansas City’s industrial base had broadened: the Ford Motor Company had built a new plant at Claycomo; Chevrolet had expanded its Leeds plant; T.W.A. had opened a multi-million dollar overhaul base; and a major oil company established its home base here.

With growth came more jobs, more people and more leisure time. In 1960, Kansas City had both the prosperity and the population to take its place among the thriving metropolitan centers of the United States. The city had a number of cultural and aesthetic assets as well. Kansas Citians could lay claim to professional art and music schools, as well as a symphony orchestra. There was the art gallery, a cultural treasure provided to the city by William Rockhill Nelson.

In addition to art and music, the city was home to the Linda Hall Library, one of the nation’s outstanding science repositories; many colleges; and a number of research agencies in the social and natural sciences. There seemed to be every reason to be optimistic about the city’s future.

Despite this favorable foundation for cultural development, there were difficulties. The city seemed to have a case of cultural inferiority. The leaders of most cultural activities wanted prior approval for public projects. Unless something was successful in New York or Europe, Kansas Citians were afraid to try it. As one critic put it: “Kansas City sees a good thing—when it knows it.”

In truth, some of the established cultural institutions of Kansas City were in trouble. The Philharmonic faced financial difficulties. The Kansas City Star noted that donations from Kansas Citians to its orchestra were “one of the smallest of any city of comparable size.”

Nor were the contributions to the Philharmonic the only shortcoming – Kansas City had no theater, a hallmark of a metropolitan center. The problem was so broad that the same Star writer lamented, “Music and higher learning, especially in its humanistic aspects, still receive only a limited acceptance. They are often kept on the ragged edge of starvation in a community seemingly quite able to afford many other things.”

Kansas City’s reluctance to support the arts had several possible causes. It was a young city focused first on its own financial growth and physical development. The city also lacked traditional philanthropists, families of established wealth. Perhaps, too, there was some frontier suspicion of cultural activities not necessary for survival. For these and other reasons, Kansas Citians did not appear willing to support the cultural and educational endeavors necessary to confirm Kansas City’s identity as a major metropolitan center.

This hesitance to support cultural institutions extended to the support of higher education. Although several local colleges faced difficulties, the University of Kansas City, the area’s only University, was exceptionally troubled. Founded in 1933, the privately funded University began as a liberal arts college and slowly brought in previously existing professional schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Law; it had also established professional schools in Business and Education.

Development of the University had been difficult at times, but by 1957 a survey of higher education in Kansas City concluded that, “Starting from nothing, the University has acquired a good campus, a number of substantial buildings, a faculty of some standing, and a fair reputation among institutions of higher learning.”

Despite its accomplishments, the prospect of financial ruin haunted UKC. As early as 1952, the school’s leadership acknowledged declining enrollment in the College of Liberal Arts, declining income, and faculty salaries well below the norm. After 1952, frequent tumultuous changes occurred in the administration, budget deficits increased (a 1957 budget revealed a deficit of $378,000), and “minimal continued existence” characterized the fiscal policy. This gloomy picture became more acute when, by April of 1961, “due to a gradual depletion of reserves” the University had only $30,000 in its current fund.

The responsibility for rectifying the University’s financial dilemma fell to the Board of Trustees. The enormity of this undertaking is revealed by the McHenry Report, a privately funded study commissioned in 1957 to survey higher education in Kansas City. According to that study, if KCU was to remain private, it would take an all-out effort to raise a minimum $20,000,000 endowment to yield $800,000 per annum.

Despite the University’s obvious needs and the dire warnings of the McHenry Report, one fund-raising drive after another fell short. Supporters of the University proposed numerous schemes for tax support, such as merging with the Junior College system or obtaining aid from the University of Missouri. However, all efforts to secure the support essential to the survival of the University were dismal failures.

There were several reasons why Kansas City failed to support its University. The McHenry Report further revealed that the University was “not considered by the community to have an advantage in higher quality.”

Nor was the school considered prestigious or a part of family traditions. The community felt that the University, devoid of fraternities, sororities and sports, had not developed “a full and attractive student life or an enthusiastic alumni body.” In addition, UKC was relatively expensive and had strong competition from the University of Kansas. Taken together, these perceptions meant that the citizens of Kansas City did not believe that the University possessed the stature or community ties to warrant their support.

The Cockefair Chair was a major response to some problems faced by both the community and the University. Primarily, it was established to honor its namesake, a woman whose teaching influenced a generation of Kansas Citians. Fortunately, the activities of the Chair met some of the expectations the city had for its university.

From the beginning of her tenure at UKC, Carolyn Benton Cockefair’s classes in continuing education had attracted crowds of dedicated students. Many enrolled in every course she offered, and some became her close friends. There may have been other teachers at UKC as well loved and respected as Carolyn Benton Cockefair, but none had such a capable a group of students acting in her honor.

One of Cockefair’s students with particular ingenuity and determination was Mrs. Milton (Selma) Feld. She was long known for her generosity and interest in intellectual and cultural activities. As a great friend of the University, she wanted to involve Kansas Citians in the university’s programs. In response to Mrs. Cockefair’s teaching and the warmth of their friendship, Feld conceived the idea of founding a Chair in Continuing Education to honor her teacher and at the same time respond to the needs of the community and university.

With her friends, Mrs. Web (Ruth) Bailey and Mrs. Robert (Mickey) Mann, Feld proposed the idea to Mrs. Cockefair and then set about organizing a fund drive. According to the original plan, the Chair would sponsor lectures and nationally known visiting professors for the benefit of continuing education students, the general public, and, of course, the University.

The difficulties seemed great. Robert Nelson, Director of Development at UKC, insisted that the unendowed Chair have at least $10,000 to fund programs for three years. Nelson was unsure if Mrs. Cockefair’s students could raise the money. Mrs. Barrett C. (Gladys) Helzberg, a fellow student with whom Feld shared her hopes, did not think “our women would put that much money into it.” Undeterred, Feld and her friends set began the fund drive.

To place the fund-raising on a firm foundation, Feld invited to her home a dozen women who had studied with Carolyn Cockefair and who could afford substantial donations. Feld persuaded them that education was lifelong; that they needed a Chair to assure their own continuing education; and that it would be unique to establish a chair in Mrs. Cockefair’s honor while she was still living. Feld raised enough at this meeting, about half of the $10,000 goal, to provide solid footing for the broader fund-raising activities.

On July 27, 1960, the next phase began. Feld drafted a form letter explaining the project. Volunteers, women among the Chair’s most steadfast supporters, agreed to solicit gifts from Mrs. Cockefair’s former students. A target date for receipt of donations was set for August 15.

The generosity of Mrs. Cockefair’s former students proved greater than anyone had expected. Donations of $12,494.27 were collected to found the Carolyn Benton Cockefair Chair in Continuing Education, exceeding the $10,000 needed for three years’ worth of programs.

In founding the Chair, there were significant difficulties. Solicitations were sought from a community where, despite personal feelings for Mrs. Cockefair, there was little support for the University. It was hard to encourage funding anything at a University so financially troubled that its very survival was in question. That Mrs. Cockefair’s former students – most of them housewives – succeeded is a testament to their efforts.

Their skill and determination in fund-raising was only beginning. On November 17, 1960, the inaugural dinner of the Cockefair Chair took place. More than 300 friends, former students and contributors gathered in Swinney Gymnasium for the formal presentation to establish the Chair.

The guest speaker for the evening, Norman Cousins, editor of The Saturday Review, spoke of his hopes for world peace. But for many of those present, the evening’s most important and inspiring words were spoken by Carolyn Benton Cockefair when she dedicated the Chair:

“To Those who stand tip-toe on the mountain tops of intellectual research,

To Those who know that wisdom will not die with them and are therefore, crying for Light, more Light.

To All men who search after wisdom, of whatever age, creed, color, sex, or previous condition of ignorance.

To All those who undertake the search with gay spirit, ‘completely disillusioned, yet wholly sweet tempered.’

To All Men who find through friendship, through love, the high roads to life.

To All Those who with dauntless spirit set the slug horn to their lips and blow with a mighty sound their call to duty.”

In short, I dedicate this Chair to Man’s unconquerable mind and the Quest.

With the job of fund-raising now behind them, the women of the Cockefair Chair turned their attention to planning the Chair’s future. It was necessary to work out an agreement with the University of Kansas City to establish the Chair officially. The Declaration of Gift, approved by the UKC Board of Trustees on November 25, 1960, clearly stated the Chair’s purpose:

“…to create and maintain programs designed for the encouragement of intellectual growth of adult men and women, in the field of the humanities as they embrace literature, the arts, science, cultural and political history of the various cultures.”

The Declaration, largely the work of Dorothy Wilson, Director of Non-Credit Courses, Division of Continuing Education, and Selma Feld, charged the Chair to “provide in each academic year one or more outstanding teachers or lectures for adult education classes at the University.” Because of this original purpose, the Chair assumed a name similar to traditional Professorial Chairs common at many Universities.

This purpose, as stated in the original Declaration of Gift, was loosely interpreted by UKC and allowed the Chair to follow a breadth of program options while still keeping its programs oriented toward the humanities. The agreement with UKC also established a fund in the Chair’s name of $12,494.27, the sum of the original fund drive.

When the idea for the Chair had first been raised, Robert Nelson, Director of Development, had suggested that $3,000 a year for three years would be sufficient. Dorothy Wilson and Selma Feld accepted his suggestion, stating in the Declaration that approximately $3,000 from the Chair’s funds be disbursed each academic year. Despite this clause, this provision was largely ignored. The Chair’s expenditures were instead determined by the success of annual fundraising. As a result, expenditures often exceeded the $3,000 limit.

From the beginning, the Chair had surprising success in fund-raising. Also, the bright, concerned members Feld had appointed to the Advisory Board, kept the Chair on good financial footing. But, unlike other Chairs at other universities, the Cockefair Chair lacked an endowment. An endowment with a substantial principal would provide operating funds and eliminate the need for yearly fund drives.

During the 1960’s, the Chair’s solvency rested on annual fund drives. As much as possible, Board members avoided charging admission to Chair-sponsored events, adopting Mrs. Cockefair’s philosophy that lectures should be free to the public. The Chair did charge for the annual luncheon and the annual dinner, but just enough to cover the cost of the meals. The Chair bore the cost of providing speakers – a big expense for a fledging organization.

The desire to build an endowment was a constant concern. In 1974, a small endowment was started; but it was not until 1980 that the Chair received the funding it had pursued for 20 years. Once again, Selma Feld was responsible. In 1980, she gave $100,000 from the Milton W. Feld Charitable Trust to establish the Milton W. Feld and Selma S. Feld Endowment Fund. Interest on this fund would provide the Chair with $10,000 a year for operating expenses.

Another unexpected and critical boost came with recognition and support from the Kansas City Association of Trusts and Foundations (KCATF). The KCATF, led by Homer Wadsworth, had a long history of supplying “seed money” to worthwhile local cultural groups. Wadsworth was aware of Mrs. Cockefair’s reputation as a teacher; and after learning the purposes of the Chair, he committed $30,000 of KCATF funds to a matching grant program. The grant nearly tripled the resources of the Chair and insured a strong beginning.

The Declaration of Gift also established the administrative structure of the Chair. According to the document, decisions concerning the Chair would be made by an Advisory Board made up of community members and designated representatives of UKC. The Advisory Board would “counsel with the University in its selection” of Cockefair courses and programs.

Though the Chair had no membership, it enjoyed widespread support and participation from the community and the university. The community had five positions on the Advisory Board, serving for one, two or three year terms. Initial appointments were made by Feld and the Director of Continuing Education. After the initial appointments, a subcommittee of the Advisory Board would nominate new members.

First Board appointees were: Mrs. Milton W. Feld (Chairman), Mr. C.B. Ball, Mrs. J.C. Higdon, Mr. Berndt L. Kolker, Mrs. Robert D. Mann, Mrs. Milton McGreevy, Mr. Thorpe Menn, Mrs. David A. Patterson, Mrs. Clyde Porter, Mr. Homer C. Wadsworth, Dean Edwin J. Westermann, Mrs. James C. Wilson, and Dean Walter B. Wright. Advisory Board members were allowed to succeed themselves once, but many members remained on the Board for periods far exceeding the limits. In fact, the actual structure of the Chair was much looser than the initial agreement indicated.

The University was represented by the Chancellor or his representative (usually the Dean of Arts and Sciences), the Director of Continuing Education, and a representative appointed by that Director. Although the Advisory Board legally held only advisory power, its competence in programming and fund-raising gave it a strong voice in the affairs of the Cockefair Chair. The University provided able administrative assistance, but “The Chair” remained unique among university programs­­­­ – a privately led organization functioning through the state University.

In 1963, the financially ailing UKC joined the University of Missouri system, creating the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The school’s new status required that the original Declaration of Gift be reworked and submitted to the Board of Curators in Columbia. The Board viewed the transformation of UKC to the University of Missouri with some anxiety, worrying that their arrangement might be changed. These fears were dispelled when, on April 16, 1964, the University of Missouri gave “Notice of Board Action” and formally accepted the Chair without altering its basic purpose or structure.

When it began, the promise of the Cockefair Chair to the community and the University was threefold.

First, the Chair served to honor an exceptional teacher who had devoted her life to education, particularly adult education. The Chair stood as a monument to Mrs. Cockefair’s belief that a community needs “open and responsive minds” if it is to be politically and socially healthy.

Second, the Chair would provide a valuable educational supplement to the University. It would bring nationally known scholars to the University, and invite the community to hear them and interact with them.

Third, activities of the Chair would bring the community to the University to promote public interest in and concern for the University. Through the Cockefair Chair, the University would become less isolated and more integrated into the community. Only time would show if these goals were met. Only solid programming, wise selection of projects and determined leadership could make these promises come true.