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Legacy
A
O F
L E A D E R S H I P
IU’s
First
Ladies
By Laurie Burns McRobbie
P H OTO C R E D I T H E R E
By Laurie Burns McRobbie
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PH
OTO
C RMEO
D IOT NHEEYR E
K
EV
I N O.
Laurie Burns McRobbie with a portrait
of Bernice “Mother” Wells
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INDIANA ALUMNI MAGA ZINE
I
U’s first ladies have not often been the subjects of much historical attention (the attention, of course, appropriately goes to their
husbands), but they have been valued and instrumental contributors to the development of the university and especially to its
character and its spirit. They also serve as a kind of lens through
which we can see the evolution of women’s roles since IU’s founding
nearly 200 years ago. IU has been blessed with 18 women in this role,
and here I detail the contributions of eight of these remarkable women.
university’s various constituencies. Starting in the 1980s, as increasing numbers of
women had moved into the workforce and
had their own careers, governing boards
couldn’t as easily count on the “two for
one” deal as the model of the independent spouse emerged. Accommodating a
쮿 It all happens in public, so you have
to hope for a forgiving community;
쮿 Success and satisfaction rest on hav-
ing defined and set expectations with
key stakeholder groups – trustees,
donors and alumni, campus constituencies, and the community – but of
course it takes time to do this;
쮿 It comes with some authority, often
more than one realizes, but there’s
a fine line between taking and using
what you have and not overstepping
into operations of the university. It requires vigilance and perspective; and
쮿 It comes with a level of accountability to the broader community,
particularly since here at IU it’s a
paid position.
This last theme reflects a recent and significant change in the way the spouse of
the president functions and is seen by the
INDIANA ALUMNI MAGA ZINE
Margaret Ritchie Wylie
spouse’s own career is an important change
for the better, but of course traditional expectations for the spouse haven’t gone away
(nor should they). So being the first spouse
often requires extraordinary organizational
skills as the role of “first volunteer” must
be balanced with the demands of a career.
In the end, each spouse has to strike that
balance for herself (or himself).
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IU’S FIRST FIRST LADY:
MARGARET RITCHIE
WYLIE
I
grew up in a college town in the
Midwest, so it’s probably not a surprise that I had an easier transition
to Bloomington than did IU’s first
first lady, Margaret Ritchie Wylie, who
reluctantly moved her family of nine children in 1829 from the more populous East
to Bloomington, which had a population
of about 400 citizens. The streets were red
clay that became rivers of mud in the rain.
Two buildings — a classroom building and
a professor’s house — comprised Indiana
College. Margaret’s husband, Andrew,
came as both president and professor of
moral philosophy, bringing the faculty to
three instructors. The College enrolled 40
young men.
Margaret Ritchie’s father was a trustee
of Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He
was also a friend of George Washington
and managed large tracts of Washington’s
land. Andrew Wylie had been president
of both Jefferson College and another
Pennsylvania school, Washington College,
when he was recruited to lead Indiana
College. Mrs. Wylie was not pleased by
the prospect of coming to live in a town
that was little more than a way station in
the vast forests of Southern Indiana.
Mrs. Wylie bore three more children
here in Bloomington, delivering her 12th
and last baby at the age of 44. After the
family had been in Bloomington for eight
years, President Wylie had a fine brick
mansion built at what is now the corner
of Lincoln and Second streets. Even with
her gracious new house, Mrs. Wylie was
still not reconciled to living in Blooming-
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Each first lady conducted herself in the
context of her time, but all filled the same
basic roles: advocate, ambassador, hostess, confidante, member of the community, and often parent, to name just some.
It’s certainly been my experience since
my husband, Michael McRobbie, took office that these roles are all operating simultaneously, and thus the process of adjusting
to being first lady is a process of integrating
all these identities smoothly. It’s also a process of finding which of these identities fit
best with one’s own aspirations and one’s
own personality, and finding ways to put
a personal stamp on things. It’s not an unfamiliar process to any of us – modern life
is certainly about juggling and balancing –
but a few unique themes stand out:
ton. Nevertheless, she served in the traditional capacity of first ladies, as a substitute mother to male students who were
far from home and a hostess to members
of the college and community. The Wylie’s
parlor was a gathering place for university,
community, and church business.
Little else is known of Margaret Wylie,
but that she eventually fell in love with
Bloomington and with Indiana University,
as I have, and ended up spending the last
30 years of her life here.
JESSE KNIGHT JORDAN
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L
ike me and Michael, who are
both information technologists
and lovers of art and music,
Jesse Jordan, the wife of our
seventh president, David Starr Jordan,
shared her husband’s professional interests and his personal passions. Both President Jordan and his wife were naturalists,
scientists, and staunch anti-war activists.
They led IU’s first study-abroad ventures,
the contemporary version of which is a
vital component of Michael’s international
vision for IU.
The couple met at a Cornell trustees
meeting. “He courted me with Browning,” Mrs. Jordan said. “He used to read to
me by the hour when we drove about the
countryside.” Shortly after their autumn
wedding in 1885, Jordan was scheduled to
give 10 lectures at various Indiana County
Teachers’ Institutes. His new spouse immediately became his helpmate, friend,
and critic. Almost from the day of their
marriage, Mrs. Jordan helped the president write his speeches and other communications.
A world traveler and dedicated scientist, Jesse Jordan finished her bachelor’s
degree at IU after leaving her studies at
Cornell. She saw the university from a
dual perspective and, as IU’s first lady, she
considered it part of her job to “temper
the scholastic with the social” by bringing
together the faculty and the students. She
gave receptions for alumni and women
students, newly admitted to IU at the end
of the 19th century, and she arranged many
social evenings to vary the routine of
college work.
David Starr and Jesse Jordan left IU in
1891 when President Jordan was hired to
be Stanford University’s first president.
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Jesse Knight Jordan
Clearly both Jordans carried a commitment
to excellence throughout their lifetimes.
CHARLOTTE LOWE
BRYAN
C
harlotte Lowe Bryan’s dedication to the academic enterprise
was unquestioned. She also
was an IU student — earning
a bachelor’s degree from IU in 1888 and a
master’s degree in 1889. Within the month
after she received her master’s degree, she
and her former philosophy professor were
married. As a token of their close partnership, Dr. Bryan took his bride’s maiden
name as his middle one.
Also a philosopher and a Greek scholar,
she collaborated with him on three books
about Plato. Charlotte Lowe Bryan served
as IU’s first lady for an unprecedented 35
years! In the dedication to his book, The
Spirit of Indiana, President Bryan wrote
that she was his “most sympathetic, keenly
discriminating, and truthful counselor.”
Like IU’s earliest first ladies, Mrs. Bryan preferred to stay in the background.
She served as the university’s official hostess but did not serve as a surrogate mother for the students and had no children of
her own. Nevertheless, she clearly left IU
a better place than she found it.
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Charlotte Lowe Bryan
She was a champion of IU’s Memorial
Fund Campaign from 1921–26. She spoke
of using the Memorial Fund to erect a stadium, the union building, the auditorium,
and IU’s first women’s dormitory. She believed these four buildings would make a
difference in the life of the university —
and they certainly have.
She also designed the larger portion
of Bryan House. In fact, when the front
staircase was built, it had to be dismantled
and rebuilt, because Charlotte deemed
the landing too narrow. Perhaps you have
seen the bronze plaque that was placed
at the entrance of the house which states,
“This tablet is placed here by friendly
hands to record the keenly intelligent and
devoted service given through the years to
the planning of the house by its first mistress, Charlotte Lowe Bryan.”
Despite her keen intelligence and academic credentials, Mrs. Bryan did not
teach. Certainly there are instances in
which the expectations and aspirations of
a first lady were not always in harmony.
Perhaps this was one of them. Yet Charlotte Bryan, her predecessors, and those
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her in his biography:
“The wives of my colleagues saw aspects of my
mother that were not always
apparent to me, as I realize
now as they talk to me about
her. They speak of her gregariousness and her fun loving spirit, her sense of social
responsibly and leadership
as ‘First Lady,’ her indirect
guidance, and her deep personal interest in each friend.
They recall her mothering of
many a foreign student and
her extraordinary memory,
which enabled her to keep
track of student and faculty
families.”
When his mother passed
away, Herman Wells received some 1,500 letters,
nearly all of them relating
to some personal way in
which she touched their lives. Mrs. Wells
set a pattern on which contemporary first
ladies have elaborated. Serving IU during
a period when women were required to
stay in the background, she was an international ambassador for IU who opened
the door to a new kind of first lady.
Bernice “Mother” Wells
BERNICE “MOTHER”
WELLS
M
rs. Granville Wells, who was
widely known as “Mother
Wells,” and uniquely among
IU’s first ladies took on the
role as the president’s mother, was the
soul of sympathy during her era and an
energetic ambassador for IU. Following
her husband’s death in 1948, she came to
Bloomington for a monthlong visit with
her son and never left. She was IU’s first
lady for 25 years, during which time this
Hoosier housewife and former schoolteacher greeted kings and queens and emperors and helped to make students from
every corner of the state feel at home at
IU. She traveled extensively with her son
until the year before her death at age 91,
and she made friends everywhere she
went. As former IU basketball coach
Branch McCracken put it, “her greatest
charm [was] her genuine affection for people. She [was] sincerely interested in every
personality.”
Like Mrs. Bryan, she was an honorary
member of the Woman’s Club, to which
first ladies since have been invited as honorary members. President Wells wrote of
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PAT RYAN
W
hen John Ryan became
IU’s 14th president
in 1971, his wife, Pat,
walked through the door
to become first lady. Pat came into her
role during a period of great transition.
The first big decrease in state funding was
causing a shift in financial priorities at IU.
The women’s movement and the rise of
the counterculture and anti-war radicalism were dramatically affecting campuses
across the country.
After the turbulent years of the Sutton
presidency, Pat and John’s challenge was
to restore a sense of stability and tradition
to leadership of the university. The Ryans
had an open-door policy that welcomed
all members of the university community
to their home — sometimes at any hour
of the day or night. This may have been
taken too far by some — Pat recalls waking up one Sunday morning to music and
conversation on the patio of Bryan House.
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ELLEN EHRLICH
W
hen IU’s next president,
Tom Ehrlich, was asked
what was the greatest
asset he brought to his
new job, he replied without pause and
said “my wife.” Ellen Ehrlich was a great
asset to the university as a whole. She had
been a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood
before coming to Bloomington. Here she
championed volunteerism and was tireless in her efforts for the United Way and
for Indiana University. Ellen said that as
first lady she learned to understand football and had the opportunity to host remarkable people like Beverly Sills, Isaac
Stern, Yo Yo Ma, Costa Rican President
Oscar Arias, and many others.
The Ehrlich’s leadership was very collaborative. As she was getting ready to
leave IU, Ellen was asked what she would
miss most. She said, “Tom and I chose to
do this job during the past seven years in
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who followed her, epitomized the aspirations for whole groups of women.
When she and John investigated further,
they discovered that a wedding — complete with zither music — was occurring
on the patio just outside their front door!
Pat has often told me that when she
became first lady she didn’t know the
extent of her public duties. One goal
she knew she wanted to take on was to
complete her undergraduate studies.
She served admirably as first lady of IU
while simultaneously raising her family
and finishing her bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology in 1979.
In a tribute to his wife, President Ryan
spoke highly of Pat, the changes she
brought to her title, and the many identities she juggled. During his tenure as
president, Pat was a construction planner
and manager for two major houses, interior decorator for three houses, hostess to
more than 10,000 Hoosiers a year, mother
to three teenagers, student, community
volunteer, fundraiser, public speaker,
program planner, and confidante to the
president.
Her husband characterized her as a
“partner in the presidency,” praising her
credo of “never overlooking anyone, especially the new member, rallying together
to exchange experiences, ideas, strengths.”
Her service to the university accentuated what a vital role the first spouse plays.
a way that was very much together. It was
an unusual opportunity for us, combining
work and pleasure in every aspect of our
lives for 24 hours a day.”
Ellen was a strong advocate and enthusiastic fundraiser for her favorite causes,
an aspect of the job that has endured
and grown as the role of first spouse has
evolved. For instance, my counterpart
Susan Hagstrum at the University of
Minnesota has used her role to raise
awareness about multiple sclerosis. I have
used my role to advocate for STEM education and for Middle Way House. But we
are all very much aware of the important
distinction between advocacy and inserting oneself into the day-to-day affairs of
the university. As Ellen once said, “The
hardest part of the job for me has been
to keep my mouth shut. But I think that’s
been good self-discipline.”
Pat Ryan
Ellen Ehrlich
Peg Zeglin Brand
Karen Herbert
PEG ZEGLIN BRAND
R YA N A N D B R A N D, I U A A A R C H I V E S / E H R L I C H , I U A R C H I V E S /
H E R B E R T, H I L L A R Y D E M M O N , I U H O M E PA G E S
A
s the spouse of IU’s 16th
president, Peg Brand built
on the career emphasis
Ellen had brought to the
role. In addition to being first lady, she
was also a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy, and in fact still
teaches at IUPUI in the same discipline.
She is the first presidential spouse to hold
a PhD. She made strong efforts to reach
out to students and to re-connect women
alumnae and donors to the university
through initiatives like the Colloquium for
Women, which continues today.
Peg professionalized the role of first
lady in an era when women were actively working for equity. In 1989 nearly
half of the first ladies who responded to
a survey conducted by the Association
of American Universities noted that they
were interviewed as part of their university’s presidential search. Eleven percent
had written job descriptions. And about 5
percent received salaries. And all but one
were female. Many, Peg included, felt it
was time to negotiate a better defined role
for first ladies — one that entailed established responsibilities, clearer expectations, and compensation.
Peg advocated for spousal pay and
worked through the AAU to develop policies that encourage governing boards to
formally recognize the spouse’s role and
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consider it a titled position with a job description, salary, and/or benefits. Now,
many first spouses have academic appointments, as Peg did, and as I do in the
School of Informatics. And now, several of
those spouses are first gentlemen. In fact,
four of the first spouses in the Big Ten are
men. Peg did as much as any of her peers
to help redefine the role of presidential
spouse for the 21st century.
When she moved into Bryan House,
Peg hung some of her own paintings. She
also restored to the house a favorite T.C.
Steele painting of the Bryans, hanging it in
the same place it had hung during Charlotte and William’s occupancy. Since they
were both philosophers, I know she and
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Myles felt a great kinship with Charlotte
and William Lowe Bryan.
KAREN HERBERT
A
nd of course, Karen Herbert,
my most recent predecessor,
extended her warm inclusiveness to so many and in
her quiet and unassuming way epitomized
the spirit of IU to individuals and groups
around the state.
After retiring from her management
career in telecommunications, Mrs. Herbert turned her attention to fundraising
for community foundations and public
libraries, interests that she brought with
INDIANA ALUMNI MAGA ZINE
her when she and Adam Herbert came
to Indiana. She was also a lover of music
— especially jazz — and the visual arts.
She said that growing up in the Washington, D.C., area the National Gallery and
Corcoran Museum of Art were her playgrounds. She has exhibited her own paintings, prints, and other artwork in various
venues.
This work included a series of collages
inspired by choreographer Alvin Ailey’s
masterpiece, Revelations.
As a collector, Karen was especially
fond of the Hoosier Salon style. Among
other art works, she sponsored the restoration of John Edward Bundy’s 1902
painting View from Bay and ensured it was
added to the Hoosier Salon paintings on
exhibit at the IU Art Museum in 2004.
This painting still hangs in Bryan House,
in the sunroom.
IU’s first African-American first lady,
Karen was an important role model for
women of color on campus, and she
spent a great deal of time interacting with
students. She was also a strong advocate
for Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
ADVOCATE,
AMBASSADOR, HOSTESS,
CONFIDANTE, MOTHER,
SPOUSE
I U ’S F I R S T L A D I E S
1829–1851
1852–1853
1853–1859
1859–1860
1866–1875
1875–1884
1885–1891
A
s IU’s 18th first lady, I have
come into the role after 25
years in the work force and experiences of my own with how
feminism has shaped women’s lives. Expectations are different now, at least our own
expectations for ourselves as first spouses.
And I hope that in this new century we
are moving past the era of the zero-sum
game. There are so many women now who
have explored a broad range of options that
perhaps the model of the 21st century first
spouse can be one in which there aren’t
so many “either/or” choices to be made,
and where it’s more natural to blend the
identities of working professional, spouse,
fundraiser, hostess, advocate for personal
causes and the president’s policies, parent,
and “first friend” of the university. 쮿
1891–1893
1893–1902
1902–1937
1937–1962
1962–1968
1968–1971
1971–1987
1987–1994
1994–2002
2002–2007
2007–present
Laurie Burns McRobbie became IU’s first lady
in 2007. She has spoken about IU's first ladies to
various university groups over the past year.
Margaret Ritchie Wylie
Louisa Walker Ryors
Permila Northcraft Daily
Frances E. Lathrop
Amanda Stanford Nut
Harriet Bringham Moss
Susan Bowen Jordan
and Jesse Knight Jordan
Georgie Gaylord Coulter
Mary Swain
Charlotte Lowe Bryan
Mrs. Granville Wells
(Anna Bernice Harting Wells)
Dorothy Howland Stahr
Jean Harkness Sutton
Patricia Goodday Ryan
Ellen Rome Ehrlich
Peg Zeglin Brand
Karen Y. Herbert
Laurie Burns McRobbie
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