By Tucker Paquette
@tpaquette17
With Election Day less than a week away, many people on Springfield College’s campus are focused on the outcome of the heavily-analyzed presidential election.
Springfield College has a deep connection to politics and the presidency in particular, one that stretches back decades.
The politician with the most prominent connections to campus is John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. Kennedy, a Brookline, Mass. native, visited Springfield College several times.
On June 10, 1956, he delivered the commencement speech at that year’s graduation. He was also a corporator of Springfield College, meaning he looked over the college’s finances.
But in 1956, Kennedy, then serving as a U.S. senator for Massachusetts, was on campus to speak to graduating students, not look over the school’s books.
A key theme of Kennedy’s commencement address was a push to get the graduates to stay in Massachusetts post-college. Interestingly, Kennedy misjudged his audience – at least partially.
He believed Springfield to be a state school, which is not the case. The young senator needed to adjust on the fly while preparing his speech, which he was able to do with the help of former Springfield College English Professor Ed Sims.
According to Springfield College Professor of Communications Marty Dobrow, Sims met with Kennedy to look over the speech, and helped him fine-tuned the address before he gave it to the Springfield College class of 1956.
“They were talking about the speech, and Sims realized that this was a problem in the making, and mentioned to Senator Kennedy that Springfield College is not a state school,” Dobrow said. “He helped him make some handwritten revisions for the speech.”
On Nov. 7, 1960, one day before that year’s presidential election, Kennedy once again made his way to campus.
This time, Kennedy was the Democratic nominee for President – at 43, the youngest ever – pitted against Richard Nixon from the Republican party.
As part of a last-minute, region-wide push to encourage people to vote, Kennedy chose Springfield as one stop on this trip. The city’s streets were filled with people eager to hear Kennedy’s speech, some of whom were members of the Springfield College community.
Dobrow noted the magnitude of this turnout, and how it would be tough for current-day observers to picture.
“It would be almost unrecognizable to modern people, because we look at our city and it doesn’t seem particularly happening,” Dobrow said. “But there [the day of Kennedy’s speech] you would see people seven or eight deep on the sidewalk. It was a major, major event.”
It’s safe to say this excitement was reciprocated across the country, as Kennedy was elected President the following day.
The ascension of Kennedy’s political career can be seen through his first two trips to Springfield. In the span of four years, he went from serving his first term as a senator to becoming the President. The juxtaposition of the timing of these two stops on campus strikes Dobrow as noteworthy.
“Senator [Kennedy] was a pretty good get, but nobody knew at the time that four years later Kennedy would be running for president,” Dobrow said.
Kennedy’s history with the college extends beyond just his visits to campus. Another Springfield connection stems from his assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Glenn Olds, Springfield College’s President at the time of the assassination, worked a second job where he routinely traveled to Washington, D.C., to assist with social programs such as the Peace Corps. Through this work, Olds built ties with the Kennedy administration, and Kennedy, now holding the nation’s highest office, still worked with the college as a corporator.
Olds saw Kennedy’s assassination as a truly tragic event, and this prompted him to search for a person of consequence while looking for the commencement speaker for the class of 1964. In the end, Olds undoubtedly succeeded in this quest by getting Martin Luther King Jr. to give the commencement address.
“Olds recognized that this was just an incredibly heartbreaking moment for the world, for the country, but certainly in Massachusetts, where Kennedy is a homegrown guy,” Dobrow said. “I think it was partly that experience that led him to try to hit a home run with a graduation speaker, looking for a real moment of healing. And that’s how we wound up with Martin Luther King in 1964.”
In addition to Kennedy, several other marquee political figures have stopped at Springfield College. In 2008, Hillary Clinton held an event in Blake Arena. At the time, Clinton seemed to have a good chance of earning the Democratic nomination, although Barack Obama ultimately won the nomination (and the presidency) after a late surge.
The reason Clinton’s team chose Springfield College as a campaign stop was because they saw the city as a welcoming environment.
“The Clinton people were looking for events that would be a good profile for her,” Dobrow said. “And I think they regarded Springfield, Massachusetts, as a fairly reliable, supportive environment.”
Dobrow, who was in attendance, recalls the passionate atmosphere of the event, with many people, including his daughter, eager to follow the progress of a successful woman in politics.
“It was very well attended,” Dobrow said. “It was a spirited event. I remember being there with my daughter, who at the time was 11, turning 12. It was exciting for her as a young girl, the prospect of perhaps a woman becoming president.”
On a broader scale, Dobrow is struck by Springfield College’s long-standing place on the political map. A smaller school, the college has nonetheless played host to its fair share of consequential events.
“It was definitely a cool moment to have our campus be in the game for such a high profile event,” Dobrow said. “I’ve always felt that Springfield College, although a small speck of the universe, has often had an outsized impact in terms of national history in many, many ways.”
(Photo courtesy of Springfield College Archives)