| From
the March 2, 2006, edition of “Northwest This Week.”
President Uel Lamkin
The following is excerpted
from “Transitions: A Hundred Years of Northwest” by
Dr. Janice Brandon-Falcone. An illustrated history of the University’s
first 100 years, “Transitions” is available from the
Bearcat Bookstore on the first floor of the J.W. Jones Student
Union. The book can also be purchased online at www.nwmissouri.bkstore.com
or by calling (660) 562-1246 (ext. 1246 on campus).
President Uel W. Lamkin led Northwest from
1921 until 1945, steering the University through major expansion
and two major crises: the Great Depression and the Second World
War. By the time Lamkin turned over the reins of leadership after
World War II, the school was ready for its next major transition:
leaving behind the designation of teachers’ college and
becoming a full-fledged four-year college with concentrations
outside the field of teacher training.
Lamkin graduated from school when he was
16 and never went to college. He attended law school at the University
of Missouri for four months, passed the bar exam and took a job
as a clerk in the state superintendent of schools’ office.
When the superintendent died unexpectedly, Lamkin took over the
position. By 1921, he had the respect of many throughout the state,
and the Board of Regents appointed him president of Northwest
Missouri State Teachers College. He remained president through
the jumping jazz age of the 1920s, the desperation of depression
in the 1930s, and the furors of war in the 1940s. An early project
was a plan to make it possible for a young man to go to college
at Maryville regardless of finances. The plan called for students
to earn their fees by working in the dining halls. In the late
’20s, these young men organized themselves into a club called
the Hashslingers Union.
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