President James Albertson - 50th Anniversary Commemoration

Chancellor Bernie Patterson invites you to a presentation honoring the legacy of former UW-Stevens Point President James H. Albertson and seven other higher education leaders who were involved in the 1967 plane accident in Vietnam. The presentation will take place on Wednesday, March 22, at 1 p.m. in room 650, Albertson Hall. All students, faculty and staff members are welcome to attend.  Librarian/Assoc. Prof. Tom Reich Read more about Albertson's legacy in this press release, including information from librarian Tom Reich, who is scheduled to speak at the event about his research on higher education in Vietnam and Albertson's legacy.   PRESS RELEASE An event Wednesday, March 22, will mark the 50th anniversary of a tragic loss. It will also be the first time many of the survivors meet. In March 1967, James H. Albertson, president of the Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point, and seven other higher education leaders were conducting a study of Vietnamese public higher education. While traveling between universities in the southeast Asia country, bad weather forced the team’s plane to crash near Da Nang, and everyone was killed. Dr. Albertson, who led the team, was 41 years old. Their legacy will be honored during a 1 p.m. presentation March 22 in Albertson Hall, the learning resources center built in 1970 and named in Dr. Albertson’s honor. Under his visionary leadership, curriculum at UW-Stevens Point was expanded, the first graduate degree programs were offered, and enrollment more than doubled. He focused on making students better prepared to succeed by becoming global citizens. A year ago, when one of Albertson’s children posted a Facebook memory of their father, daughter C.L. Fornari heard from a friend: "My father was on that same flight." She and Lynne Conroy, both live on Cape Cod, both are volunteer master gardeners and have known each other more than 20 years. But they never knew they had this loss in common, Fornari said. “Our connection through Facebook led us to search out and contact other children of the men who were on this team. And this ultimately brought us to the marking of this anniversary in Stevens Point,” she said. Twelve of the surviving children will gather March 22 on campus. “We all share similar histories but it will be the first time that most of us have met,” Fornari said. Conroy’s father was Vincent Conroy, Center for Field Studies director, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. Others on the team were: Harry Bangsberg, president of Bemidji State University; A. Donald Beattie, School of Business and Economics dean, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; Howard Johnshoy, dean, Academic Affairs, Gustavus Adolphus College; Arthur Pickett, Honors Programs director, University of Illinois at Chicago; Melvin Wall, Plant and Earth Sciences head, University of Wisconsin-River Falls; and Robert LaFollette, Higher Education Adviser, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Operations Mission to Vietnam. Fornari, one of three Albertson children to attend March 22, will speak at the presentation. Other speakers are Chancellor Bernie Patterson and Tom Reich, who wrote his thesis on higher education in Vietnam, the role of UW-Stevens Point and Agency for International Development. Reich is acquisitions and collection development librarian and associate professor of library science at UW-Stevens Point. “President Albertson was a rare, visionary leader who did much to lay the foundation upon which our university stands today,” Patterson said. “He was so dedicated to his vision of lifting up everyone through the power of knowledge and education that he traveled to war-torn southeast Asia in 1967, to offer hope to the people of Vietnam.” At age 36, Albertson became the eighth president of Wisconsin State College-Stevens Point in 1962.  American higher education was experiencing unprecedented growth, both in enrollment and curriculum, as the baby boom generation began entering American colleges, Reich wrote in his thesis. Albertson set the college on a course of steady growth and change, bringing new ideas to the campus and the community. Enrollment grew from 2,500 students in 1962 to more than 5,900 in 1967. He led the team of educators to Vietnam, working with LaFollette, a former Ball State colleague who then was at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The team was engaged in a “quiet war” in Vietnam, Reich wrote. “The years of 1966 and 1967 marked significant turning points in American educational assistance. The U.S. was now fully engaged in two wars in the Republic of Vietnam: ‘the fighting war—the familiar war—[where] men kill and are killed. [And] the ‘other war…the quiet war,’ the men who battle on our side do not kill, but they may be killed.’  Americans went to South Vietnam to wage war in differing ways, as they fought ‘to save a country and build a nation…’ By the end of (1966), Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point had made the commitment to join ‘other war,’” Reich wrote. Days after the March 23, 1967, plane crash, Burdette Eagon, dean of innovative programs at WSU-Stevens Point, was asked to assist with the project. He traveled to Vietnam in mid-April, and served as chief-of-party for the Wisconsin contract until 1974.  Eagon will attend the March 22 event. Albertson’s legacy continues at UW-Stevens Point. In addition to Albertson Hall, the Albertson Medallion Award is given to less than 1 percent of those graduating each year. It is the highest award UW-Stevens Point gives to students. Albertson award winners have been invited to the March 22 event. It is open to the public in Room 650 of Albertson Hall, 900 Reserve St. Materials from University Archives will be on display following the presentation.  Read more about UWSP President James Albertson here.