|
|
| Click on thumbnails for full images |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Wells etched his place in the history of Indiana University during the years when it grew from a pre-World War II modest-sized Midwestern state university to a major research and teaching institution. Even as the enrollments increased between 1946 and his retirement in 1962, Wells redoubled his efforts to remain a readily identifiable, friendly presence in the lives of students.
Perhaps it was Wells' small-town upbringing that prompted him to personalize the educational experience of four generations of students who studied at the IU campus in Blooming-ton. Born in the Hoosier town of Jamestown on June 7, 1902, Wells was the son of a banker, Joseph Granville Wells, and his wife, Anna Bernice Harting Wells.
After a year of study at the University of Illinois (1920-21), the future president transferred to IU. Wells thought he was going to follow in his father's footsteps in banking, and earned a bachelor of science degree in business in 1924, topping off his education with a year as assistant cashier at a bank in Lebanon. He received a master of arts degree at IU in 1927 and then completed more graduate study at the University of Wisconsin before the business world beckoned.
Wells took a position as field secretary with the Indiana Bankers Association, working for the organization to strengthen and professionalize financial institutions during 1928-31. In 1930, he accepted an instructorship in economics at IU and commuted to Indianapolis for a year while completing research for the association.
It was another research project that took him away from the university during the years 1931-33 while he was preparing a comparative study of financial institutions in other states and countries for the Study Commission of Indiana Financial Institutions. During 1933-35, Wells held the position of assistant professor of economics on leave while he worked for the state as supervisor of the Division of Banks and Trust Companies and the Division of Research and Statistics in the Department of Financial Institutions.
It was the retirement of William A. Rawles as dean of the IU School of Business Administration in 1935 that became the crossroads decision in Wells' life. The post was offered to him and after much soul searching, he accepted. Wells wrote of that decision:
"It seemed to me a fanciful idea. I finally concluded that if it were the wish of the faculty, the president and the trustees, I would assume the post‹foolhardy as that decision might seem."
Wells was even more shocked by a midnight phone call offering him the job of acting president, after the retirement of William Lowe Bryan in 1937. Wells never made it back to his dean's position and was inaugurated on Dec. 1, 1938, as Indiana University's 12th president in its then 118-year history.
Prior to World War II, one of Wells' ambitions had been to travel in Europe, but circumstances of employment and other matters always seemed to get in the way. Ironically, even without the European experience, the young president was subtly widening the context of the university beyond the horizons of Indiana and the United States.
It was Wells' global outlook that attracted European scholars when their countries were overrun by invading armies. The IU president encouraged many scholars to take refuge in Bloomington, and they not only enriched the faculty community, but enlarged the university's horizons.
Of the impact of the career of Wells, Kenneth Gros Louis, IU vice president and chancellor of the Bloomington campus once wrote, "Herman Wells knew how to build a great university and gain broad-based popular support for it. That achievement, however, is not as great in my mind as the particular atmosphere he created on the Bloomington campus, one that has touched the lives of all those who joined the university family during his presidency and who have become part of that family in the years since his retirement."
Wells began to gain national recognition early in his academic career in such positions as the joint committee on accrediting of the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities and the executive committee of the National Association of State Universities.
He already had been named one of "Americas's Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1939" by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce when his enthusiasm and expertise were tapped for leadership roles by such prestigious national organizations as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the National Association of State Universities, the American Council on Education, the State Universities Association and the Division of Higher Education of the National Education Association.
His opportunity for international service came at the end of World War II when he was appointed as a special adviser on liberated areas for the U.S. Department of State and as a minister of the Allied missions, observing the Greek elections. In 1957, he was appointed as a U.S. delegate to the 12th General Assembly of the United Nations.
His other international activities included advisory roles with UNESCO, as head of the U.S. delegation to Bangkok for the South-East Asia Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission on University Problems, and as a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in 1969. Wells' service to foreign governments earned him the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1960; the Thailand Government Award of Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant in 1962; and the Thailand Knight Commander (Second Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown in 1968.
Wells was named university chancellor of IU upon his retirement from the presidency in 1962, at which time he also was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree. Other honorary university degrees have been awarded by Notre Dame, Columbia, Ohio State and California, to name a few.
Wells has been the recipient of the B'nai B'rith Great American Traditions Award; the first Excellence in Education Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sons of the American Revolution; and six prestigious Sagamore of the Wabash designations from Hoosier governors. This summer, he was named an "Indiana living legend" by the Indiana Historical Society.
Return to Table of Contents