Flashback
65 years ago
First meeting of UB Women’s Club
Mrs. John A. Bean (right) presents the guest book to Chancellor and Mrs. Clifford C. Furnas before the Chancellor’s Ball in 1956. Photo: COURTESY UB ARCHIVES
On May 1, 1946, a group of women gathered in Norton Hall for the first official meeting of the Women’s Club of the University of Buffalo. The club’s origins date back to the Newcomers’ Club, a group established in 1939 to provide educational programs and special events for women who were new to the university.
After six years, the Newcomer’s Club voted to disband and the University Women’s Club was launched “to promote the interests of the university in any way possible, to further sociability and to develop common interests among its members.” Membership was extended to women members and wives of members of the University Council, female faculty members and administrators.
During the initial meeting of the Women’s Club, a slate of officers was elected, with Mrs. Henry Ten Eyck Perry serving as the club’s first president and Grace W. Capen, wife of Chancellor Samuel P. Capen, as honorary president. A constitution and by-laws were accepted, annual dues were set at $1, and by the close of its first year, the Women’s Club had more than 300 members.
One of the group’s first major initiatives was a relief project that distributed more than 700 boxes of clothing and food to needy university faculty families in Europe following World War II. Shipping costs were paid by the club’s treasury and supplemented by contributions from members and friends, along with proceeds from the club’s fundraising projects. A professor from Vienna, Austria, expressed his gratitude in a letter sent to the Women’s Club: “Your help,” he wrote, “is a mark of the best kind of camaraderie among academicians which the time and distance between two continents cannot destroy.”
In the early 1950s, the Women’s Club sponsored a volunteer initiative at Buffalo’s Veteran’s Hospital. Members assisted with laboratory and library tasks, and organized an in-hospital radio broadcast that featured piano duets, radio plays and discussions of current political events. The club also became active with its Chancellor’s Ball (later known as the Faculty Ball and the Scholarship Ball). The ball raised money for UB student scholarships and it quickly grew into a highly anticipated annual event that was an important part of campus social life.
Another important initiative sponsored by the Women’s Club was the creation of the Grace W. Capen Loan Fund. Using an initial gift of $100 from Grace Capen, along with proceeds from other club projects, the fund provided small, short-term, interest-free loans to UB students. The Women’s Club later established the Grace Capen Award to recognize outstanding academic achievement. This annual award is given to sophomore undergraduates who have completed three semesters of full-time study at UB and who have a quality point average of 3.9 or better.
Since its inception, the Women’s Club has sponsored numerous member-interest groups, covering such topics as gardening, book discussion, languages and gourmet cooking. As the university grew, the Women’s Club also grew, playing an important role in campus and community projects. Over the years, the club has sponsored fashion shows, craft shows and flower sales to benefit UB student scholarships and educational projects; members have tutored reading and organized concerts, exhibits and dinners to promote international friendship, and published a cookbook and a guidebook to Buffalo. Along the way, many lasting friendships have been formed.
In 1995, as part of the Women’s Club’s 50th anniversary celebration, member Carol Greiner, wife of UB’s 13th president, William R. Greiner, described the group as “among the university’s finest assets for strengthening our own sense of community and for extending that sense of community to our friends and neighbors.” Now celebrating its 65th year, the Women’s Club continues to provide outstanding service and support to UB students, the university and the community.
More information on the Women’s Club website and in the University Archives
—Kathleen Quinlivan, University Archives
Reader Comments