When Gretchen Roth ’06 learned that her and her sister’s brainchild, Shakespeare in the Arb, has become a tradition at Hillsdale College, she said it delighted her. “I’m extremely surprised,” Roth said. “The sheer genius and fun of Shakespeare are one of many favorite memories from Hillsdale College … Shakespeare is timeless and classic. There’s never a wrong or right...
Features
Grosvenor and Munro: Historic frenemies of Jonesville
When a house changes hands twice in one day, something may be amiss. That’s exactly what happened when George Munro sold his Jonesville, Michigan house to his across-the-street neighbor Ebenezer Grosvenor for $2,500 on Oct. 1, 1864. Only hours later, Grosvenor sold the house back to Munro for $500. Neither Grosvenor nor Munro’s descendants know enough about their ancestors’ history...
Senior dancer hones ‘eye for design,’ makes 22 Tower Dancer costumes
Senior Ria Harju said she didn’t plan on being a theater major when she came to Hillsdale College. And although she has been involved in the theater department since her freshman year, her love for design, she said, was also accidental. Yet audience members of the last Tower Dancers’ performance saw her design work — the end product of her...
The Spiteri small-business tradition
John Spiteri fell in love with rock music at a J. Geils concert at Hillsdale College back in 1973. He was a junior at Hillsdale High School, working in his father’s shoe store. Seven years later, with this passion for music and a $1,000 loan, John loaded his parents’ car with records and drove to the corner of E. Bacon...
Hillsdale County defending liberty: Local participation in Underground Railroad
Several homes in Hillsdale County, including one on college grounds, are rumored to have been part of the Underground Railroad. While there are no records of the college helping runaway slaves escape by participating in the network of secret routes and safehouses, some believe the Dow Residence on Hillsdale Street was once a safehouse on the Underground Railroad. “The college...
Two love stories and a comic: Alumni walk down memory lane
Sixteen alumni from the class of ’67 and five from the class of ’57 gathered on campus last week for the alumni reunion: a week of cocktails, dinners, and tours. Art Robell ’57, Dorothy Olsson Messinger ’57, and Robert “Bob” Messinger ’54 sat together on couches on the upper level of the Dow Leadership Center, reminiscing and quickly discovering that...
