In its long history, who was Baylor’s first senior professor? Dorothy Scarborough? A. J. Armstrong? Paul Baker? Daniel Sternberg? Glenn Capp? Cornelia Marschall Smith? It was Dr. Luther Weeks Courtney, who taught in the English department for nearly 40 years. In 1954, President W.R. White conferred the newly created title of “Distinguished Professor” on Courtney […]
Since the Paul Baker era, the Baylor Theatre has always punched far above its weight on Broadway. From the beloved actor Carole “Cookie” Cook to Robert Askins’ award-winning dark comedy Hand to God, dozens of Bears have graced the stages of the Great White Way. Baker’s Baylor was a particularly rich and nurturing home for
Aenard “Ann” Compton left a remarkably small footprint during her life, much less during her time in Waco. Even so meticulous a researcher as Frank Jasek, who spent more than 11 years assembling his book, Soldiers of the Wooden Cross: Military Memorials, could only find a few facts about Compton. Jasek’s ambitious, beautiful book is
Throughout its long history, the Baylor University campus has been remarkably blessed, avoiding tornadoes, the worst impact of the regular Brazos River flooding, and the ravages of fire. Waco’s “other” university – and Baylor’s greatest rival – AddRan College was forced to leave Waco after a massive fire in March 1910 devastated the college’s primary
Editor’s Note: For now over 75 years, Baylor Line has been publishing vivid storytelling from across the Baylor Family. I don’t think our archives full of deep, inspirational features should live solely on shelves, so we are bringing them back to life in BL Classics. From spring 2002, the Rev. Eric H. Hooker speaks about
During their brief tenure in Waco, artist Reynold Arnould and his wife, novelist and art critic Martha, were the most famous faculty members at Baylor University – and almost certainly the most glamorous. The Arnoulds brought international attention to the campus before the siren call of Paris eventually, perhaps inevitably, lured them back home. But
Walter Davis Gernand was born February 15, 1917, in Beaumont, Texas, the youngest of the three sons of Clarence A. and Catherine Perthuis Gernand. Julius “Julie” William (February 4, 1913) and Clarence “Bubba” James (October 17, 1914) rounded out the household at 1575 Emile St. All three Gernand brothers enrolled at Baylor University in the
The story of William Martin “Clu” Gulager’s journey, from tiny Holdenville, Okla., to becoming a star of beloved television series like The Virginian and films like The Killers and The Last Picture Show, would make a rip-snorting good movie itself. The son of vaudevillian/Broadway actor John Delancy Gulager, who left the stage to become a
From Shakespeare to Shoot-em-Ups: The Remarkable 70-Year Career of Clu Gulager Read More »
For a time in the 1950s, Baylor graduate John Paul Stapp was the holder of the land speed record and was as famous as Col. Chuck Yeager. Once featured on the cover of Time magazine, Stapp is considered the “Father of the Seat Belt” in the United States and is even credited with coining one
Col. John Paul Stapp: There Was Much More Than Speed to the Fastest Man on Earth Read More »
In fall 1957, just 5’9” weighing only 129 pounds Theodore Otto “Ted” Uhlaender journeyed from McAllen to Waco and asked to try-out for the baseball team. As a non-scholarship walk-on, he led the freshman team in hitting. By his junior year, Uhlaender was one of the Southwest Conference’s leading hitters, batting a sizzling .365. Ted was all-Southwest Conference in baseball three times. After graduating, it wasn’t long before he began an eight-year major league career with the Twins, Cleveland Indians, and ending with the Cincinnati Reds.
