Family History

Famed choral conductor Robert Shaw, left, joined friend Thornton Wilder, right, on the playwright’s 1950 visit to Wooster. At center, President Howard Lowry.

Special Collections, College of Wooster Libraries photo

THE HIGHLIGHT of Color Day celebrations in May 1950 was the staging of Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Wilder himself starred as the Stage Manager, the play’s narrator, under the direction of speech professors William Craig and Winford Logan.

During his campus stay, Wilder also received an honorary degree. Speaking to the new graduates, he praised Americans’ freedom to make choices and cited Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau.

Wilder’s visit may have been brief, but his bond with Wooster was strong. Writing to then-President Howard Lowry shortly after leaving town, he thanked him for “an Ohio college and for the opportunity you gave me to move around in it; for a re-dipping into a series of American ways and joys and hopes and strains and reminders that I could not have obtained in any other way... I feel a deep affection for Wooster, and if you ever get any flagging of heart about the college or your evident mission in it — write me! I’ll tell you some home truths! I’ll sound the clarion! That right, and that privilege you put into my hands, publicly. My deep regard to Wooster.”

Special Collections, in Andrews Library, holds a selection of letters and postcards that Wilder wrote to Lowry and Craig. Circulation cards from books that Wilder checked out proved that he researched his commencement address thoroughly. — Emily Ryan ’05