Stock market crashes as campaign ends

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Published: October 28, 2009

UB undertook two capital campaigns during the 1920s. In October 1920, more than 24,000 donors pledged $5 million over the course of 10 days, an accomplishment considered at the time to be unparalleled in American higher education. Among the Immediate benefits of the campaign was the purchase of the site of the South Campus, which put the university in a position to attract Samuel P. Capen to Buffalo as UB’s first full-time chancellor.

The 1920 campaign also provided the institution with firmer financial footing by funding UB’s first endowment, which, in turn, helped establish the university as “a permanent institution of higher learning and intellectual leadership.” With the future of the recently established College of Arts and Sciences now secure, young people in the region had new educational opportunities. The Buffalo community had given the university a huge vote of confidence.

Like the 1920 capital campaign, the one in 1929 was staffed entirely with volunteers led by Buffalo attorney and UB Council Chair Walter P. Cooke. Eight committees chaired by prominent citizens were established to carry out the campaign to solicit pledges throughout all areas of the community. More than 32,600 donors pledged more than $5.4 million during the 10-day campaign. Likened to a “band of crusaders,” the volunteers were provided with a campaign songbook and enjoyed a grand outdoor pageant presenting the history of UB.

The campaign’s success was dampened when 80 years ago on the day the campaign was scheduled to conclude—Oct. 29, 1929—the country experienced the tumultuous stock market crash triggering the Great Depression, an event that hampered the ability of some to honor their pledges. In spite of the country’s financial calamity, the 1929 campaign expanded the endowment, supported enhancements to the physical facility and enabled Capen to continue attracting outstanding young faculty.

Among the lasting results of the campaign was the establishment of the Melodia E. Jones Chair in French. Endowed by Mrs. Jones, the chair is reserved for natives of France with “high scholastic attainments.” For 80 years, the Jones chair endowment has brought outstanding French scholars to campus. The most recognized result of the 1929 campaign came from the $500,000 gift of Thomas B. Lockwood and his wife, Marion Birge Lockwood, for the construction of a library in memory of their fathers, Daniel N. Lockwood and George K. Birge. After serving as UB’s main library for more than 40 years, the original Lockwood Memorial Library on the South Campus is now known as Charles D. Abbott Hall and serves as the home of the Health Sciences Library.

Both campaigns realized their primary goals of improving opportunities for all of “Buffalo’s boys and girls.”

—John Edens, University Archives