In pursuing this letters project, I’m constantly trying to
unearth the back story that makes the letters more interesting. And because the
letters are only one side of a conversation, I sometimes have to search a little to
make sense of the conversation.
In several of the recent letters, George has commented on
Noel’s school work and grades. Luckily, Noel left us some clues on those subjects in some of the papers he
saved.
Some of those papers help paint the picture of the steps Noel
took to attend college in the United States. More of those papers show how he
did when he actually got to college. In the next two posts I will try to
paint some of this back story, and then fill in the other side of the
conversation.
~~~
If I were writing Noel's story as a novel, there are a couple moments that strike me as being a great place to start the book.
Noel identified one of those moments himself
when he wrote, later in his life, about his relationship with his former girlfriend, Kath Lilford:
“On June 19, 1931 the Hughes Family together with Kathleen
gathered at Spencer Street Railroad Station to bid Noel ‘God Speed’ and a
successful college future. Even now in 1986, I can still visualize the group,
and Kath in particular, standing there as the train pulled out of the station.”
Another place to start the story would be only six days prior to
that departure, 13 June 1931, when Noel received word that he had officially been accepted
into the YMCA Training College in Chicago.
It's the telegram that seemingly set everything in motion: "HUGHES ADMITTED UNCLASSIFIED STUDENT".
The time up to that event must have been filled with tremendous uncertainty. A letter from the YMCA
acknowledging Noel's resignation from his position there is dated 10 June 1931, before the confirmation telegram even arrives, so there might have been an indication that the acceptance was coming. Or the letter is dated wrong.
Regardless, his
immigration visa in his passport is dated 15 June 1931, and
George's first letter is dated 19 June 1931, the same day Noel boarded a train for Sydney.
All this paints a picture of a very stressful and hasty time planning a
life-changing decision to travel half way around the world to attend
college. What would Noel
have done if he hadn’t been accepted? Would he have made the journey to attend
the World YMCA conferences in Toronto and Cleveland anyway, and then returned
home? Would he have attended university in Melbourne and pursued a career in
the YMCA? Would he have married Kath Lilford?
~~~
Why did Noel choose to go to school in Chicago?
From the letters, it’s apparent that some Australians who
were serious about a career in the YMCA sought training in the United States.
As best as I can tell from the letters and a little online
research, there were two YMCA training colleges in the United States that the
YMCAs in Australia tended to use. One was in Chicago
(The Young Men’s Christian Association
College, later George Williams College, and today
part of Aurora University) and the other in Springfield, Mass.
(
Springfield College).
"In 1890, when full-time YMCA work was becoming professional, requiring more intensive
training, a year-round 'Training School' was established under the same
leadership. The new school was located in Chicago, Illinois and was greatly
influenced in its human service mission by the social and educational changes
going on in that rapidly growing, industrial city.
"While evangelism and 'Christian work' was clearly at the heart of both the YMCA and the training
school, the work of the association was never dissociated from a social service
purpose. The service mission was one of sensitivity to problematic social
situations young men faced as they migrated from the rural families and
communities to an urban industrial environment."
If Noel was intent on pursuing a career as a YMCA secretary, like his father, the two training colleges in the United States seemed like good options. But the Melbourne YMCA experience with Springfield College seems much stronger.
Ivor Burge, a colleague of Noel's at the YMCA of Melbourne, had just
returned from Springfield a few years prior.
“We have had good word from
Dr. Doggett, concerning the four Australians at Springfield. He writes in the
highest terms of the four men -- Evans, McRae, Jones and Laing, and of course
asks for more. I think you have got to do your share in building up a tradition
in connection with the Chicago Y College. Now that Glover and yourself are in
the student body, it is up to you to endeavor to secure the interest of other
men so that the number at Chicago may be increased.”
With such a strong existing relationship between the YMCAs
in Australia and Springfield College, I’m not sure why Noel chose to attend
school in Chicago. Perhaps it was because of Clive and May Glover and the fact
that Clive was studying in Chicago. I haven’t determined the relationship the
Hughes family had with the Glover family, but based on passing references in
the letters, there seems to be a family friendship, and the Glovers were a tremendous help to Noel on his arrival.
So, that’s the best I can determine at the moment as to why
Noel chose Chicago.
~~~
Noel also left us some clues as to what he had to do to get accepted into
the college.
 |
A copy of a letter from Melbourne High School
that Noel used in his admission packet to college. |
Noel was not an exceptional student in high school.
According to a letter of reference from
Melbourne High School, he achieved a
Sub-Intermediate rating on his completion of school.
In the unsigned copy of a letter from someone at Melbourne
High School, that person explains, “The standards are – Sub-Intermediate,
Intermediate, and Leaving Certificate, in that order, a pass at Leaving
qualifying for entrance to the University.”
The Australian high school tradition and the U.S. college
admissions didn’t even seem to speak a common language when it came to
evaluating students and their academic achievements, and translation had to be
done.
“This is the nearest approximation I can make to your system
of ‘credits’,” writes the Melbourne High School contact.
It appears that Noel only had 2 years of high school, which
may have been fairly normal at that time. I’m not sure. But it seems short,
especially for someone who was college bound. The family moved from New Zealand
to Melbourne in March 1924. Noel would have been 14 years old. He attended
Melbourne High School in 1924 and 1925, which means he would have been 16 at
his completion.
According to his recommendations from the Melbourne YMCA, he
worked with the YMCA for over four years before he left for the United States
in 1931. So he started that affiliation probably in 1926.
 |
| Letter No. 1 from Stott's Business College |
He attended Stott’s Business College in Melbourne 1926-27,
where he studied bookkeeping, shorthand and typing. According to his reference
letter from CH Holmes, the principal of the college: “I might mention that we
always found Hughes to be a well conducted boy, and well liked by both his
fellow students and teachers.”
In 1931 he started studying with George Taylor & Staff.
According to the letter from Geo. Taylor: Noel “has been doing revisionary work
with us during the current year in Arithmetic, Algebra, History, Geography, and
English with a view to attaining the Intermediate standard of the Melbourne
University in these subjects.”
 |
| Letter No. 2 from Stott's Business College |
The letter from Stott’s Business College is dated 5 Feb 1931
and addressed specifically to the Chicago Y College. The letters from Melbourne
High School and George Taylor & Staff are both dated in April 1931.
It’s clear Noel started exploring the decision to go to
Chicago by early 1931, but he also might have had an alternate plan to pursue
admission to Melbourne University.
 |
| Letter from George Taylor & Associates |
But even though Noel was accepted to the Chicago YMCA
Training College, there was still a lot of uncertainty about his education when
he left for the United States. On his arrival he had to take an entrance exam. In
George’s letters to Noel as Noel is making his journey to Chicago, George frequently
reminds Noel to study for that exam.
“I have not written
to the College authorities regarding yourself, because I felt that it was not
right for me to use my position in any way to secure additional recognition for
you. I will, however, write them shortly. By now you will have had your
entrance status determined, and your plans laid out for your school work.”
 |
| Chicago Y College Certificate of Admission |
How did Noel do with his entrance exam? It was
determined that he lacked one year of high school credit, so his scholarship
was conditional on him completing four units of high school work within two
years.
In Letter No. 29, George makes a very telling remark in
response to Noel’s advice to his little sisters:
“I am rather amused at your
reference to ‘make them study’. I wish to goodness I could have drummed the
same thing into your head when you were here! I tried hard to get you to
realise that you were taking things far too easily, and trusting to pot luck to
get through on the American end. Now you realise how essential it is to have
adequate preparation so as to get advanced standing.”
~~~
All this leaves me wondering:
Can anyone offer insight into how the high school certification program in Melbourne might have worked when Noel attended in 1925? What does it mean to be Sub-Intermediate? To finish when you are 16?
How does one apply to a college half way around the world when mail moves at the speed of a ship?
And do I have to go through the University of Minnesota Libraries to view a Chicago Y College Catalog from 1931?
Coming soon: Noel's coursework and grades
