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Paul H. Appleby, journalist, public servant, and educator was born on a farm in Greene County, Missouri in 1891. The son of a minister, his family moved frequently, living in Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa. He attended high school in Newton, Iowa and graduated from Grinnell College in 1913. While at Grinnell, he met his wife Ruth (class of 1913). After graduating from Grinnell College, Paul H. Appleby went to the state of Washington and worked on a fruit farm for a short time. He then went on to publish weekly newspapers in Montana, Minnesota, and Iowa. Paul was the editor of Iowa Magazine in Waterloo from 1920 to 1924. The four years following that saw him as an editorial writer for the Des Moines Register and Tribune. In 1928 he moved to Virginia and published the News-Journal in Radford and the News Messenger in Christiansburg. In 1933, Paul H. Appleby became Assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace. By 1940 he was the Undersecretary of Agriculture and in 1944 he became Assistant Director of the Budget for the United States. He left Washington DC to work for the radio station KIRO, returned to Washington DC and left again, this time to become the dean of Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He made several trips to India as a consultant with the Ford Foundation and in 1955 returned to political life by serving as Budget Director for the State of New York. He retired in 1957, but remained active in his role as a consultant to India and published several articles. 

Paul and Ruth Appleby had three children and they also all attended Grinnell College: Margaret Matilda Appleby, class of 1939, Mary Ellen Appleby class of 1942 (married John E. Sarbaugh, class of 1941) and Loring Thomas Appleby class of 1949 (married Doris Lucille Chambers, class of 1952). Loring and Doris’s son, Paul Harry Appleby, graduated from Grinnell College in 1974.

Many of Paul’s siblings also attended Grinnell—Erma Appleby graduated in 1908, Frank B. Appleby graduated in 1916 (married Jerene C. Reaver ex-1916) and Velma Appleby graduated in 1922. One other sister, Una Appleby Stewart was three years older than Paul and went to Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, but was an Instructor in Speech at Grinnell College during 1919-1921. Please also see the family tree at the end of this finding aid.

Reverend Loren Foster Berry of Ottumwa, IA was a trustee of Grinnell College from 1894 until his death in 1900. He moved from Ottumwa, IA to Chicago, IL in the last year of his life. After his death, his wife taught Mathematics at the Grinnell Academy and was the Dean of Ladies until 1906.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College in 1908 and the Ph. D. from Clark University in 1911, Louis Hartson taught psychology at Grinnell College 1911-1923 and at Oberlin 1923-52. He recorded his memories of these years in 1973 and 1973. This collection consists of the 1976 record of his Grinnell experiences; the first typescript was edited and prepared by Margaret Kiesel, a Grinnell graduate and family friend. A bound copy of Memoirs 1904-19 and Reminiscences and Records [1905-69], which includes a bibliography of Hartson’s writings, is in the College Archives.

Materials owned by James Cunningham and his father. For sale in Cunningham's Drug Store in downtown Grinnell, Iowa.

George T. McJimsey graduated from Grinnell College in 1958 with honors in History and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to receive a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to study at Columbia University and received his doctorate in American history from the University of Wisconsin. He taught history at Iowa State University between 1965 and 2002, occasionally returning to Grinnell to lecture.

He has written four books including a biography of Grinnell alumnus Harry Hopkins ’12. That book, Harry Hopkins: Defender of the Poor and Champion of Democracy, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. This collection contains the collected materials from which McJimsey drew to write his book.

Biographical Note on Harry Hopkins: Harry Lloyd Hopkins’ political career, which spanned from 1913 to 1946, began a long ways from either New York City or Washington D.C. Hopkins was born in Sioux City, Iowa on August 17, 1890 to David Aldona and Anna Pickett Hopkins, the fourth of five children. The family settled in Grinnell, Iowa in 1901 for the education opportunities that the college town would afford the Hopkins’ children. While at Grinnell College from 1908-1912, Hopkins would excel in basketball, baseball and tennis, work for the YMCA, be involved in student government and graduate cum laude in 1912, among other achievements. Studying history and political science, Hopkins was deeply affected by the Social Gospel movement and followed Professor Jesse Macy as the intellectual heir of George A. Gates and George D. Herron.

After graduating from Grinnell College, Hopkins began a career in social work that lasted until 1933. Beginning in New York City and working with the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor Hopkins was soon appointed as executive secretary of the Bureau of Child Welfare in 1915. Over the next eighteen years, Hopkins would work with the American Red Cross and the New York Tuberculosis Association, draft a charter for the American Association of Social Workers (1923), and eventually find himself as administrator for Roosevelt’s’ Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) in 1933 as the Great Depression took hold.

Following Roosevelt’s election to the Presidency, he called Hopkins to Washington to work as the Federal Relief Administrator. In this capacity, Hopkins undertook the relief of poverty with a commitment to employment created by the government. He also embedded New Deal policy with his Social Gospel values and dedication to social justice. Among his significant contributions are the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civil Works Administration (CWA). He also served as Secretary of Commerce for one year starting in 1938.

World War II saw a fundamental shift in Hopkins’ role within the Roosevelt government. From 1940 to 1945 Hopkins served as Roosevelt’s’ Personal Representative and Advisor. Hopkins traveled to both England and Russia during WWII to ascertain their material needs and played a crucial role in the passage of the Lend-ease Bill in the spring of 1941. He also accompanied the President to the Teheran Conference in 1943 and the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Hopkins had maintained U.S. - British and U.S. - Soviet relations throughout the war.

When Roosevelt died two months later, Hopkins retired from government service exhausted and ill. He received the Distinguished Service Medal from President Harry S. Truman in September 1945 for his selfless service. The severe strain the war effort put on Hopkins’ chronically poor health was too much for Harry to recover from, as he had many times before. Hopkins died on January 29, 1946.

George Pinne was a dermatologist and rare book collector from Omaha, Nebraska. Upon his death in 1969 most of his rare books and autograph collections were donated to Grinnell College.

Ric MacDowell attended Grinnell College from 1964 -1968. After his graduation, MacDowell worked for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). In 1997, he received the Joe Wall Alumni Service Award.

Born to a Quaker family in Indiana, Macy was raised on a farm near Lynnville, Iowa. At age 17 he walked fifteen miles across the prairie to enter Grinnell College. He remained associated with the college for the remainder of his life as a tutor, principal of the Academy, then as a respected professor. From 1885 to his retirement in 1912, he devoted himself to teaching political science and writing many books on political, social, religious, and international subjects. After retiring from Grinnell he travelled abroad more extensively and formed close associations with such people as James Bryce and George Bernard Shaw.