Phyllis Hall pays tribute to past USU first ladies
Utah State University first lady Phyllis Hall reviewed the lives and contribution of past first ladies in a presentation hosted by the Friends of USU Libraries.
Friday, community members gathered for a free presentation in the Merrill Library. Only three students were present.
Mary Palmer, board member of the Friends of USU Libraries, said, “Phyllis Hall has researched the wives of past USU presidents from when USU was known as the Agricultural College of Utah in 1890 to 2002.”
Hall said, “It’s a topic I find important to the university and personally interesting to me.”
Her research and lecture cover 113 years, and to help put events into historical context, she referred to Ross Peterson’s book “A History of Cache County.”
“[The position as president’s wife] is one without a job description or procedures manual. So like myself, these women were no doubt learning as they went,” Hall said.
She explained that she started her research in Special Collections of the Merrill Library. She used all the resources there, including first lady Alice Chase’s book “A Story of a House.”
“I discovered a remarkable group of women who had been thrust into this pretty unique position,” she said. “For some of the women, a lot was known, and for others there was very little information.”
Hall has compiled a booklet that, like her lecture, shares what information she found about 12 of her 13 predecessors.
For example, “The university’s second first lady, Annie Maria Pettegrew Paul, chose not to live on campus with her family,” she said.
Some first ladies participated in polygamist marriages, and many of them raised large families.
Leah Eudora Dunford Widtsoe spoke often on health and nutrition. Phebe Almira Nebeker Peterson organized the Dames Club for wives of married students. Many of the university’s first ladies were active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many were teachers.
President Kermit L. Hall said, “It’s the first time the lives of these wives have been put into one book to convey what happened to each one of them.”
Phyllis said, “When the Agricultural College Women’s Club was considering how to celebrate its 100th anniversary, I offered to do some research on the presidents’ wives.”
The president commented that his wife worked on her research, adding on as she went, for about eight months.
Phyllis has presented the lecture on two other occasions, and it is possible she will do it again in the future.
“It has been really gratifying that others in the community have been interested in it,” she said.
“Tonight was historical,” the president said. “You realize the important role the wives have played in the life of the institution. One of the clear parts of this effort is that it’s a team sport. It is an important and time-consuming role.
“One of the virtues of this particular series is that it is a great reminder to students that there are productive people on campus writing books, generating ideas and discussing issues.
“It’s a way of getting everyone to appreciate that there is a community of scholarship and intellectual engagement and involvement,” he said.
Michael Shiverdecker, a senior majoring in journalism, said, “I never realized that USU has such a valuable history or that so many different people came in to share their expertise and make the university become the great institution of learning it is today.”
Afton Tew, retired director of international students, said, “I knew several presidents’ wives personally and had the opportunity to work with first lady Alice Chase in Bolivia, so the minute I read [the event] in the paper, I wrote it down.”
–julia@cc.usu.edu