One day in 1966 Gardner McFall's life changed forever.Though it has been 43 years, she can vividly recall the moment as if she were living it now:
She is 14 years old. She is at school in Jacksonville,Fla., leaving gym, rushing to her next class. She spots her mother and her mother's friend walking toward her on a pleasantly-warm-for-December day.Surprised and excited that her mother has come to visit her at school, she throws her arms around her.
'Why are you here?' McFall asks.
Her mom responds: "We've come to get you because your father is missing." [Read more...]
Founder's Day originated when the students at Wheaton Female Seminary gathered each year to bring roses to the home of Eliza Baylies Wheaton on her birthday. That home was the building across the street from Mary Lyon Hall, which now serves as the president's residence, and it was from there that Mrs. Wheaton carefully oversaw the development of the educational institution she had, in 1834, convinced her father-in-law, Judge Laban Wheaton,to found as a memorial to his recently deceased daughter, Elizabeth Wheaton Strong. After Mrs. Wheaton's death in 1905, what came then to be known as Founder's Day continued as an all-day celebration each fall on the Saturday closest to Mrs. Wheaton's birthday, attendance at which was required of all members of the Wheaton community. In time the ceremony was shortened to an approximately two-hour event held in the chapel, coinciding with the annual Alumnae Day festivities in the fall. 
Hoop rolling. Dimple diving. Political speak-outs. For most of Wheaton's history, the college green known as the Dimple has been the hub of campus life. And if the trees could talk, oh, the stories they would tell.
