Clara Booth Byrd: Alumnae Secretary

Clara Booth Byrd said it best when she described her role as alumnae secretary:

"My great desire is to do all in my power to hold the alumnae close to the college, keeping their shoulders to the wheel and doing everything possible to stand by and support our leaders in their task of building a great educational institution on this campus." 

"Perhaps the greatest thing we can do for our college is to build good will - good will among the alumnae and good will among the people at large.  I think it doesn't matter very much whether that good will is expressed through gifts of money for scholarships or other purposes, or through work with our representatives in the Legislature, or through interesting the best students to apply for admission, or simply through keeping up with what is going on and passing the good word to our friends - the important thing is that we express this thing of good will."

Clara Booth Byrd

Miss Byrd first came to the State Normal and Industrial College (now UNCG) in 1908 as a student.  In July 1913, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. After entering the college, she quickly became involved in the administration.  She taught classes for the Commercial Department (1909-1922) under E.J. Forney and worked as an assistant to the college treasurer (1916-1922).

In 1922, Miss Byrd embarked on a new path at the college.  She became the Alumnae Secretary and editor for the Alumae News.  Over the next 25 years, Miss Byrd would revolutionize the role of the Alumnae Secretary, increasing the quality and consistency of documentation on the college's graduates and revamping the alumni publication.  She established a office to organize and hold alumnae records and serve as a station for local clubs and associations.  Miss Byrd was heavily involved in alumni and community organizations, serving as vice president of the American Alumni Council, first vice president and director of institutes for the North Carolina Federation of Women's Clubs, and editor for the Council of Women in Education.  She was also a member of the Guilford Battle Chapter of the DAR, the Historical Museum, Friends of the Public Library, the YWCA, and other local church societies. 

Her crowning achievement as Alumae Secretary was realized with the opening of the Alumnae House (now Alumni House) in 1937.  The building was designed by Penrose V. Stout of Bronxville, New York, and modeled after Homewood in Baltimore, Maryland.  Miss Byrd, along with President Foust, worked tirelessly to solicit donations from alumni and secure a appropriations from the North Carolina Legislature.  The Great Depression temporarily halted plans for construction, but with the aid of WPA workers, the building become reality.

Miss Byrd on the steps of the Alumnae House

In 1947, Miss Byrd resigned from her position at the college, but she continued to be an active member of the community.  She traveled throughout state, speaking to clubs and associations on various topics.  She became the founder and first president of the Historical Book Club, where she served for eighteen years (1947-1965).  During the late 1960s, she served as the president of the Friends of the Walter Clinton Jackson Library (now Friends of the University Libraries.

Miss Byrd passed away on May 22, 1985.  Her memorial was held at the Alumni House.

Like a Duck to Water: Spotlight on the Military Life of Alumna Geraldine Cox

Geraldine Cox (1918 - 1988) was a small town girl from Washington, North Carolina, but she accomplished a great deal during her multiple careers. Cox entered the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG) in 1935 and earned her degree in English four years later. Directly after graduation, with plans to become a librarian, she enrolled in the School of Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her career as a librarian took her as far afield as Salt Lake City, where she worked at the University of Utah. Letters home spoke of her enjoyment of the library work, skiing lessons on the weekend, and her interest in Red Cross work.

Geraldine Cox, US WAAC

The prior year of her life had seen many changes. Not only had she moved across the country in search of a new career, but the United States had entered World War II. Perhaps, it was her involvement with the Red Cross that led her to enlist in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) only a month after it was formed as the women’s branch of the United States Army. Joining the WAACs in the summer of 1942, she went through training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and was later transferred to Daytona, Florida, where she worked as a training instructor in the Motor Transportation Division. Cox test drove tanks and jeeps, and instructed other WAACs how to drive and care for large Army trucks. She was amazed that, in many cases, the smaller, frailer women made the best drivers.

Periodically, she wrote Miss Clara Byrd, the Alumnae Secretary at Woman’s College, to keep her up-to -date about her activities. One note expressed how well-suited she was to military life and compared her Army training to her college experiences. She wrote honestly of her belief that her academic education had fallen short. She believed that the applicable education and training that she received in the Army better prepared her for life’s challenges than a liberal education focusing on “manners and culture,” both integral parts of a 1930s woman’s education. Her letter even commented that “there’s much in the education and handling of women that educators could learn to their profit from the Army.” Perhaps reflecting her feelings about her past college experiences, she found in the Army an impartial environment, where “neither money, social position, or graces count.” 

Senior Photograph and Notation from the 1939 Pine Needles Yearbook

While in Florida, she sent a letter to Miss Byrd describing her experience in the WAACs. She found it amusing that people believed that women could not thrive in the military life. She reported quite the contrary, writing that “Girls seem to take to the life like ducks to water!” She described her fellow WAACs working long hours at tedious and difficult jobs, with little rewards. Sometimes working over forty hours per week without overtime, Cox reported that they “belonged to Uncle Sam twenty-four hours a day, including Sunday!” She especially marveled at the positive attitudes and fun-loving spirits of her comrades. Proudly, she informed Miss Byrd that the WAACs were well respected by the men, who seemed surprised that the women could keep up with them. Cox closed her letter by stating that even with the hard work and long hours, “you won’t find a harder working or happier bunch of women in the world than WAACs.”

 Cox later attended Officer Training School, gaining the rank of First Lieutenant, and spent the last years of the war as a recruiter for the Army Airs Forces in Minneapolis, Minnesota and at an air field at a WAAC Detachment in Denver, Colorado. Like many women, she did not remain in the Army after the war. She left the services in 1946 and returned to her work as a cataloger in the library at the University of Utah and spent her later life, once again, in the role of a teacher in Bath, North Carolina.