Groundbreaking at Hampshire College

Hampshire's official groundbreaking occurred on September 24, 1968.

In the photo, from left to right: Franklin Patterson, President of Hampshire College; Harold F. Johnson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Hampshire College; Thomas Mendenhall, President of Smith College; Calvin Plimpton, President of Amherst College; John W. Lederle, President of the Univ. of Mass.; Richard Gettell, President of Mount Holyoke College.

Statement by Harold F. Johnson at Groundbreaking
I tend to think of this occasion as a part of the agricultural process--the breaking of the ground--the sowing of the seed--the cultivation of the crop--and the harvest. However, the harvest will not be the splendid buildings, which will rise from these foundations. Those will be but the stalks that bear the grain. The harvest will be the young people, who on this ground will grow in stature and mature into well-formed, well-rounded human beings.

As was said on another occasion--the world will little note nor long remember what we say or do here--but I believe that the procession of young men and women, who are nurtured on this ground and who--year after year--move out from here into the stream of life--truly educated through the ministrations of Franklin Patterson and his associates and their successors--young people with their faculties aroused and their imaginations touched--will be a beneficent influence on the life of this country and of the world.