Building Names

Colorado College honors eight distinguished former students by bestowing their names on residential buildings in the new East Campus housing community. These individuals — ranging from figure skater Peggy Fleming, to Nobel Laureate James Heckman, to Frederick Roberts, the first African American elected to the California State Legislature — represent a broad array of fields, including academic, art, government, military, and mountaineering.

The East Campus housing community, which houses 154 students in eight residential buildings, opened at the start of the 2017-18 academic year. The new campus housing development, located on the southeast corner of Nevada Avenue and Uintah Street, includes a community center and a combination of cottages, small houses, and apartments. These residences face an outdoor common area, helping to promote a sense of neighborhood and community.

The naming dedication was held during CC’s Family and Friends Weekend, Oct. 6-8, 2017.

President Jill Tiefenthaler states, “Naming the buildings of this new student housing community for distinguished former students highlights the college’s rich history and connects today’s students to the generations of accomplished alumni who have lived and studied on the Colorado College campus.”

The Colorado College honorees are, in alphabetical order:

• Marcellus H. Chiles
  Marcellus Chiles is Colorado College’s only Medal of Honor recipient. Born in Arkansas and raised in Denver, Marcellus Chiles was a student at Colorado College when World War I began. In 1917, he was appointed a second lieutenant in the United States Army. In 1918, four days after being promoted to captain, Chiles oversaw an attack against a large German force, leading his men through a waist-deep stream despite intense machine gunfire. Wounded during the water crossing, Chiles continued to lead his troops, before turning over command and being evacuated to a hospital where he died two days later. For his bravery, Chiles was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, the nation’s highest military honor.

• Marian Williams Clarke
  Marian Williams Clarke was the first CC graduate, and among the first 20 women nationally, to be elected to federal office. From 1933 to 1935, she served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. Clarke graduated from Colorado College in 1902 and is also recognized as one of the first women graduates of the college. A talented writer, Clarke worked for three years as a reporter for a Colorado Springs newspaper before moving to New York. In 1933, following the death of her husband, John Davenport Clarke, she was elected to Congress to fill his seat. She did not run for re-election. After serving her term, Clarke remained active in New York politics, serving as an alternate to the 1936 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Clarke lived in New York until her death in 1953.

• Albert R. Ellingwood
  Albert Ellingwood was the college’s first Rhodes Scholar and an accomplished mountaineer. Following his graduation from Colorado College in 1910, Ellingwood attended Merton College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. Ellingwood taught political science at Colorado College from 1914 to 1919, before returning to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He then continued his academic career, first, as a professor of political science at Lake Forest College and, later, at Northwestern University. Ellingwood is also recognized as one of the top mountain climbers in Colorado history. He climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners (becoming the third person to do so), and made first ascents on now classic routes, including the south ridge of Maroon Peak in 1919 and the Ellington Arete on the Crestone Needle in 1925. His most famed first ascent was the Lizard Head San Juans in 1920, which is still considered one of Colorado’s most difficult peaks to summit. He died in 1934.

• Peggy Gale Fleming
  Peggy Fleming, who dominated women’s figure skating from 1966 to 1968, attended Colorado College in the late 1960s. She won five U.S. titles, three world titles, and a gold medal in ladies’ singles in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France. Fleming’s achievement in Grenoble was particularly significant, as she won the only gold medal for the U.S. Olympic team in the 1968 Winter Games. Following her Olympic championship, Fleming became one of the first figure skaters to build a professional skating career. After headlining five NBC specials and various other television shows, Fleming became a successful television commentator, working for ABC throughout the 1990’s. In 1997, Sports Illustrated honored Peggy Fleming as one of seven 20^th century athletes who had a profound impact on their sport. In June 1970, Fleming married Greg Jenkins, a 1967 graduate of Colorado College. The couple currently resides in Colorado.

• Glenna Maxey Goodacre
  Internationally recognized artist Glenna Goodacre graduated from CC in 1961. She is best known for designing the obverse of the Sacagawea dollar and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, which was installed in Washington, D.C. in 1993. Goodacre’s art appears in public, private, municipal, and museum collections throughout the U.S. She was selected in 1997 as sculptor for the monumental Irish Memorial in Philadelphia and, in 1998, her 8-foot standing portrait of Ronald Reagan was unveiled at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. In 2004, her bronze portrait of West Point Coach Colonel Earl “Red” Blaik was dedicated at the National College Football Hall of Fame. In 2004, Goodacre also designed the Children’s Medal of Honor awarded to then-First Lady Laura Bush in Dallas. In 1994, she received an honorary degree from Colorado College. In 2008, Goodacre was honored by her home state as a “Notable New Mexican.” Goodacre works from her Santa Fe studio. She and her husband, Mike Schmidt, currently also reside in Santa Fe.

• James Joseph Heckman
  Jim Heckman is Colorado College’s only Nobel laureate. Born in Chicago, Heckman received his B.A. in mathematics from Colorado College in 1965 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1971. He served as an assistant professor at Columbia University before moving to the University of Chicago in 1973, where he is currently the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and director of the Center for the Economics of Human Development. Heckman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, and has received numerous honorary degrees and awards. Heckman is noted for his contributions to labor economics, and the microeconomics of diversity and heterogeneity. His innovations in these areas garnered him the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2000. He received an honorary degree from Colorado College in 2001. Professor Heckman’s recent research focuses on inequality, skill formation, and social mobility, with a special emphasis on the economics of early childhood. He and his wife, Lynne, reside outside of Chicago.

• Frederick M. Roberts
  In 1918, Frederick Roberts became the first African American elected to the California State Legislature. He graduated from Colorado College in 1906, the college’s first African American graduate. As a student, Roberts was a member of CC’s 1905 undefeated football team and, along with teammate Charles Jackson, they were the first African Americans to compete in Colorado intercollegiate athletics. Following graduation, Roberts started an African American newspaper in Colorado Springs called The Light. In 1912, returning to his hometown of Los Angeles, he founded The New Age Dispatch newspaper, which he edited until 1948. Roberts won election to the state legislature in 1918 and served for 16 years. While in office, Roberts sponsored legislation to establish the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and proposed civil rights measures. The City of Los Angeles dedicated the Fredrick M. Roberts Park in his memory, following his death in 1952.

• Ken Salazar
  Ken Salazar is Colorado College’s first U.S. senator and first presidential cabinet member, as the nation’s secretary of the interior from 2009 to 2013. He graduated from Colorado College in 1977 before attending law school at the University of Michigan. Salazar started his career in private practice but soon moved into public service. He served as chief legal counsel to Colorado Governor Roy Romer from 1986 to 1990, and was then appointed as director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, a cabinet position. He went on to serve two terms as state attorney general. In 2005, Salazar was elected a U.S. senator from Colorado and served until 2009, when President Obama appointed him the 50th United States secretary of the interior. Salazar has received an honorary degree from Colorado College (1993) and is an honorary trustee. He and his wife, Hope Hernandez-Salazar, reside in Denver, where he is currently a partner at the international law firm WilmerHale.

In addition, the development’s community center and courtyard also bear the names of two prominent CC alumni.

The Hybl Community Center is named in honor of William J. Hybl ’64, P’91, and the Hershey Courtyard is named in honor of Laura Ann Hershey ’83. The nearly 7,000-square-foot Hybl Community Center, located on the south end of the new East Campus Housing Community, features a 1,700-square-foot common room, second-floor terrace facing Pikes Peak, 16.8-kilowatt solar array, laundry facilities, classroom, and office for a residential life staff member.

The Hershey Courtyard, in the center of the housing community and accessed by all eight residence halls and the community center, features a large, open green space, outdoor communal grill, plenty of bike racks, and seating areas.