Herman B Wells

Herman B Wells was born on June 7, 1902, in Jamestown, Boone County, Indiana. He was the only child of Joseph Granville Wells, a bank cashier and a former teacher and elementary school principal, and Anna Bernice (Harting) Wells, a former teacher.[4] Herman was not given a middle name, only the letter "B" not followed by a period. (A family tradition on his mother's side had middle names beginning with that letter, but Wells' parents could not agree on a middle name for him.[5]) Wells's father committed suicide in 1948; his mother died in 1973.[6][7]

Wells grew up in Jamestown, attended a local Methodist church, and played alto horn in the Jamestown Boys' Band.[5][8] In 1917, the family moved to Lebanon, Indiana, the seat of government for Boone County, when Joseph was appointed deputy county treasurer. After school and on Saturdays, Herman helped out at a local bank where his father worked.[9]

Wells graduated from Lebanon High School in 1920 and was voted "Funniest" and "Best All-Around Boy" his senior year.[10] Wells served as treasurer for the high school's yearbook and was involved in the school's newspaper, theater productions, and various fundraisers.[9] After graduation Wells worked at a bank in nearby Whitestown, Indiana, to earn money for college. Although Wells's parents were supportive of his desire to continue his education, they had limited financial resources to pay for his college tuition and other expenses.[4]

Wells initially enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1920, but transferred to Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1921 at the beginning of his sophomore year. Although his father objected to the move because Illinois had a strong business school, Wells convinced his father that the transfer to IU would be a good idea, especially since he intended to work in Indiana after graduation and already had friends at IU. Wells also pointed out that the connections he developed at IU would be useful to his future career.[5][11] In his autobiography, Being Lucky: Reminiscences and Reflections (1980), Wells described his early impressions of IU: "It was a simple place in those days, with not yet three thousand students, but it had great charm and appeal for me."[12]

Wells was active in campus life as an IU undergraduate, he pledged Sigma Nu fraternity, lived in its chapter house at 322 East Kirkwood, and became involved in campus activities. Wells served as the fraternity chapter's treasurer and was elected as his fraternity chapter's president (eminent commander) in his senior year. He was also treasurer of IU's Union Board, a student organization established in 1909.[5][13] In addition, Wells played in IU's band and frequently visited the Book Nook, a local hangout that he described as "a remarkably fertile cultural and political breeding place in the manner of the famous English coffee houses."[14] Wells earned a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce (business) in 1924.[15]

After college graduation Wells spent the next two years (1924–26) working as an assistant bank cashier at the First National Bank of Lebanon, Indiana, where his father worked as a cashier, and living at home with his parents, before continuing his education at IU Bloomington. Wells earned Master of Arts degree in economics from IU in 1927. His master's thesis, "Service Charges for Small or So-Called Country Banks," was published in The Hoosier Banker in 1927.[5][16][17] Wells began doctoral studies in economics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, but his schooling ended in 1928, when he took a job with the Indiana Bankers Association.[18]

In 1928 Wells left his graduate studies at Wisconsin to take a job as a field secretary for the Indiana Bankers Association, where he remained until 1931.[5] As part of his work at the IBA, Wells travelled throughout Indiana visiting local banks, attending meetings, and working closely with bankers to conduct research on the history of Indiana's financial institutions, banking regulations, and the causes of bank failures. He also wrote a monthly column, "Hoosier Highways," for The Hoosier Banker, the IBA's journal.[17][19]

In addition to working for the IBA, Wells became an instructor in IU's Department of Economics and Sociology in 1930. By 1931 Wells had become the director of research for the state government's Study Commission for Indiana Financial Institutions, in addition to his jobs at the IBA and IU. Wells was the main author of the commission's report that recommended far-reaching reforms to Indiana's financial regulations and policies, many of which were adopted by the Indiana General Assembly in 1933 had a major impact on the state's banking laws.[5][20][21]

Wells established a home base at Woodburn House, a private residence he leased on North College Avenue in Bloomington, during the early years of his career. He also spent time in Indianapolis, frequently staying at the Claypool Hotel or the Indianapolis Athletic Club, and at Nashville in Brown County, Indiana.[22][23][24]

In 1933 Wells took a two-year leave of absence from his appointment as an assistant professor at IU. Between 1933 and 1935, when he returned to IU, Wells worked three full-time jobs.[16] He was secretary of the Indiana Commission for Financial Institutions, as well as a bank supervisor, Division of Banks and Trust Companies, and supervisor of the Division of Research and Statistics at the newly created Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, a state agency that originated in the study commission's recommendations.[5][21][25]

Aside from his activities at IU, Wells remained active in public service throughout his long career. In 1943–44 Wells worked for the U.S. State Department's Office of Foreign Economic Cooperation in Washington, D.C. In 1944–45 he served as chair of the American Council on Education, and in 1946 Wells spent three months in Greece observing its democratic elections. In 1947–48 Wells was a cultural advisor to the allied military government in Germany following World War II. He also assisted in establishing the Free University of Berlin. In 1957 Wells was a delegate to the Twelfth Session of the United Nations General Assembly.[16] Wells served as chairman of the board of the Education and World Affairs organization from 1962 until 1970.[10] He was also a consultant in higher education and traveled the world on behalf of IU's international education projects.[55]

Wells began collecting antiques during his early years in Bloomington and continued to collect art and antiques throughout his life. Most of his collection was donated to various IU organizations on the Bloomington campus. In 2001 the IU Art Museum at Bloomington opened a temporary exhibition that featured some of Wells's collections.[56] One of the German paintings in the exhibition, Flagellation of Christ (ca. 1480s), also known as Geisselung Cristi, was subsequently returned to the Jagdschloss Grunewald, a small museum in Berlin, Germany. The oil-on-oil painting is attributed to the fifteenth-century German master of the Saint Goar altar. Wells donated the work to the IU Art Museum in 1985. According to IU, Wells purchased the late fifteenth-century painting in good faith from a London art gallery in 1967 and was unaware of its provenance. In 2004 representatives from Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg (Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg) informed the IU Art Museum that Allied soldiers had seized the painting from the Jagdschloss Grunewald museum in Berlin during the summer of 1945, at the end of World War II. In 2006, following extensive research of the painting's provenance, the IU Art Museum agreed to return the painting to Berlin, stating it could not "ethically retain this painting, which was unlawfully removed from the Jagdschloss Grunewald in 1945, in our collection."[57] The painting remained at the IU Art Museum until 2010, while the Jagdschloss Grunewald was undergoing renovations.[57]

Despite ill health, failing eyesight, and hearing loss as he approached his ninety-eighth birthday in 2000, Wells continued to maintain an office in Owen Hall on the IU Bloomington campus. Following his retirement as IU's president, Wells resided at a home across the street from IU's Main Library on East Tenth Street that he had purchased in 1962.[58] Wells donated the home to the university with the condition that he be allowed to live there for the remainder of his life. In addition to maintaining his Tenth Street home in Bloomington, Wells purchased a condominium in Bloomington's Meadowood retirement community when he was in his eighties. Wells rarely stayed overnight at his Meadowood property, preferring instead to use it as a woodland retreat and guesthouse.[59]

Wells died at home in Bloomington on March 18, 2000, three months prior to his ninety-eighth birthday. His funeral was held at the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington on March 22, 2000, sixty-two years after his selection as president of the university.[10][60] "A Celebration of Life: Remembering Herman B Wells," his public memorial service, was held at the IU Auditorium on April 5, 2000.[61] Wells's remains are interred at Jamestown, Indiana, where he had spent his boyhood.[62]

Wells had no children and never married, but he maintained an extensive network of contacts among friends and professional colleagues, as well as IU students, alumni, and faculty members.[16][62] His contributions to IU were forged through his nearly eighty-year association with the university, beginning as a student in 1921 and continuing after he joined the faculty in 1930. During his years as president (1937–62) and university chancellor (1962–2000), Wells brought IU "to the front ranks of American research universities" through expanded enrollment, recruitment of new faculty, construction of new buildings, new program offerings, campus beautification projects, and steadfast support of its faculty and students.[3] Wells also helped transform IU into "a cosmopolitan center of learning with an international reputation" and strengthened IU's emphasis on research, cultivated the arts, expanded IU's international programs and supported academic freedom.[39] As Wells reflected on his twenty-five years as IU's president, he remarked:

"With full knowledge of the trauma, travail, blood, sweat, and tears the office demands, I would eagerly undertake the chore again. For me no other career could have been so satisfying, I have been luck and happy in my life work."[62]

Wells's bachelor status and support for Alfred Kinsey's research sparked speculation he was a homosexual,[63] but biographer James Capshew concluded that there was no evidence for or against this claim, writing that "I haven’t found any evidence that Wells ever dated or had romantic or erotic relationships with women or men."[64]

Wells held numerous faculty and administrative positions at IU Bloomington:

• Instructor, Department of Economics, 1930–33[18]
• Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, 1933–35 (on leave)[18]
• Dean, School of Business Administration, 1935–37[18]
• Professor of Administration, School of Business Administration, 1935–72[18]
• Acting President, 1937–38[18]
• President, 1938–62[18]
• University Chancellor, 1962–2000[18]
• University Chancellor and Interim President, 1968[18]
• Chairman of the Board, IU Foundation, 1969–72[65]
• President, IU Foundation, 1962–69[65]
• Chairman of the executive committee, Indiana University Foundation, 1972–75
• Vice-chairman and chairman of the executive committee, IU Foundation, 1975–88[65]
• Vice-chairman, IU Foundation, 1988–95
• First vice-chairman, IU Foundation, 1988–95
• Professor of Business Administration, 1972–2000[66]

Appointments included:

• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching[67]
• American Council on Education[16]
• Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities[68]
• National Association of State Universities[68]
• Economic analyst for the U.S. Department of State, Office of Foreign Economic Cooperation, in Washington, D.C., 1943–44[37]
• Cultural affairs adviser to the U.S. Military Government in West Germany, 1947–48[37]
• U.S. delegate to the 12th General Assembly of the United Nations, 1957[16]
• Adviser to the Ministry of Pakistan, 1959[69]
• Head of the U.S. delegation to Bangkok for the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Preparatory Commission on University Problems, 1960[69]
• Vice chairman, National Commission on Humanities, 1964–65[70]
• Member, President's Committee on U.S.-Soviet Trade Relations, 1965[70]
• Director, Indiana Judicial Study Commission 1965-68
• Member, President's Special Committee on Overseas Voluntary Activities, 1967[66]
• Board of Directors, Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, 1936–71 (Chairman, 1940–71)[71]
• Member of the Board of Directors, Lilly Endowment, 1972–2000[66]

Wells received many honors and awards throughout his career, including the following:

• Named one of "America's Ten Outstanding Young Men of 1939" by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce[72]
• Gold Medal Award recipient, International Benjamin Franklin Society, 1959[72]
• Received Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1960
• Received National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Brotherhood Award, 1961–62[16]
• Thailand Government Award of Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant in 1962
• Elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1964[73]
• Caleb B. Smith Medal of Honor from the Grand Lodge of Indiana Free and Accepted Masons, 1967
• Thailand Knight Commander (Second Class) of the Most Noble Order of the Crown in 1968
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[74]
• B'nai B'rith Great American Traditions Award recipient
• Received the first Excellence in Education Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sons of the American Revolution
• Lifetime Achievement Award of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce
• Six-time recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash designation
• Named Indiana University's "Man of the Century"
• Named a "Hoosier Millennium Treasure" by Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon in 1998
• Named an Indiana Living Legend by the Indiana Historical Society in 1999[75]
• Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity Distinguished Service to Music Medal for Alumni Achievement.
• Recipient of twenty-eight honorary degrees, including an honorary doctorate, summa cum laude, from IU, which was conferred on him in 1962 during his final commencement ceremony as IU's president. Wells received honorary degrees from Butler University (1939), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1939), Wabash College (1942), University of Wisconsin, Madison (1946), Earlham College (1948), DePauw University (1952), Miami University (1959), Trine University (1959), University of Louisville (1961), Anderson University (1962), Ball State University (1962), Franklin College (1962), Indiana University (1962), Ohio State University (1963), Washington University in St. Louis (1963), St. Joseph's College (1964), University of California Riverside (1964), University of Notre Dame (1964), Drury College (1968), Srinakharinwirot University (1968), Cleveland State University (1969), Columbia University (1969), University of Illinois, Chicago (1973), Howard University (1976), University of South Carolina (1980), and Alcorn State University (1986).[37][76]

The main library of Indiana University Bloomington has been named after Herman B Wells since 2005

• Since 1962, The Herman B Wells Senior Recognition Award is given annually to an IU senior who exhibits a strong academic record, as well as leadership and service to the IU Bloomington campus.[77][78]
• On June 15, 1973, the International Astronomical Union confirmed that minor planet 1721 (approximately 100 miles (160 km) in diameter) within the constellation of Leo was officially named "Wells."[79]
• The Herman B Wells Scholar Program, which the IU Foundation established when Wells was in his eighties, provides four-year academic scholarships to a selective group of IU Bloomington students. The program's first group of scholarship recipients arrived on campus in 1990.[80]
• In 1991, the Indiana University School of Medicine named their pediatric research center in honor of Wells.[81]
• The Vision of Herman B Wells (1993), a PBS documentary of Well's life, was directed by Eugene "Gino" Brancolini.[82][83]
• On October 21, 2000, a bronze statue of Wells by Tuck Langland, a professor of art at IU's South Bend campus, was unveiled in the historic, Old Crescent area of the Bloomington campus. The life-sized statue portrays Wells in middle age, seated on a park bench. Two additional benches, brick paving stones, and a low, limestone wall complete the memorial, which is known as the Wells Plaza.[22][84]
• In 2001 the IU Art Museum at Bloomington opened a temporary exhibition, "Living with Art: The Legacy of Herman B Wells," which included selections of Wells's art and antiques collections.[56]
• On June 17, 2005, IU dedicated its Main Library in Bloomington as the Herman B Wells Library. The university had to wait five years after Wells's death in order to name the library in his honor due to a university policy that Wells had put in place when he was chair of IU's naming committee. The policy required sufficient time to pass before naming a building in order to determine whether the name would endure or fall out of fashion. A bronze bust of Wells by sculptor Marc Mellon is installed in the library's lobby.[85]
• Herman Wells is portrayed in the 2004 movie Kinsey.

• Wells, Herman B (1980). Being Lucky: Reminiscences and Reflections. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253115560.

• Capshew, James H. "Alma Pater: Herman B Wells and the Rise of Indiana University". Indiana University. Retrieved 2016-10-06.
• Capshew, James H. (June 2009). "The Campus as a Pedagogical Agent: Herman B Wells, Cultural Entrepreneurship, and the Benton Murals". Indiana Magazine of History. Bloomington: Indiana University. 105 (2): 179–97. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
• Capshew, James H. (2011). "Encounters with Genius Loci: Herman Wells at/and/of Indiana University". Perspectives on the History of Higher Education. 28: 161–91.
• Capshew, James H. (2012). Herman B Wells: The Promise of the American University. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press and Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 9780253357205.
• Capshew, James H. (Summer 2002). "Home Design for Indiana University: Herman B Wells and the Furnishing of the Campus". Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. 14 (3): 28–39.
• Capshew, James H. (December 2011). "Making Herman B Wells: Moral Development and Emotional Trauma in a Boone County Boyhood". Indiana Magazine of History. 107 (4): 361–76. doi:10.5378/indimagahist.107.4.0361. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
• "Digital Wells: An Online Celebration of the Life of Herman B Wells". Indiana University. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
• Gros Louis, Kenneth (September 2007). "Herman B Wells and the Legacy of Leadership at Indiana University". Indiana Magazine of History. Bloomington: Indiana University. 103 (3): 290–301. Retrieved 2016-09-26.
• Gugin, Linda C., and James E. St. Clair, eds. (2015). Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. pp. 368–70. ISBN 978-0-87195-387-2. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• "In Mid-Pasage," volume II of Clark, Thomas D. (1973). Indiana University: Midwestern Pioneer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253329974.
• "Indiana University Art Museum Provenance Project". Indiana University Art Museum. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
• "Living Legends". Indiana Historical Society. Retrieved 2012-10-12.
• Malefatto, Tom; Ryan Lee, and Carrie Schwier (2009). "'Herman B Wells Papers, 1819-2001, (bulk 1922-2001)' Finding Aid". Indiana University Archives. Retrieved 2016-09-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Price, Nelson (1997). Indiana Legends: Famous Hoosiers From Johnny Appleseed to David Letterman. Carmel, IN: Guild Press of Indiana. pp. 141–43. ISBN 1578600065.
• Wells, Herman B (1980). Being Lucky: Reminiscences and Reflections. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253115560.

• Gallman, John (1992). Herman Wells Stories: As Told by His Friends on His 90th Birthday. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253329974.
• "Years of Fulfillment," volume III of Clark, Thomas D. (1977). Indiana University: Midwestern Pioneer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253329974.

• President Herman B Wells Speeches, 1937-1962, finding aid, Indiana University, Bloomington