Memory Lane

alumni LANE Memory

Class of ‘65 Alumna Recalls Life at All-Girls Webber College by MARY TOOTHMAN

“There was only one store, and it was a grocery store with a post office on the side and nothing else. You went past the college, you saw the store and you were out of the city. Coming from a suburb of Chicago, as I did, it was a real shock. And then, when I found out that the closest stores were in Lakeland, Florida, and we had no vehicles to get there at the time ... I was glad I had got everything before I left home and not waited to buy down here.”

Asked if it was maybe a treat to hang out at the soda shop for fun, the former Alice Bach, now Alice Collins, realized she perhaps may not have made her point clear. “What soda shop?” she asked. “When I say there was nothing, I mean there was NOTHING. There was no gas station. There were no restaurants. There was no soda shop.”

While the school was not known for its expansive recreational activities, it was indeed a quality learning place for students who attended for that purpose.

To a very young Alice, now 74, students she met when she first arrived at Webber seemed “awfully prim and proper.”

“I mean, there they were in pigtails. It was not like anything I had ever experienced. And there was just absolutely nothing to do. Eventually, though, you just had to give everybody a chance.

“After all, it was known as a private, exclusive college.”

It did not hurt any when Alice’s father bought her a 1962 Chevy Impala convertible. She and her friends had transportation at last, and the freedom that the Chevy provided.

The ability to come and go (during allowed time periods) was treasured.

Webber housing arrangements during Alice’s time on campus included strict curfews and a woman who watched over the girls lived in the dorm.

In contrast, there was something very liberating about cruising around in Alice’s convertible — and the girls caught right on. “We all became very close,” she says. “I guess what also changed my mind about being in Babson Park was the w WHEN ALICE BACH arrived at Webber College in Babson Park from Chicago in the early 1960s, she experienced culture shock.

other girls in the college and all their life stories.”

A certain man caught her eye, also, and that helped quite a bit. “I met my first husband in the second year, so that made it a little bit more interesting.”

Her first husband was “a local boy,” and the couple settled into a home they bought in Babson Park. After they divorced, there was an adjustment.

“They always said, ‘Marry a rich boy, and you’ll never want for anything. He will take care of you.’ Well, his parents were wealthy; and they did take care of me. But that did not last.”

Eventually, Alice married a second time, to Roger Collins. The couple still lives in Babson Park. “We have been married for 47 years,” she says. “That is longer than I’ve been single.”

Over the years, since her Webber days, staying in touch with friends proved more difficult than Alice anticipated. “I kept up with the girls for a while after college, even went to visit one in North Carolina. But life got so busy with our families that we really did not have time to socialize together, and with the distance between all of us.”

Most students can name one or two teachers who really had an impact on

their education and life. “I guess it was the teacher Mrs. Lewis; I do not recall her first name. She was very informative. She shared so many things with us, and made us open our eyes to see what was really going on with our security. I guess it made me look further than just what was presented to us.

“Everybody seems to have a purpose in their life. Mine, it seems to have turned out, was using my information and capabilities of looking ahead to help others achieve their goals. It’s like every job I have had, it’s like one I’ve been sent to.” Most of the time, jobs she had after college came to her, versus the usual application process.

A friend would know someone who was in a jam, and Alice would step up to help. She ran a pizza shop for a time, and operated a paint store. The business skills she learned at Webber always kicked in.

Within days of being at work at any business, Alice would begin to notice issues. Too much cheese was going on the pizzas, and the profit margin was just barely there. After she made some suggestions, the pizza parlor started making money, she says.

The business sense she developed at college was just one aspect of the learning curve. When she first began at Webber, Alice experienced the enormous impact that diversity can have on a person’s growth and development.

“Everything was so different; so many moods that I had never seen before. Many different personalities ... you had to learn the ropes and know who to trust. After all, we were all thrown into a different world than what we were used to at home: no more parties. No more going on dates, nobody calling, and if they did, you were limited to a short period of time on the phone. We did not have cell phones back then.”

Eventually, Alice and her friends were ready to meet some members of the opposite sex. “After a while, I got together with another girl and got with our (administrator), and talked to her about getting a plan to have a dance. We wanted to invite some of the guys around the area or at any schools. We had the usual locals, and if we had the baseball players, they came in the spring. And that was always trouble.”

A little place located nearby called the Nest Egg was their meeting place. The quest to locate some men to liven things up continued. “We had a couple other boys’ schools, which proved to be very interesting also. They were an all-boys school, and had not seen any girls like us.”

When all was said and done, Alice and her classmates found that college away from home was about much more than two years of curriculum. “I must say we all learned more than just the classes we went to, whether it be retail or business. There was a lot of growing up taking place in that first year, for all of us.” Webber also grew. Today, there are about 40 full-time and part-time professors on the Babson Park campus. Some 700 students attend what is now known, of course, as Webber International University.

Alice Bach graduated in 1965. And like many experiencing transition, she thought surely she would remain in contact with some of her close Webber girlfriends. But, life happened. She continues to hope that some will reach out to her, so they can talk about the special time they shared.

Webber was founded in 1927 by Grace Knight and Roger W. Babson. The intent was for it to carry the last name of their granddaughter, Camilla Grace Webber. Webber was originally established as a women’s college, with the exclusive purpose of teaching women about business.