Alumni Association Records

31 boxes of varying sizes, 21 linear feet

The Alumni Association Records span from the beginning of the organization in 1889 until 2008. The Alumni Association still exists and is very active at present, with more than 80,000 members worldwide, as of 2025. The collection contains the organizational records used by the Alumni Association to record and accomplish its work, such as meeting minutes of the general and Executive Board meetings; correspondence; ephemera for reunions, homecomings, annual business meetings, and other college events; financial records; fundraising and merchandising items; publications; materials relating to the Alumni Entrance Gates; photographs; publicity scrapbooks; reports; newspaper clippings; and a small amount of realia related to merchandising.

The Alumni Association Records contain materials from the North Jersey Alumni Association, as well as the general association. While the records are primarily concerned with locations in New Jersey, such as the two locations of the College, it also includes correspondence from members across the country.

Of note are scrapbooks created by Iona Fackler Myers that document the controversy of former college president Robert Heussler. Additionally, the newspaper clippings and scrapbooks extensively document the life events of alumni, faculty, and leadership. These items also show the current events of the local area and the college at large for more than 50 years.

The collection is organized into the following 12 series:
Minutes
Executive Board Meetings
Correspondence
Ephemera
Publications
Financials
Fundraising
Homecoming, Reunion, and Alumni Day
North Jersey Alumni Association
Iona Fackler Myers Papers
Clippings
Scrapbooks

This collection is open for research.

The items in this collection may be used by patrons who abide by the Archives and Special Collections Use Policy of the R. Barbara Gitenstein Library at TCNJ.

Portions of the collection will be digitized and made available for viewing on https://atom.tcnj.edu/index.php/TCNJ010-Alumni-Association-Records.

Copyright restrictions apply. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the College Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, Archives and Special Collections, R. Barbara Gitenstein Library, The College of New Jersey, PO Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628-0718, email: Ask a Librarian via the library’s website https://library.tcnj.edu/.

• English

The largest share of the collection was acquired from the Alumni Association via Iona Fackler Myers. Other materials were donated by Margot Palmer, Richard and Isabel Tallman, Helen Sadley, and the Office of Alumni Engagement.

Accession numbers: 1998.04, 1999.02, 2001.02, 2001.03, 2001.08-2001.11, 2002.03-2002.07, 2003.04, and 2024.09.

Future accruals are anticipated.

Room 410, Archives and Special Collections, Gitenstein Library, TCNJ

Two TCNJ publications created by the former College Relations and Alumni Affairs Departments, Accent and Alumni Review (which were combined at one point into one publication bearing both names) can be found in the College Publications Collection. The legacy finding aid for that collection is located here: https://libguides.tcnj.edu/c.php?g=628008&p=4387819

Abstract: The Alumni Association Records document the organization that has supported graduates of The College of New Jersey and all its predecessors since 1899. The lion’s share of the records were collected by Iona Fackler Myers (1914-1996), who served as a very active member on the Executive Board from 1937 through 1989. The records include meeting minutes, fundraising efforts, Homecoming and reunions ephemera and planning documents, correspondence, photographs, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, publications, and other records created by the Alumni Association. The importance of this collection to researchers lies in the depth and breadth of its coverage of all aspects of the college for nearly 120 years. It also provides significant context for materials in other collections in the TCNJ Archives.

Organizational and Biographical History:

The College of New Jersey’s academic tradition reaches back to 1855 when it was established by the state legislature as the New Jersey State Normal School. It was the first state-established teacher training school in the state and the ninth in the nation. Governor Rodman Price promoted the idea of a training institute for New Jersey’s teachers and mobilized support among influential state leaders. Located on Clinton Avenue in Trenton from 1855 until the early 1930s, the Normal School flourished in the latter 1800s, expanding both its academic offerings and physical facilities. In 1925, the first four-year baccalaureate degree program was established. This change marked the beginning of TCNJ’s transition from a normal school to a teachers’ college and was accompanied by a change in physical surroundings. In 1928, a beautiful 210-acre tract of land in Ewing Township, then known as Hillwood Lakes, was purchased as a new site for the College.

The Alumni Association began meeting as an organization representing both the Normal and Model Schools on May 20, 1889, although students had been writing about the need for such a group in The Signal newspaper for two years prior. The first elected board was Austin C. Apgar, President; Sarah Y. Ely, First Vice President; R. Bellville, Second Vice President; R.V. Whitehead, Treasurer; Frank N. Scobey, Recording Secretary; Francis B. Lee, Corresponding Secretary for the Model School; and Emma Binder, Corresponding Secretary for the Normal School.

The Alumni Association was very closely associated with the school and provided funds and fundraising efforts before and after the establishment of the Office of Alumni Engagement. The college’s Alumni Office had a representative at the association’s Executive Board meetings and published regular updates included in this collection. Alumni columns were printed in “The Signal” student newspaper, and the Alumni Association had editors in The Seal yearbook in 1911.

Relationship building was key among the Alumni Association boards. They had close working relationships with the college principals and later presidents. Some college presidents hosted Alumni Association Executive Boards at their homes for dinners on a regular basis. Invitations to these can be found in this collection.

The majority of the records that span from 1937 through 1989 were collected and/or created by Iona Fackler Myers (1914-1996). Iona Jean was born on September 18, 1914 to Howard A. (1875-1966) and Dolina MacKay Fackler (1874-1948). After being raised and working on his father Charles’ (1839-1926) farm, Howard later owned and ran his own farm on Fackler Road in Lawrenceville, NJ. Dolina was born in Unst, Shetland Islands, Scotland, and immigrated to the United States in 1903.

Iona graduated from the New Jersey State Teachers College and State Normal School at Trenton in 1937. That year, she received the Gamma Nu prize for outstanding leadership, qualities of character, and scholarship. She received her Master’s degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University in 1941. Soon after graduating from the State Teachers College, Iona joined the Alumni Association and began her long executive board membership starting in May of 1938. The Association hired her in June 1939 to be its Executive Secretary. In 1941, she lived on campus in Ely House and later, Allen House as Resident Advisor.

In 1943, according to Myers in an dated April 11, 1989 letter to Judith Wodynski, then Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs, she “asked for leave of absence for the duration of the war and six months thereafter to join the U.S. Naval Reserve, WAVES.” She entered as an Ensign and was later promoted to Lieutenant and finally Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Navy, where she met Ensign (later Lieutenant) William Creed Myers (1916-2009). Also raised on a farm, Creed was born in Afton, Iowa to Rhode Carl Myers (1893-1976) and Grace Helen Holland (1892-1988) and later attended the University of Iowa. Creed worked in sales for more than 50 years. Wearing their naval uniforms, Iona and Creed married in December 1945 in the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church. Living on Fackler Road in Lawrenceville, NJ, they had four children: Howard Carl, Dolina Jean, Hellen “Holly” Holland, and Frances Fackler.

In 1946, Myers formally resigned as Executive Secretary of the Alumni Association. Vivian Storer succeeded her for two years, to be herself succeeded by Frances F. Carpenter in 1948. Myers was the 14th Life Member of the Alumni Association, having received the title in 1955.

1955 was a very active year for the College and the Alumni Association. At the time, Hope Jackman was planning the luncheon and supper to celebrate the school’s centennial. Iona mentions in the same letter to Wodynski in 1989 that, “We even changed the College telephone number to 771-1855 so all could always remember the date.”

Through the years, Iona served on every committee the board has had through 1989, but the most important to her were the Investment Committee, then Annual Giving, and finally, the Alumni Scholars. She never served as an officer on the board because chose to serve as an officer in other local groups which took more of her time. In total, she served the Alumni Association for 41 years.