RG-D Dean’s Office Records
Series 1: Joseph F. Wall
1960-1973 (bulk 1969-1973)

Biographical Note:
Joseph Frazier Wall was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1920 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Grinnell College in 1941. He received his M.A. at Harvard University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, both in American history. He joined the Grinnell faculty in 1947 and served as Chair of the Faculty from 1966-70 and as Dean of the College from 1969-73 under President Leggett. After a few years away from Grinnell, Wall returned in 1980 as the first Rosenfield Professor and as Director of the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs. He retired as professor emeritus of history in 1990.

Wall was a noted author; among his best-known books were Andrew Carnegie (1970); Iowa: a history (1978); and Alfred I. DuPont (1990). At the time of his death in 1995 he was writing a comprehensive history of Grinnell College as part of the College’s Sesquicentennial celebration; the book was posthumously published in 1997.

Restrictions: Boxes 1 & 2 are confidential and may not be examined until 2010.

Box 1: Board of Trustees’ meetings, 1960-61 (minutes & reports)
(6 folders) Dates of board meetings: Feb. 5-6, 1960;
June 6, 1960; Oct. 31, 1960; Feb. 4, 1961 (reports only);
June 4-5, 1961; Oct. 30, 1961 (reports only)
Other reports sent to Trustees, 1961
Notebooks for Trustees for board meetings (these may also
include notes taken by Dean Wall and other additional
materials). Dates of board meetings: June 1, 1969;
Nov. 1-2, 1969; Mar. 7-8, 1970; May 31-June 1, 1970
Other reports sent to Trustees, 1970 (2 folders)
Proposal for revisions of Articles of Incorporation & ByLaws, 1970
Minutes of Board Meeting, Nov. 1-2, 1969
Minutes of Annual Meeting, May 31-June 1, 1970

Box 2: Notebooks for Trustees for board meetings
(these may also
include notes taken by Dean Wall and other additional
materials). Dates of board meetings: Nov. 14-15, 1970;
Apr. 3-4, 1971; June 6, 1971; Oct. 30-31, 1971; Apr. 15-16, 1972; Nov. 4-5, 1972
Minutes of Board Meeting, June 4, 1972
Office files:
Prospective trustees
Governance of College, 1970 (39 p. working paper)
College organization, 1966-1972 (includes correspondence,
memos, worksheets, student proposals on faculty and
administration organization; notes on campus buildings)
Correspondence, 1970-1972
Correspondence with Howard Bowen and others, 1969-1970

Box 3: Office files:
Curriculum (includes Proposed new programs: African
Studies, Humanities, 1973; Role of the College: Ten
questions in search of the future, 1972)
Student radio station policy statement, ca. 1969
Concerned Black Students (includes correspondence, memos, Rockefeller fund, Black Studies major, Black
Manifesto, position papers, Black history bibliographies, copies of Black Expressions), 1971
Student withdrawals from Grinnell, questionnaire responses,
1972
Alumni evaluations of Grinnell education (12 letters), 1966
Statistics and questionnaires; faculty and student statistics,
minority statistics, 1970-1973
Financial impact of College on community, ca. 1969
Misc. memos and reports (includes curricular matters,
proposal to abolish general education requirements,
enrollment and faculty statistics, B&G union, FBI, etc., 1969-1970

Box 4: Office files
Ford Foundation proposal (includes data on college and
faculty) (3 vol.), 1967
Foundation grants (includes Carnegie and Hill Family
foundations expenditures), 1963
Avison, Jim. New directions for fund-raising programs (8 p.), 1971
Stauss, James H. Endowment as a source of increased
revenue (46 p.), 1969
Salary studies (Grinnell and other colleges), 1972
Bowen, Howard. Efficiency in liberal education (preliminary
version of a study on instructions costs; 174 p.), 1970
Reports on financing higher education in the U.S. (3 reports),
ca. 1968, 1969

Box 5: Review by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools,
1968
Grinnell institutional data (3 vol.)
Correspondence with NCA and accrediting criteria
Report of a visit to Grinnell College,
Feb. 28-Mar. 1, 1968

Records received: Late 1970s

Initial processing: Late 1970s by Anne Kintner
Final processing: January 1997 by Leslie Czechowski