Less Well Known Women of Babson College Part One

Babson Institute was founded to train men in business. While the earliest instructors were usually colleagues of Mr. Babson, men he knew from his own business experience, not everyone associated with the Institute was male. And while the original intent was to train men for executive roles there were exceptions well before Babson became co-ed. In the following  two posts I hope to acquaint readers with several women who may be unknown to you.

Eleanor Hayward

From its founding in 1919 until 1937 Ms. Hayward held many simultaneous positions at the Institute. Her primary title was as Registrar where she was responsible for the day-to-day academic affairs of Babson Institute. She sat on most campus committees from the academic to the social. She always co-produced Commencement and all of the activities around it. Before the building of the Babson Institute Library (the current Tomasso Hall) she was also the first Institute librarian (for the library housed in a wing of Coleman Hall.) She built the collection and reviewed new acquisitions for the alumni bulletin. If one needed permission to do almost anything on campus, her signature seems to have been the required one. She had more formal education then all but a few of the male faculty and staff (BS, MS, and MBA.) After 18 years at the Institute she left to join the WPA. Unfortunately where she came from and where she ended up are unknown to me. But this “jack-of-all” trades had an impact on the early development of this place. In the absence of documents I have spoken with members of the pre-WWII classes and every man who knew her has stated that she was the person who made sure that things got done.

Teresa Gubellini

I don’t know when Ms. Gubellini started at Babson. While her obituary says that she started in 1946 it appears that she may have been one of the workers hired to complete the Great Relief Map formerly housed in Coleman Hall. The map was declared finished on December 30, 1940. The Institute was closed to civilians during WWII and the windows to Coleman Hall painted black while the campus was given over to the U. S. Navy Supply School. When the Institute reopened after the war Teresa was hired (at $0.75 per hour) to give talks and tours of the Map.

Coleman Hall was built to house this map which had a catwalk above which allowed visitors to get a sense of viewing the continental US from approximately 700 miles. In 1955 the Babson World Globe was built adjacent to Coleman Hall and these combined exhibits became a destination for thousands of “Baby Boomers” on school trips. Teresa retired from Babson College in 1978 and died shortly thereafter. What makes her special to me is the wonder that because of all of these school groups over the years there must be many, many men and women for whom the name Babson brings to mind a short, dark haired, and very enthusiastic woman whose talks had even the most recalcitrant children “eating out of her hand.”

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