History talk to feature NIC's early presidents
<p>North Idaho College was once located on the third floor of the old Coeur d’Alene City Hall Building on Sherman Avenue.</p>
Regional historian Robert Singletary will give a presentation today at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library at 7 p.m. in the Community Room. The program, "North Idaho College: The Early Years," will concentrate on the role of the college’s first three presidents: Moritz A. Brakemeyer, Orrin Lee and George Kildow.
While Moritz Brakemeyer and his family were visiting Coeur d’Alene in early summer of 1933, he had the opportunity to talk with some of the community leaders about the idea of a junior college in Coeur d’Alene. As a former educator with a doctorate from the Minnesota College of Education, Brakemeyer was familiar with the junior college movement in the eastern part of the country. On June 21, 1933 he was invited to make a formal presentation to the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce. Within the next two months almost every major community organization was in favor of creating a junior college. With Brakemeyer as president, Coeur d’Alene Junior College was organized, faculty hired and classes began on Sept. 18, 1933, in the third floor of Coeur d’Alene City Hall.
As the young college was struggling to keep its doors open during the Depression, Brakemeyer resigned in 1936. A young doctoral student from the University of Idaho by the name of Orrin Lee became the next president. Under his leadership the Coeur d’Alene Junior College became a tax-supported institution with a new name: North Idaho Junior College.
When Orrin Lee decided to join the Navy in 1944, a respected public school administrator George Kildow was hired as the college’s third president. At the time, the struggling college had fewer than 30 students, five faculty and a bare-bones curriculum. When Kildow died of a heart attack in 1962, the enrollment of NIJC was more than 500, with 26 faculty members and a comprehensive academic and vocational curriculum, plus a new campus on the old Fort Grounds with several college-owned buildings.
The program, "North Idaho College: The Early Years" is sponsored by the Museum of North Idaho, Coeur d’Alene Public Library and the NIC Foundation/The Walden History Project. The Walden History Project and the Molstead Library are dedicated to building a digital archive of original documents, photos, videos, sound recordings, and other items of significance to the history of North Idaho College and the community it serves. Much of the material used in the program was donated by the Walden History Project.