
Summer Walk at the Bard Cemetery
by Gretchen Lytle
Introduction
It’s midsummer on the Bard campus and a good time for a shady walk. How about a return visit to the Bard cemetery for some peaceful time under the trees there. Walk north on the Main Campus up the pathway that runs between the Stevenson Library and the President’s House. Look just past the parking area at the top, and walk down to enter through the lychgate, the roofed gateway where a bier might have been settled for the first part of a burial service. At this time of year, green trees and shrubs surround you. Evergreens, including yews, cedars, various pines, and mature rhododendrons, are complemented with a canopy of leafing trees. You will be shaded by beech, yellowwood, oak, and maple trees. With a little luck, there will be some breeze, too, making a summer walk here quite pleasant.


The Bard Family Resting Place
On this summer visit, come through the lychgate and turn right/east up the little rise for a different perspective on the Bard cemetery, a resting place for both local and national figures. Along this route you can acquaint yourself with some of the people who were laid to rest here early on. Turn north/left at the top of the rise and walk past the three statues: two saints, followed by the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, which was recently relocated here from Bard’s Massena campus.
You will come to a Bard family resting place where you can see the headstones of John Bard (1819-1899) and Margaret Johnston Bard (1825-1875), who died in Rome. Margaret Bard helped establish a parish school for the local children, predating St. Stephen’s College. In 1860, John Bard and the Episcopal Church established St.Stephen’s in order to provide a classical education for men entering the seminary. Both John and Margaret Bard committed themselves to education, and they served as trustees of the college. Bard Hall was the first structure built (1852) and was the Bard family’s original chapel; many LLI members are familiar with it as a site for music offerings these days.
An Early 20th Century Leader
Continue walking north along the center path to find another Bard leader of note, Bernard Iddings Bell (1886-1958). He was the seventh leader (and last warden) of the college, from 1919 until 1933. He developed the college in many ways—constructed more buildings, expanded curriculum emphasizing the natural and social sciences, and established an athletic department. The student body then also drew from a more diverse population. Bell merged Bard with Columbia in 1928, a constructive move that kept the college afloat financially. While people had long referred to the school as Bard’s College, it was not until 1934 that it formally became Bard College.



First Faculty Women
In 1944 Bard admitted women as students, resulting in the need to drop its affiliation with Columbia, and became an independent liberal arts college. Eight women joined the faculty in 1945, including Irma Brandeis (1905-1990), a Dante scholar in the Bard literature department. Interestingly, she graduated from Barnard, another educational institution connected to Columbia. Pianist Kate Wolff, along with many other European emigrés during the 1930s and 1940s, came to Bard. She taught music at Bard for more than three decades. She also lived a long life in the area, having been born in 1900 and living some 96 years. You may note other faculty from around the WWII era buried in the Bard cemetery as well. You can learn about some other faculty members in the earlier December 2023 article, Walking the Bard Cemetery.
A Musician With Broad Intellectual Interests
Nearby is the headstone of Fred Hammond (1937-2023), who is connected to Irma Brandeis, buried nearby, through their shared fields of interest. In fact, he was awarded the Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Literature and Music History chair. He was Bard’s first full-time music historian as well as a distinguished musician, juggling the commitments of a professional keyboard player, publishing scholar, and committed teacher. His intellectual interests were broad, covering music history from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, with a deep knowledge of Italian history and culture, and on into music of the 19th and 20th centuries. A high point of his life in the classroom was teaching music history in BPI, the Bard Prison Initiative. Bard College has long valued faculty who are actively involved in their chosen fields, dedicated and talented teachers, and also integrated members of a more broadly defined Bard community.


A Multidisciplinary Scholar
Not unlike much of the Bard faculty, Peter Sourian (1933-2017) was also a multifaceted professional. As a scholar, Language and Literature professor, and writer, his interests ranged across disciplines. His work included a coming-of-age novel and a novel exploring Armenian genocide, short stories, essays, and articles on philosophy, history, and cultural commentary about everything from the seventeenth-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal to US political conventions and the 1970’s TV show All in the Family. As a teacher, he also thought broadly and inclusively, working with the general college population as well as non-traditional students through the Clemente Course in Humanities, adult students with limited economic resources.
Bard’s Thirteenth President
Making your way back towards the lychgate, you will see on your left the headstone for Louise Kline (1912-1991) and Reamer Kline (1910-1983). He was the thirteenth president of Bard, an Episcopal priest who led Bard steadily through a tumultuous societal and political era encompassing 1960 through 1974. It is remarkable how much he accomplished, constructing more housing and expanding the student population. A dining commons and new academic buildings arose. The library expanded, and greater emphasis was placed on the arts, environmental studies, and access to higher education for a broader sector of the population. The Ward Manor property was purchased, and more faculty joined the community, welcoming increased salaries. The whole Bard community grew, and a campus nursery school opened to support young families. The Klines nurtured social life on campus with teas and holiday parties, and they looked to reconnect with alums. It was a period of significant growth for Bard. For those interested more broadly in Bard College history, one might read Reamer Kline’s volume called Education for the Common Good: A History of Bard College—The First 100 Years, 1860–1960.


The Residence of Bard’s Current President
As you exit the cemetery, you will see the north end of the President’s house, where the fourteenth and current president, Leon Botstein, resides. Many of Bard’s presidents have been deeply committed to guiding the college’s evolution as an impressive educational institution that is concurrently committed to tradition and innovation, ever supporting constructive societal impacts across all the disciplines. Under President Botstein’s leadership, the college has grown considerably and diversified even more. For more detailed information about Bard, including more recent history, visit Bard History. This is Leon Botstein’s 50th year as president, and this is LLI’s 25th year as part of the Bard Community. Onward!
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