III: Carleton Professor

To Carleton, 1932.
Authorities at Carleton College were impressed by Gould when he came to the campus to deliver his lecture on the Byrd expedition, and in 1932 when plans were being laid to reorganize and significantly upgrade the college's then-scant offerings in geology, they succeeded in hiring him as a full professor and chair of that department. Moving to Minnesota apparently was agreeable, for, as he once said, "I feel best in weather that makes me shiver."

Sperry Lodge.
In Northfield, the Goulds lived for several years in the upper-level apartment at 107 Nevada Street (Sperry Lodge). Peg's sister Jean lived there with them while attending Carleton from 1932-35, and in 1938 was married to Dick Hoppin '36 in a ceremony in the apartment. [Note from the Archivist: I mention this because I lived in the same apartment for six months in 1990, and was gratified to learn the history!]

Gould with a portrait of "Al Smith," his favorite sled dog from 1928-30.
How did the adventurer feel about trading the thrills of the Antarctic for the tamer qualities of the classroom? "I had to choose between exploring and teaching as my life work," he told the Carletonian in 1933. "I've decided that teaching is my vocation; exploring is just an avocation."

Lecturing.
There is abundant testimony that Gould devoted the same passion and dedication to teaching as he had to his Antarctic explorations. A former student claimed that Gould was, "By all odds the most inspiring teacher I ever had." He was a man "of warmth and humor who could combine these things with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of his subject matter."

1930s.
Gould's popularity with students at Carleton was immediate, lasting, and extraordinarily universal. He taught introductory and advanced courses in geology, as well as continuing his research in polar geology and in the geological history of the upper Mississippi Valley.

In the geology lab, 1st floor Leighton.
"All who studied under Larry Gould, as he is affectionately referred to both on and off the campus, came to realize that he is no ordinary teacher. Pre-eminently a scientist fascinated by the pursuit of truth and knowledge, he has the spirit of the scholar, the soul of a poet and adventurer, and a special ability to communicate his passion for learning to his students." [Voice of the Carleton Alumni, June 1962]

Campus heartthrob.
It is said that custodians working in the women's dormitories reported in the 1930s that Professor Gould was easily the most popular pin-up subject of Carleton coeds.

Mount St. Helens, summer 1938.
"The spell of Gould was upon Carleton before its generator assumed the presidency. Back of the spell were a ground-gripping body, broad and hirsute hands, leathern face outcropped with stubborn stubble, low-slung, tousled forelock, hearty manner, and lusty laugh. The total impression accorded well with tales of arctic exploration and lecture pictures of fur capote and huskies." [Carleton: The First Century, 1966]

Gould in color, 1930s.
"Gould dressed casually. A dash of dowdiness became him well. Rolling socks and sagging tweeds, variegated shirts and flaming ties--all were harmonized in a far from ordinary mortal." [Carleton: The First Century, 1966] Within a year of Gould's arrival at Carleton, his taste for fanciful neckware--particularly in his favorite hue of solid red--had become associated with a new college tradition: Wild Tie Day, when male students attempted to outdo Gould, and one another, in the brilliancy of their cravats.

Home and hearth.
In the late 1930s the college built for the Goulds a handsome home on Third Street, in which they (and Oscar, the penguin) stayed until the end of the Gould presidency in 1962.

c.1941.
Gould's out-of-the-classroom activities continued to be extensive and varied throughout this period. He produced numerous papers and articles on glacial geology. He was a popular speaker in a variety of forums on campus and off. In 1936 he was a delegate to the International Congress of Geodesy and Geophysics in Edinburgh, and in 1937 he attended an international geological congress in Moscow and then spent a month on a Russian icebreaker in the Arctic. In 1938-39 he served a term as president of the Minnesota Academy of Science. When the U.S. entered World War II he was granted a leave of absence to become chief of the Arctic section of the Army-Air Force's Arctic, Desert and Tropic Information Center. He returned to Carleton in the fall of 1944, and the following spring was instrumental in organizing a memorable four-day conference on "Problems of the Far North."

Carleton searches for a new president.
Early in 1944 Carleton's President Cowling officially advised his Trustees of his intent to retire following the 1944-45 academic year. The Trustees appointed a committee, chaired by Laird Bell, to consider candidates as Cowling's successor. Dean of the College Lindsey Blayney, also preparing to retire, warmly endorsed the suggestion that Gould be elevated from the faculty to the presidency - as this letter sent to the committee in April 1945 attests.

A popular decision.
The Trustees confirmed the choice of Gould as Carleton's fourth president on May 15, 1945. The decision was hailed with delight by President Cowling, the faculty, alumni and students. As reported in the Carletonian displayed here, the news was greeted by peals of the Willis bell, an impromptu choir serenaded the Gould and Cowling homes, and the following day "the entire student body appeared in the brightest reds it could muster as a united gesture of approbation."

The President-elect and Peg at the door to their home, 1945.

The Inauguration of President Gould, Oct. 16, 1945.
The war was over, men would soon be returning to college campuses in number, and a new era was underway at Carleton. On display are a number of mementos of a day of celebration: an invitation to the festivities, an inaugural program, tickets to the morning inaugural exercises and luncheon following, three photographs of the pageantry, the Carleton College Bulletin, containing the text of President Gould's address "Science and the Other Humanities", and the December issue of the Voice, presenting the new president to all the alumni.

"We are starting this day, for this will be a cathedral, not of bricks and mortar, but of ideas, and with a spire so high, lighted by a beacon so bright that it will be a guide through all the years of their lives to all who study here; and it will be a light that shall shine so clear that others too may see it from afar and know that here at Carleton College is a kind of twentieth century American monastery of sincere scholarly men and women of all faiths and ideas, united by the common bond of the search for truth that it may be shared with others, realizing that at long last all definitions of colleges and education end in the simple concept that it is the truth and only the truth that will make men free."

                -- from the Inaugural Address of Laurence 
                M. Gould, Carleton College, October 16, 1945.

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