Books document achievements of Vernon Alden, Elizabeth Baker

Few books chronicle the achievements of two former Ohio University leaders and share their memories of the turbulent times on college campuses during the 1960s and '70s.

In February, Ohio University Libraries published "Vernon R. Alden: An Oral History," which focuses on Ohio University's 15th president. Alden served from 1962 to 1969.

Edited by Doug McCabe, curator of manuscripts for the libraries, the book includes interviews of Alden by McCabe, professors Alan Booth, Nicholas Dinos and Norman Parmer and former Director of Residence and Auxiliary Services Bob Hynes.

"Vernon Alden details his successes and disappointments from the perspective of a president with ambitious plans to take the university to high levels of achievements," McCabe says. "The Alden oral history is important because of the huge expansion at the university during a time of great change in the nation and the world."

Alden, who lives in Brookline, Mass., returns to campus several times a year. His wife, Marion, died in 1999.

While many Americans were taking the peace movement to the streets during the Vietnam era, a quieter, more reasoned movement was gestating in the nation's classrooms. And Elizabeth Baker was a pioneer.

"Peace is Everybody's Business" by Marta Daniels, published recently by Juniata College Press, profiles the wife of Ohio University President Emeritus John Baker and examines her role in the peace movement. Elizabeth Baker died in 1990 and John Baker in 1999.

Only a handful of colleges offered peace studies programs prior to the establishment of the Baker-supported program in 1971 at Juniata, John Baker's alma mater in Huntingdon, Pa. The Bakers founded and endowed peace programs at Bethany Theological Seminary in 1980 and Ohio University in 1985 and provided support for a program at Dartmouth College.

"Peace is Everybody's Business" examines the programs at Juniata, Dartmouth, Ohio University and Bethany.

When Juniata officials decided to publish a book on Elizabeth Baker's work in the peace studies movement, they found a good match in Daniels, a graduate of Juniata and writer active in the peace studies movement.

"I knew Elizabeth and John Baker and was always a great fan of their peace studies program at Juniata," Daniels says. "Elizabeth Baker was a woman filled with moral imagination and a great deal of courage."