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Preferred Citation

Box-folder, Papers of William T. Sanger, T83/Jul/12, Special Collections and Archives, Health Sciences Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Biographical Information

William Thomas Sanger, the son of Samuel F. and Susan Thomas Sanger, was born on September 16, 1885 in Bridgewater, (Rockingham County) Virginia where he attended primary school at the academy associated with Bridgewater College until 1896.

The economic depression of the 1890s hit the Bridgewater area quite hard and the inability of Samuel Sanger to earn a living for his large family compelled him to take a salaried position with the Southern Railroad Company. The new job meant a move to Calverton, Virginia, where the family lived only one year before moving again to the larger community of Manassas, located about thirty miles south of Washington, D.C.

Tragically, the year 1898 ended with the death of Susan T. Sanger, and by the end of 1899 the family found themselves with a "new mother," actually the third wife of Samuel, his first wife having died years earlier leaving him with their one daughter. Shortly after the death of his first wife Samuel married Susan Thomas and the family was quickly increased to include William and his three sisters. Dr. Sanger notes in his 1971 autobiography, As I Remember , that his family was so well integrated that his half-sister never knew she was born to another mother until she was eventually told much later.

A few months after the third marriage, the Sanger family was again uprooted when Samuel announced the big move to South Bend, Indiana where he had accepted the position of traveling secretary of the Mission Board of the Church of the Brethren. Samuel Sanger was a minister of the Church, holding its highest rank; however, since in those days no salary was paid to the Brethren clergy, cash income had to be sought elsewhere.

It is interesting to note that frequent moves of the family home was quite unusual in American culture at this time. Dr. Sanger's early experiences with such a variety of horizons certainly added to his future skills as expansive orator and visionary.

William Sanger returned to his Bridgewater roots to attend Bridgewater College in 1906 after graduating from South Bend High School in Indiana. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree quickly and by 1909 was once again in Indiana to work on his Master of Arts degree in psychology which he earned in 1910 from that state's university. After receiving his M.A. Sanger retraced his steps yet again to begin his teaching career at his Bridgewater alma mater.

The years 1910 through 1920 were busy ones for Sanger in his personal life and educational growth. These years also mark the start of his lifelong commitment to teaching. The appointment to the faculty at Bridgewater began Sanger's experience teaching a variety of subjects including English writing, history, philosophy, and Greek psychology. During the summer of 1911 Sanger did graduate work in psychology and Physiology at Columbia University.

He resumed his teaching duties at Bridgewater College during the academic year 1911-1912 and by the fall of 1912 Sanger had enrolled at Clark University to begin his dissertation work on the subject of senescence under the famed psychologist G. Stanley Hall with whom he developed a fast friendship. The summer of 1913 and 1914 were spent teaching at Harrisonburg State Teachers' College while the academic year 1913-1914 was spent at Clark working on the dissertation. During the summer of 1913 Sanger married Sylvia Gray Burns whom he met while both were attending Bridgewater College. The academic year 1914-1915 brought Sanger's return to Bridgewater College and by the spring of 1915 he had returned to Clark University alone, leaving Sylvia working as a housemother at the college in Bridgewater. Sanger finished his dissertation and received his Ph.D. from Clark University in 1915. The academic year 1915-1916 brought Dr. Sanger back to Bridgewater College to resume his teaching duties.

The Sangers moved to Harrisonburg in 1917, where for two years Sanger acted as dean and head of the education department of Harrisonburg State Teachers' College (now James Madison University).

During the summer of 1920, the Sangers took a trip to California to visit Sanger's parents who had yet to see their grandson, Julian (born in the spring of 1918). Sanger took opportunity to teach graduate school at the University of Utah during this extended vacation. In fall of 1920 he returned to Bridgewater College to resume his liberal arts teaching responsibilities despite the offer an attractive position in the department of education at the University of Utah.

The Sangers moved to Richmond in 1921 after Sanger accepted the first full-time position as executive secretary of the Virginia State Teachers' Association where his duties included editing The Virginia Journal of Education, the official publication of the association. The summers of 1921 and 1922 were spent teaching at the University of Virginia.

By 1922 Sanger had accepted an administration position with the State Board of Education where he remained until 1925 when he was chosen to fill the role as the first full-time president of the Medical College of Virginia (MCV).

As the history of the growth of MCV demonstrates, Sanger led the medical school through over thirty years of tremendous growth both in reputation and capacity and its standing among medical schools in the southeast was due chiefly to his broad vision during the first half of the twentieth century. Sanger's retirement in 1956 marked the end of an era for the school. The position of chancellor was created for Sanger so he could continue in the capacity of advisor to the school. He remained active in the affairs of the College until his death in 1975 at the age of 89.

Scope and Content Information

The majority of the Sanger papers are devoted to the period prior to his assumption of duties as president of the Medical College of Virginia.

Series I contains Sanger's college lecture materials; notes taken when he was a student at Bridgewater College, Clark and Columbia University. Series I also contains the hand and typewritten notes and research of Sanger's dissertation on the subject of senescence which he studied under G. Stanley Hall.

Series II consists of personal and professional correspondence; the bulk of which concerns Sanger's unsuccessful campaign for the presidency of Harrisonburg State Teachers' College (now James Madison University) in the summer of 1919.

Series III contains Sanger's hand and typewritten notes and drafts of speeches on a variety of topics related to education and the responsibilities of educators in Virginia dating from the early 1930s through the span of his career. The drafts for Sanger's two books As I Remember , an autobiography of his life and career, and MCV Before 1925 , an early history of MCV, are also included in this series.

Series IV consists of a variety of information concerning MCV including block plots and tax assessments of the college area in 1940 as well as information detailing the gala affair held in 1950 honoring Sanger's twenty-five years as President of the College.

Series V deals with Sanger's avocations outside of the educational field. The collection holds information on Sanger's partnership with a Bridgewater College colleague, Dr. Paul Bowman, in the Ridgeway Orchard in southwestern Virginia during the 1920s. Also, the records of the purchase and upkeep of Sylvia Burns Sanger's family farm in Burnsville, Virginia is included, dating from the 1940s to the early 1970s. Sanger's passion for gardening is evident in the collection of correspondence and publications found in this series.

Series VI is entitled miscellany because it contains a variety of material including some biographical data on Sanger, personal items such as postcards and notes Sanger collected over the years, personal photographs of the Sanger family from the early years as well as a great number of photographs taken on important occasion throughout Sanger's professional career. The photographs in the Sanger collection are particularly interesting. This series also holds the newspapers and clippings Sanger collected over the years 1910-1970. The clipping collection includes the local obituary notices at the time of Sanger's death in 1975. Series VI contains a variety of publications dealing with the field of education and the publications of the Medical College of Virginia. Sanger's many honorary diplomas, his high school diploma from South Bend High School, Indiana in 1906 are included in this series.

Series VII consists of additional papers donated to the archives. In addition to some photographs, correspondence and materials relating to MCV, the addendum contains the notes of two works Sanger was researching at the time of his death. This first contains handwritten biographical sketches of MCV historical figures; the second contains drafts of a work on the homes of Virginia born presidents.

Arrangement

Materials are arranged by subject and chronologically therein.

The collection is organized into seven series: Series I: College Materials, Series II: Correspondence, Series III: Writings, Series IV: Medical College of Virginia, Series V: Avocations, Series VI: Miscellany, Series VII: Addendum.