Wilson Years
Paul, Lorraine, Anne, and Mary Havens
When Paul Swain Havens assumed his duties as president of Wilson in 1937, he was 33 years old, making him one of the youngest college presidents in the country. One newspaper commented that Lorraine, who was 30 at the time, could have been easily mistaken for one of the Wilson College students with whom she played tennis, rode horses, swam, and golfed.
Throughout the 34 years that Paul and Lorraine Havens served Wilson College, the President’s home was, reportedly, the center of social life on campus. The Havens commonly served coffee and hot cocoa to students who stopped by to visit, and both Paul and Lorraine made themselves available to listen to the concerns students had regarding academic, as well as personal matters.
A favorite memory that many graduating students took from their years at Wilson concerned president Havens’s “Life of the Mind” course. This was the only course which Havens taught at Wilson, and it was offered every semester since its introduction. Only seniors in high academic standing were invited to enroll in the class, and the interdisciplinary focus of the course invited students to draw upon the broad range of knowledge which they had attained throughout their liberal arts education. Using his background in teaching English literature and the humanities, Havens prompted participants in the course to draw meaningful connections between problems faced in the modern world and solutions offered by classical philosophers as well as great writers.