The School for Christian Workers (now Springfield College) was established in 1885 to train young men for various fields of Christian work open to laymen. Although specifically evangelical Protestant in nature, the School was also explicitly interdenominational and international in scope. The demand for qualified men in the rapidly expanding Young Men’s Christian Association movement was particularly pressing. Jacob T. Bowne (JTB) was hired in 1885 to create and oversee the School’s Secretarial department, which trained young men for work as secretaries (executives) of YMCAs in the United States and around the world.

Considered the father of professional education in the YMCA, JTB was born in Glencoe, Illinois, in 1847. After completing his schooling in New York City, he entered the family business. JTB became interested in Christian work and helped to found a YMCA in his home town. In 1877 he relinquished his business career and became the secretary of the YMCA at Hudson, New York. It was here that he began collecting material for his Association Historical Library, which was later given to the International Committee (now the YMCA of the USA) and duplicates of which became the basis for the Springfield College Archives and Special Collections. In 1878 JTB became associate secretary of the Association in Brooklyn and later assumed full charge. In 1879 he became secretary of the YMCA in Newburgh, New York, where he organized meetings for prospective secretaries that were the first steps in training for the secretaryship of the YMCA. From 1883 to 1885 JTB developed and supervised the personnel service of the International Committee of the YMCA, which recruited competent secretaries. JTB wrote a textbook for the course in Association methods that was published by the International Committee in 1888 and, from 1887 to 1892, was a frequent contributor to Association publications. In addition to running the School’s Secretarial department from 1885 to 1907, JTB planned and oversaw construction and operation of the College’s first library (1912). JTB served as librarian until 1922, when he retired, and died in 1925.

The two-year program in YMCA work was considerably enlarged within a few months of the School’s founding, with courses covering the field, aim, history, organization, buildings, business management, methods of work by departments (district, state, international), and work for special groups (including college and railroad) of the YMCA. Leaders in the YMCA movement (including Robert R. McBurney and Luther Wishard) offered special lectures on such topics as practical methods of Bible teaching and unexpected difficulties in the first year’s work of a Secretary. All students were also required to work for local YMCAs during their time at Springfield. In 1890 the Association departments (Secretarial and Physical) separated from the School for Christian Workers and incorporated as a distinct institution called the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College). That year the admissions policy became more rigorous. During the 1890-1891 academic year, correspondence courses were begun to serve men already working at YMCAs and who found it impossible to enroll in the regular course. The 1893-1894 year saw an increased emphasis on students’ practical work with local Associations, work that counted toward the student’s grade. After a trial of four years, the correspondence courses in the Secretarial and Physical departments were discontinued at the end of the 1894-1895 school year. For the fiftieth anniversary of the YMCA, George Williams, the founder of the London Association in 1844, sent a letter and four-minute audio message to the graduating class. In 1895 a faculty committee thoroughly revised the curriculum, resulting in an extension of the regular program to three years beginning in September 1895. The curriculum was now designed to focus on four themes: the Bible, Man (including a general study of the physical, mental, and moral nature and relationships of individuals), Association work, and Practice (including athletics, gymnastics and shop work in the industrial training department).

Laurence L. Doggett, state secretary of the YMCA of Ohio, was named the School’s first full-time president in 1896 and led the School into the next four decades. In 1903 he published an extended essay in the School’s magazine, Association Seminar, on “The Secretaryship of the YMCA as a Life Work.” Doggett noted that North America dominated the YMCA in terms of membership, buildings, and number of paid, trained employees. He traced the growth of the secretaryship from 54 professionals in 1873 to 464 in 1886 to 1206 by 1901. In 1907 Ralph L. Cheney, a former YMCA secretary in both Albany and Niagara Falls, New York, became head of the Secretarial department, a position he held until 1924.

Sources Used

Bowne, J.T. “The First Decade of the Training School,” Association Seminar (January-March 1910): 195ff. Burr, Hanford. “Jacob Titus Bowne,” unpublished pamphlet, 1925.

Hopkins, C. Howard. History of the Y.M.C.A. in North America (New York: Association Press, 1951).