Photographic portrait of William Trufant Foster, 1910.
n July 1910, he found a “masterbuilder” for his dream in William Trufant Foster, a 31-year-old professor at Bowdoin College with degrees from Harvard and Columbia. Foster, who had never been west of the Mississippi, wired his wife the simple message, “Elected President.” It came to her as “Electric President.” The error would prove prophetic, as Eliot and the city of Portland soon came to realize.
His progressive and constructive ideas included the use of simplified spelling, the absence of formal sports programs, and the absence of fraternities and sororities to eliminate distractions from academic pursuits.
That year, the Ladd Estate Company presented a 40-acre site at the northeast corner of Crystal Springs Farm. The college bought another 46 acres in early 1911 that included the canyon; students referred to Reed as “Mr. Ladd’s Cow Pasture.”
Reed in 1910
