McCalebs establish tradition
Jeff Billington

Editor, The Chart

1999-2000

In 1939, a student at what was then Joplin Junior College started a tradition that lives on to this day. Kenneth McCaleb saw a need for a newspaper at the school, which would one day be Missouri Southern State College. He took the initiative to create one and christened it The Chart.

Although Mr. McCaleb has now passed away, the newspaper he started still thrives and does its dual purpose as an instrument of learning for the students who make up its staff and as an information source for the students, faculty and staff of Missouri Southern.

I first met Kenneth and Margaret McCaleb in April 1998 when they were in Joplin for the unveiling of the McCaleb Initiative for Peace. I was a rookie editor on The Chart at the time and was more than a little awed by someone who would give $150,000 worth of Time-Warner stock in the pursuit of peace.

During the years I worked on The Chart I was able to see the McCalebs several times. Whenever they were in Joplin, they made a point to stop by and say hello. I have to admit the few times I missed them when they stopped by the office I always hoped they would make it by again before they left town.

I cannot remember Mrs. McCaleb without a smile on her face. She is one of those people that whenever you see her, you automatically want to hug her. When they were on campus the McCalebs were inseparable. At a program one night in Webster Hall auditorium, I noticed them sitting up toward the front holding hands.

Mr. McCaleb was an incredibly wise man. If you would ask him a question, he would lean back a little and muse on it for a second before answering.

One of the highlights of my relationship with the McCalebs came with the 60th anniversary of The Chart in November 1999. They had come to Joplin to participate in an anniversary dinner for The Chart as well as the Homecoming activities that were taking place that week.

I felt a sense of pride being the current editor of the newspaper Mr. McCaleb had created and named all those years earlier.

In the Oct. 22, 1999, issue of The Chart, Jeff Wells, who was executive editor at the time, wrote a touching tribute to this man. I would encourage anyone who wants a deeper insight on McCaleb and his life to read it.

I feel privileged that I was able to meet and visit with the McCalebs. And while I am saddened that future editors of The Chart will never get to know him personally, I believe as long as the paper is published, the spirit of Mr. McCaleb will continue to live.

I still have two letters and a card the McCalebs sent to me while I was on the staff of The Chart. Those letters will forever remain keepsakes; they will remind me of the McCalebs  kindness and generosity. They are letters of encouragement or thanks for something I wrote or did, but in reality I should have been thanking them.

Missouri Southern should be grateful to its former students like the McCalebs, for people of this caliber are few and far between in a world corrupt with greed and lust for power. The McCalebs gave back. Though nearly 60 years had passed since they were students in the halls of Joplin Junior College, they saw fit to reward the College with a gift worth $150,000. But that was not all they gave. They gave their time, their ideas and their support.