Century-old love affair with journalism
brings surprise gift to J-School

By Chelsi Moy
J-School Web reporter

Students at the School of Journalism will benefit from new multi-media resources at the Mansfield Library, thanks to the Mary Fergus Hoffman Library Endowment for $28,000.

This is the first library endowment to buy materials specifically for the School of Journalism, said Frank D’Andraia, dean of the Mansfield Library.

She wanted to be a journalist, but Mary Fergus, who graduated from UM in 1907, became a Butte schoolteacher instead. Now, almost a hundred years later, a gift in her name will benefit the J-school, which didn't even exist when she attended UM.

The endowment was an estate gift in honor of Mary Fergus Hoffman, a 1907 University of Montana graduate, given by her son, Ripley J. Hoffman, who died April 3, 2002.

Ripley Hoffman lived in Washington and served in the military. He was widowed in 1991. Although he never attended UM, he wanted to honor his mother, who died in 1956.

He first contacted the UM Foundation and Office of Development in 2000, saying he had no one left to give his inheritance to; all of the members of his family had died.

Among the many charities to which Hoffman donated, he wanted to give money to the J-School because he believed it was the source of his mother’s passion for journalism, said Dorcie Dvarishkis, development officer for the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library.

"She wanted to be a journalist at a time when that wasn’t very easy for women," Dvarishkis said. "She chose, instead, to become a teacher."

At the time, UM had no journalism school and no journalism classes. It would take another 11 years after Mary Fergus graduated before Arthur Stone — later the J-school’s first dean — began teaching journalism in tents on the UM Oval.

Mary Fergus was from Whitehall, Mont., and received her bachelor of arts in both literature and education.

She became a schoolteacher in Butte, where she met her future husband, a student at the Montana School of Mines. When they crossed paths again in Alaska, they married.

Hoffman said his mother was extremely proud of the fact she raised two cousins to be journalists.
At UM, Fergus was the society editor of the Kaimin in 1907. Of 13 journalists on the staff, five were women. She also was associate editor of the 1907 Sentinel, UM’s yearbook, and one of the original sisters of the Theta Phi sorority, established in 1906.

The Kaimin staff in 1907. Mary Fergus, later Mary Fergus Hoffman, (2nd from right on top row) was society editor in her senior year.

In 1907, Fergus was vice-president of Clarkia, a popular women’s literary group on campus. It promoted originality and a thorough knowledge of literature and art. The group was named after a flower that was meant to represent women’s growth in society.

The library is working to design a bookplate representative of Mary Fergus’ time at UM. The bookplate will appear in all print material bought with the endowment money, and will be located on the Mansfield Library’s Web site.

"It is an ongoing opportunity to honor someone," D’Andraia said.

J-School Dean Jerry Brown said the endowment is a great opportunity to further journalism education.
"It will enhance the holdings to graduate and undergraduate instruction," he said, "and will provide annual funds to keep us in step."

Brown said the journalism faculty has yet to decide what material will be purchased, but believes it will be multi-media resources that will benefit all journalism students.

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