A time capsule revealed campus life in 1967. A new collection is created for the future.
By Kris Dreessen
In 1967, Tim Richter and Linda Hurd Richter graduated from Geneseo and started their lives together as husband and wife and as schoolteachers. That same year, football fans watched the first Super Bowl, and The Doors released their debut album. By June, almost 100,000 young people had flocked to San Francisco for the Summer of Love.
Members of the campus community created a time capsule to capture the era—and sealed it into the cornerstone of the newly built Milne Library. Fifty-seven years later, contractors working on the $35 million renovation of the library discovered the sealed copper box behind the building’s cornerstone.
In it were, among other items, a course catalog, a 1966 penny, and an issue of the student-run newspaper The Lamron. The Lamron featured events, members of the Inter Fraternity Council, and social notices of weddings and “pinnings,” when a male student gave a female student a pin to show they were going steady.
Tim and Linda Richter are one of the Geneseo couples who married during their senior year.
“We had a wonderful time. It was one of the best times of our lives,” says Linda Richter. “We’re in constant contact with our Geneseo friends, many of whom also married a Geneseo classmate.”
Tim Richter lived in what is now Blake Hall, where all male students were assigned rooms. They both donned the mandatory “freshman beanie,” which allowed upperclassmen to identify new students so they could invite them to activities.
“It helped us feel welcome,” says Tim Richter. “I don’t know when the beanie tradition stopped, but it was a good one. I still have my beanie.”
Protests and flower power hadn’t yet hit Geneseo in 1967, say the Richters. Few students had cars; instead, they walked everywhere, including to M & E to dance. Emmeline was stolen from the fountain but always returned. During the Richters’ four years at Geneseo, President John F. Kennedy was assasinated, The Lettermen performed on campus, and the Rolling Stones and The Beatles were new.
“We all watched The Beatles’ US debut on The Ed Sullivan Show on the tiny black-and-white TV in the residence hall lounge,” says Tim Richter. “I said, ‘They are all right, but they are never going to make it.’ They always ripped on me for that, because look what happened!”
The Richters loved Geneseo so much, they recently created an endowed scholarship to help Oakfield-Alabama high-schoolers where they live and taught for so many years, to pursue their own college dreams at Geneseo.
Soon, the College will create a new time capsule and seal it into the cornerstone of the renovated Milne Library, which is scheduled to reopen during the 2024–25 academic year. Those who open the box decades from now will discover eclipse glasses, a face mask and documents to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic, a clipping of the Seuss Spruce and photographs of the tree, Milne Library construction photos, a 2024 Commencement program, and other items.