This collection contains records from the Alumni Affairs organization (sometimes known as Alumni Services or Alumni Relations) on the St. Cloud State University campus. The items date from 1962 to 1991, with the greater number of items dating from the 1970s and 1980s. Additions to this series may be ongoing.

The majority of materials in this collection are pieces of correspondence between the Alumni Affairs office with former students. These items make up the bulk of the collection and the biographical files are arranged in alphabetical order. These files include a myriad of items, including photographs, correspondence, newspaper articles, donation histories, funeral programs, and obituaries. Some of the biographical files are very large whilst others are quite sparse.

There are a few former prominent students that the Alumni Affairs office kept extensive information on in their offices. These students include Cyril Plattes, Ralph Heimdahl, US Congressman Nick Begich, and Dr. Richard Green.

Cyril Plattes was the Benefactor of the Friedrich Scholarship Fund. This scholarship was set up in the name of a science professor at St. Cloud State that would grant money to students studying environmental issues. For many years Plattes wished that his name be kept anonymous and not linked to the memorial fund. In 1973 the first scholarship in conservation from the George Friedrich Memorial fund was presented to five students.

Ralph Heimdahl graduated from the St. Cloud State Teacher’s College in 1930. He was an art teacher at the State School for the Deaf in Faribault, MN. Later he joined the animation department at Walt Disney Studios, and in 1948 he originated the Bugs Bunny comic strip for Warner Brothers. Heimdahl won the SCSU Distinguished Alumni Award in 1966. An endowed scholarship was established by his widow after his death in 1981 to provide financial assistance to students studying art.

Nick Begich graduated from St. Cloud with the class of 1952 and went on to become a US Congressman in Alaska. On October 16, 1972, he lost his life on a plane flight in Alaska along with U.S. Majority Leader Hale Boggs. The Nick Begich Memorial Commission was established by the St. Cloud State College Alumni Association in 1973 in tribute to the life and work of the former student. The purpose of the Commission was to establish a scholarship fund at St. Cloud State College which would enable political science majors to serve internships in Washington with members of Congress and for other political science scholarships. (2)

Another prominent alumnus included in the files is Dr. Richard Green. He graduated from St. Cloud State College with an MS in Special Education in 1968 and received his doctorate in Educational Administration from Harvard. He worked as Superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, beginning either in 1980 or 1981. Dr. Green was the recipient of the 1981 Distinguished Alumni Award. In 1988 he was hired to be the Chancellor of the New York City Schools.

The collection also includes miscellaneous materials on events, a slideshow narration, The St. Cloud State College Magazine, and the position descriptions for the head of Alumni Affairs.

The slideshow narration, Instructional Guide for Filmstrip on St. Cloud State College, was prepared for the Alumni Affairs Office by Doreen M. Keable. The script (sans actual slides or audio cassette) is dated March 13, 1970. According to the script, there is a series of forty color slides that are accompanied by a taped narration. The length of the presentation was approximately ten minutes. Some of the objectives of the slideshow include welcoming alumni and friends of the school to homecoming and other alumni functions.

The Ralph Heimdahl Papers contain eight record series: Bugs Bunny Newspaper Comic Strips, NEA Booklets and Pages and Published Sunday Comic Strips, Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes Picture and Comic Book Materials, Other Published and Unpublished Comic Strips, Rough Character Sketches, Anatomical Drawings and Watercolor Paintings, All Other Drawings, and Personal and Other Materials.

Series 1: Bugs Bunny Newspaper Comic Strips

Bugs Bunny began appearing in a newspaper comic strip in the early 1940s. The Sunday strip first appeared in newspapers on January 10, 1943 and drawn by another artist. Heimdahl began drawing the Sunday strip on October 5, 1947. The daily strip, introduced and drawn by Heimdahl, was first published in newspapers on November 1, 1948. Heimdahl would illustrate both strips until the fall of 1978.  The daily and Sunday Bugs Bunny comic strips ended in late December 1990.

In the Bugs Bunny daily and Sunday strips, Bugs is often shown trying to make a buck by selling items or providing services to his friends Porky Pig, Petunia, and Elmer Fudd. Some of Bugs’ businesses are: “Bugsy’s Toupees,” “Bugsy’s News Stand,” “Bugsy’s Beanery,” “Bugsy’s Used but not Abused Furniture,” “Bugsy’s Confidential Loan,” and “Bugsy’s Watch Repair.” Sylvester is typically a foil to Bugs, trying to mooch money or a free meal as often as he can. Other frequent gags include Bugs competing with Petunia for time on the pay phone, babysitting Porky’s nephew Cicero, or working for Mr. Schnoogle and Schnoogle's various businesses.

An item by item inventory of the newspaper comic strips is available.

Sub-series 1: Daily Comic Strips

Dating almost exclusively from 1966 to fall 1978, this sub-series contains 3200 rough pencil drawings of the Bugs Bunny daily comic strip. Except for a handful of daily strips, all drawings are dated with the published date.  Depending on time period, there are gaps in coverage.

Sub-series 2: Sunday Comic Strips

Dating from late 1947 to fall 1978, this sub-series contains 1400 rough pencil drawings of the Bugs Bunny Sunday comic strip. Except for a handful of strips, all drawings are dated with the published date.  Depending on time period, there are gaps in coverage.

Sub-series 3: Finished Ink Comic Strips

This sub-series contains a few examples of finished ink comic strips. The ink strips were sent to the Newspaper Enterprises Association (NEA), who were contracted by Warner Brothers to write and illustrate the newspaper comic strips. NEA printed the strips into the Comic Weekly booklets and distributed to subscribing newspapers. There are two framed Sunday strips, as well as five daily strips that had been given to St. Cloud State and displayed for Homecoming purposes in 1966. There are two strips from 1966 that were given to John Weismann, St. Cloud State alum and long-time employee.

Series 2: NEA Booklets and Pages and Published Sunday Comic Strips

Sub-series 1: NEA Booklets

This series includes NEA Comic Weekly booklets from 1964 to the late 1970s that have a week's worth of Sunday and daily strips for multiple different comic strips. These pages were sent to papers carrying NEA comic strips. Some of the comics included in these books include "The Born Loser," "Berry's World," "Frank and Ernest," "The Circus of P.T. Bimbo," "Zoonies," and "Alley Oop." The pages for Bugs Bunny are not included here because Heimdahl removed them from the booklets.

Sub-series 2: NEA Bugs Bunny Pages

Dating from 1964 to the late 1970s, this sub-series contains NEA Bugs Bunny pages from the weekly booklet in sub-series one. These include the six daily strips and the Sunday strip for a week.

Sub-series 3: Published Sunday Comic Strips

This includes published Bugs Bunny comic strips from Sunday newspapers dating from 1949 to 1978. Each is printed in color. There is also one Sunday strip of "Yogi" from the "Huckleberry Hound Weekly" which was a UK based comic for which Heimdahl drew the British version of the Hanna-Barbera Yogi character.

Series 3: Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes Picture and Comic Book Materials

This series includes Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes picture and comic book materials. The Looney Tunes comic books include Bugs Bunny, Baby Snoots, and Porky Pig by both Gold Key and March of Comics. The Hanna-Barbera comic books here feature Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound by Gold Key and Dell. This series also has a published Yogi Bear coloring book and the sketches that Heimdahl did for the book prior to its publication.

Also here are sketches for various other comic books for Bugs Bunny, Baby Snoots, and Uptite Mouse. The comic books covers are drawn in pencil or ink and include Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes characters such as Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Daffy Duck. There is also a comic book cover for Pink Panther. Character model sheets in this collection portray the characters from different angles and positions, which allowed the artist to see different perspectives for characters. The blueprints in this series were used for accurate printing and reproduction purposes.

Series 4: Other Published and Unpublished Comic Strips

This series includes published and unpublished comic strips and ideas of Heimdahl's that were not Bugs Bunny such as "Minnie Soo and Little HaHa," Yippy the Yukon Pilot," "Herky the Horse," and "Mr. Puffin."

"Minnie Soo and Little HaHa" was a comic that featured a Sioux boy and girl written and drawn by Heimdahl. He ultimately sold the comic to Crown Comics in New York before he returned to California to draw for Western Publishing. Included here are scripts for the comics, a notebook titled, "Indian Lore," which Heimdahl has noted the Sioux translations of names and places, rough sketches, ink sketches, model sheets, panel drawings, and pre-published comics. Crown Comics published Minnie Soo and Little HaHa from 1947 to 1949.

"Yippy the Yukon Pilot," is about Yippy, a bush pilot who operates a freight and flying service in Alaska and the Canadian wilds. This collection has rough sketches, ink drawings, and pre-published comics. It was never published.

"Mr. Puffin" includes rough pencil sketches, ink drawings, panel drawings, and pre-published comics. It was never published.

Additionally, series 4 also includes various ideas of Heimdahl's for comic strips. Some of these are characters named Snusbox, Pokey Mopus, and Zimmy Dean.

Series 5: Rough Character Sketches

This series includes rough character pencil drawings of Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera characters drawn by Heimdahl.

Series 6: Anatomical Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

This series contains watercolor paintings, anatomical drawings, and other drawings by Heimdahl, including a drawing likely from his school days from Willmar in 1926.

Series 7: All Other Drawings

This series includes materials for the Bugs Bunny Easter Coloring Contest such as rough sketches, posters, flyers, and correspondence to Heimdahl regarding the contest. The Bugs Bunny Easter Coloring Contest was designed for children up to age twelve to complete the sentence, "Bugs Bunny is My Favorite Comic Because..." or they could fill in the last line of a provided jingle. They would submit this with a colored Bugs Bunny drawing for a chance to win a prize. The contest was held by NEA. The series also has a photo of Heimdahl with the 1956 winner Cheryl Stoner.

Also included are photos of Heimdahl with Kazunori Shinoda who drew a Bugs Bunny Christmas scene that was selected by the Lung Association for the usage of the 1978 California Christmas Seal.

This series contains drawing samples Heimdahl submitted to places such as the Arcadia Public Library, Dell Publishing, and the Saturday Evening Post, along with accompanying correspondence. There is also a sketch of Bugs Bunny wearing a St. Cloud State College football uniform, sketches Heimdahl did for St. Cloud State's 1967 Homecoming, and an ink drawing of Bugs Bunny in front of Whitney House.

Finally, this series includes miscellaneous pencil and ink drawings by Heimdahl. There are also sketches in honor of Tom Peoples' retirement from NEA.

Series 8: Personal and Other Materials

Series 8 is split into three sub-series related to personal and other materials.

Sub-series 1: Correspondence

This sub-series includes correspondence between Heimdahl and various institutions such as the American Academy of Humor, St. Cloud State, and Walt Disney Studios. There are also letters regarding his retirement, fan mail sent to Heimdahl, and Christmas cards and letters drawn by Heimdahl in the 1970s which were sent to family and friends.

Sub-series 2: Published Comic Strips

Includes comic strips not written by Heimdahl that he collected for inspiration or creative ideas.

Sub-series 3: General

Sub-series 3 includes personal material related to Heimdahl such as newspaper clippings about his life, his obituary, correspondence, images, a scrapbook, his films, and letterman sweater from St. Cloud State. The book included in this collection, _A Private Gem in a Public Settings, _in which Heimdahl submitted a cartoon and is not bound within the book.

The photographs in this collection show Heimdahl in a football uniform, Heimdahl with other Disney artists, on his Vermont farm, and with his wife Esther. Other photos here feature his friends at St. Cloud State. Some of these images are digital only.

Other materials in this sub-series include books and notebooks of anatomical diagrams, engine systems, and a record he kept of the Sunday pages he drew of Bugs Bunny. The scrapbook documents his trip to St. Cloud State in 1966 in which he was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award.

There are four films included in sub-series three. "Autumn Madness" is the story of his daughter Martha's busy schedule getting ready for high school homecoming festivities. The film shows Martha in her role as a homecoming princess and decorating cars on campus for the parade. The grand climax features half-time with music of the Apache band. The film was submitted to the Bolex "How America Lives," movie contest in 1962 and won the silver medallion award.

"Pond Life," planned by Martha and filmed with the help of Heimdahl, was the result of a biology class project and filmed at an arboretum. It is a story of spring activity with scenes of ducks, geese, frogs, blossoms, and vegetation. The film was awarded first place in the Nature Classification for 16mm films for the 1963 Cincinnati Film Festival.

Other films are a 1965 film titled, "The West," which is a short film about Native Americans using still images, and a KCMT TV film "Homecoming St. Cloud State Awards Brunch" newsreel that highlights Heimdahl's 1966 St. Cloud State Distinguished Alumni Award. There is a letter from American Heritage, dated April 3, 1964, in which they negotiate terms with Heimdahl to use still photos for The West.

Finally, Heimdahl's St. Cloud State letterman sweater is included in this sub-series. It is a gold button up cardigan sweater with a maroon and black school logo on it.

This collection contains one photo album of images taken by St. Cloud State alum Andrew Lindgren between 1906 and 1909. These images comprise of most of the early images of St. Cloud State.

The majority of the photographs were taken of campus and the surrounding St. Cloud area. The album also includes photographs from cities in Minnesota, including St. Paul, Minneapolis, Silver Creek, Watab, Stillwater, Buffalo, Monticello, Spicer, and Verndale, as well as spots across the United States and Canada. These include Salt Lake City, Portland (Oregon), Annapolis (Maryland), Cripple Creek (Colorado), Seattle, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Cape Cod, and Hawaii. There are also images from British Columbia and Novia Scotia in Canada as well as Panama.

Some copies, via photography of the originals in which negatives were created, were made sometime in the 1980s and 1990s from the photo album by St. Cloud State. Only a selection was done, especially those images of campus and around St. Cloud. The printed image copies are in order as they appear in the album.

93 monthly issues of the Normalia were published between 1892 and 1904. Totaling between 20-28 pages for each issue, 8-10 issues were published a year. Faculty, and later, students, were responsible for the content.

The Normalia was a mix of a traditional newspaper and journal. Much of each issue was devoted to journal articles that were written by students and faculty of St. Cloud State. Topics for these articles widely ranged, though much focused on education. Articles varied from studies of children who were attending the model school to biographies of historical figures to original fiction. Especially fascinating were letters written by students and alum fighting in the Spanish-American War in 1899 and 1900. Overall, Normalia gives a sense of what those on campus were studying and interested in.

There is some information about the happenings of campus in the Normalia . It mostly deals with students, faculty, and alums, including visits of alums to campus, travels of current students and faculty, as well as listing positions held by of alum. Many final issues of the academic year were devoted to the presentations of graduates at commencement. Other topics include meetings of the Literary Club, athletics, including football, hockey, and basketball, and scattered images of campus and campus personalities.

This collection contains 52 oral histories, nearly all done between the mid 1970s and 1990, featuring St. Cloud State alums, long-time faculty, and top administrators, such as Presidents Budd, Wick, Graham, and McDonald. Done mostly by retired History faculty member Cal Gower, topics discussed in the oral histories include individual experiences and changes at St. Cloud State from the early 20th century, until the 1980s, as well as family background and life before and after time at St. Cloud State. Five additional interviews were done by Tom Steman in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

Some oral histories contain release forms from the interviewee and are noted.

Cal Gower conducted the interviews unless where noted.

The collection is in two series.

Series 1: Transcripts and other material

This series contains the final oral history transcripts for each interview, signed release forms, if they existed, as well as other material given by the interviewee (photos, newspaper clippings, ephemera).

Series 2: Tapes

This series contains the audio tapes from each oral history, ranging from one cassette tape to two.

The collection contains a book of letters addressed to Maybelle from her fellow dorm mates, desk mates, and teachers during her last year on campus. These letters wished her well, spoke of her character, and the hope of future correspondence. The photo album is a collection of photographs taken by Maybelle during her time in the St. Cloud State Camera Kraft student club. Photos show buildings on campus and the surrounding area, inlcuding some still standing today (such as Shoemaker and Lawrence Halls and Whitney House), as well as classmates, children, and the scenery around campus.

This collection consists of 44 boxes containing materials authored by current and former St. Cloud State University faculty, staff, and alumni. Materials include, but are not limited to, papers (many of which have been presented at meetings or conferences); studies, reports, and surveys; journal, magazine, and newspaper articles; theses; speeches; poems; and reviews. The primary author's name and affiliation to or position at St. Cloud State University is provided, where known, as are the names and affiliations of co-authors and the citation information for the works. Materials in this collection date from as early as 1886 and include several pieces from administrators and faculty members from the early 20th century. Overall, the majority of the work in the collection was created by faculty members and found publication in journals.