Biography/History

Carlisle V. Hibbard

Carlisle V. Hibbard and Sue Eugenia Lowell were married in August, 1902. He was the son of a school principal in Racine, Wisconsin and she, the daughter of a Janesville, Wisconsin businessman. The couple had three children, Esther, Lowell, and Russell. Lowell died in Dairen, Manchuria in 1914. At the time of Mr. Hibbard's death, Nov. 28, 1954, Esther was Dean of Doshisha Women's College, Kyoto, Japan; and Russell was an executive with General Motors in Detroit.

C. V. Hibbard's life was spent in the service of the Y.M.C.A., and every position he had was concerned with the work of that organization or with students. His years of service may be divided thus:

1902-1914	Student Secretary for the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A.; working in Japan, Korea, and Manchuria with students and soldiers.
1915-1924	Associate General Secretary for the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A.; working in prisoner of war camps during and after World War I, in Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Japan, Great Britain, and the United States.
1924-1940	Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. at the University of Wisconsin.
1941-1942	Y.M.C.A. representative in raising funds for prisoner of war work, traveling and lecturing.
1943-1944	Executive Secretary of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, Swarthmore College.
1944-1953	Secretary of the University of Wisconsin Y.M.C.A. Board of Trustees. Spearheaded the drive to raise one half million dollars for the new Y.M.C.A. building.

Esther L. Hibbard

Particular attention is called to the career of Esther Hibbard, as her correspondence makes up a large portion of the collection. Most of the years after 1929 she was a missionary and teacher in Japan. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1924, took her MA at the University of Wisconsin, and taught at Central High School in Madison for three years. In 1927 she attended summer school at the University of Colorado, in 1928 went to Europe, and in 1929 began her career as a missionary to Japan. This was interrupted by periodic furloughs and by World War II. She returned to the United States in 1941, took her doctorate at the University of Michigan in 1944, and taught the next two years at Northwestern University. After the war, in 1946, she went back to Japan to teache at Doshisha University and in 1950 became Dean of Doshisha Women's College, a branch of the University.