The Stockbridge Alumni Association was founded in 1926 by a group of loyal graduates who had been out in the world for several years and were mastering life's struggles, but realized the lack of any ties which would hold their interests in their Alma Mater and keep their college acquaintances dear to them.

    Stockbridge School, or the "Two-Year Course in Practical Agriculture", as it was known prior to 1928, is a very young school as it was first started in 1919. The type of training which was offered in this non-degree vocational course was entirely different; a new idea from that which one could obtain at any other college. So it was really pioneering work when Professor John Phelan and his Faculty Committee set up the standards and courses of study which one should follow in two years. Those standards which were laid down as guiding principles the first few years are fast becoming traditions of today. It was this training, academic, practical and social, which has made it possible for our group of Alumni to go out into the world and become not only skilled workers in the world's oldest and most useful profession, but good citizens as well. Stockbridge School has a very large percentage of graduates who are holding positions of responsibility, comparing favorably to other types of colleges and institutions. These loyal sons of Stockbridge are becoming the real backbone of agriculture, not only in New England, but in many other neighboring states.

    With such a loyal student body as there is on the campus each year, it is only natural that an active Alumni group should be organized. Starting as it did during the time when business was good, it had a period of rapid development and was able to get well established before the beginning of the depression; otherwise it would not have been able to weather the many years of hard times which came so unexpectedly.

    The first meeting of the Alumni was held in Sherer's Restaurant at Worcester in 1926. The committee who organized the association was made up of the following men: Sidney Smith '21, Walter E. Shaw '21, Arthur Taylor '21, Gordon Steele '21, and Roger Estey '21. Plans were formulated for the constitution and bylaws which later that summer were adopted and have been our guiding plan ever since.

    The "Stockbridge Alumni News", first known as the "Two-Year News", was published by Paul W. Viets, the Director of Placement Training, as a mimeographed sheet, and was sent to all graduates whether they were active in the Alumni Association or not. Later the Alumni Association took over the cost of publishing a printed newsletter which was issued three times each year. The practice the last few years has been that only those who have paid their Alumni dues shall receive this publication. Dues in the Association are $2.00 annually, which is a very nominal fee when one considers the cost of circularizing such a large group as there now is.