Robert "Bob" Marden

Robert Marden was a student from 1942 to 1943, until he was drafted. He was very active in drama productions while at the college, including Ethan Frome. He also gave the nightly fifteen-minute weekly news summary and commentary to the student body after dinner and was a student officer that regularly sat in on faculty meetings. Bob took his senior examinations in fall of 1942.

He served in the Air Force during World War II as a pilot on the European Front. After the war, he obtained a Ph.D. in government from Harvard and worked for the State of Massachusetts.

Relationships

Wife: Fellow BMC student, Helen Grace Wright

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Robert in 1997 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC – childhood family and education – initial impressions of college – Studies Building construction – Josef Albers courses – Robert Babcock history class – weekly war newssummaries – World War II service – work program – mountain fires – Roland Boyden – Eric Bentley – Erwin Straus – work on theater sets at BMC – impact of college poverty on community – architecture program and Lawrence Kocher – effectiveness of college as community – local area – discussion of integration – marriage to Helen Wright, BMC student - World War II and postwar education and career

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Writings about Robert can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers:

2017.40.087 December 1942 bulletin,

"Two plays have been selected for the Winter quarter: The Davis dramatization of Edith Wharton’s “Ethan Frome”, and an English translation of Moliere’s “Le Malade Imaginaire”. In “Ethan Frome”, Herbert Oppenheimer, Dora Harrison, and Betty Kelley will play the leading roles. They will be supported by Dick Brown, Bill Berry, Paul Snyder, Bob Marden, Otis Levy, Danny Deaver, Ruth O’Neill, Shirley Allen, Henry Adams, Bruno Piscitelle, Aurora Cassetta, Barbara Pollet, and Tom Wentworth. The play should be ready for production about the third or fourth week-end in February. Anatole Kopp has already designed the settings."

2017.40.363 "The College That Built Itself: Black Mountain Points its program to the future" (Magazine excerpt),

"That the program of Black Mountain has been successful is evident in the way students speak about the college. Twenty-one-year-old Bob Marden, a senior, sums it up this way: “You change when you come here. It may take a long time; it may take three or four days. But after a while you feel the community spirit here and soon you start saying, ‘we built this and we did that’!”"

2017.40.091 January 1943 bulletin,

"At the meeting of the Speakers’ Committee with the Social Studies teachers on Wednesday, January 20, the following were chosen for the panels on Post-War Problems to be held on February 3 and February 10: Herbert Miller, chairman, Eric Bentley, Francis de Graaff, Heinrich Jalowetz, Robert Marden, Isaac Nakata, Herbert Oppenheimer, Barbara Payne, Erwin Straus."

2017.40.100 April 1943 bulletin,

"Bob Marden and Herbert Oppenheimer have been sent to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi for Pre-Flight Training."

Air Cadet Bob Marden writes, in part, from the University of Tennessee: “The regular army life seems to tend to split the individual into two parts- one, the physical self that obeys orders automatically, keeps in stop and position, and swears at the sergeant. The other part, the mind, often goes along on its own track. Of course, here at college, we are doing some studying…. One of the aspects of the other boys here- supposedly largely the cream of Southern colleges- that annoys me considerably is their apparent dislike or dread of considering any subject on anything but a superficial level. The few times when something approaching real discussion began, it was killed in a few moments by a burlesque. Somehow they sees ashamed of any evidence of intellectualism. There is a great deal of noise to cover up some uncertainty or ignorance, which makes them feel uncomfortable. They are really terribly unsophisticated, altho, they would deny this loudly, thinking the term applied only to social graces. This will undoubtedly be a good group to fight with, altho dull to live with. The pitch of life is so much at the surface level.”

2017.40.108 May 1943 bulletin,

"Air Cadet Bob Marden writes, in part, from the University of Tennessee: “The regular army life seems to tend to split the individual into two parts- one, the physical self that obeys orders automatically, keeps in stop and position, and swears at the sergeant. The other part, the mind, often goes along on its own track. Of course, here at college, we are doing some studying…. One of the aspects of the other boys here- supposedly largely the cream of Southern colleges- that annoys me considerably is their apparent dislike or dread of considering any subject on anything but a superficial level. The few times when something approaching real discussion began, it was killed in a few moments by a burlesque. Somehow they sees ashamed of any evidence of intellectualism. There is a great deal of noise to cover up some uncertainty or ignorance, which makes them feel uncomfortable. They are really terribly unsophisticated, altho, they would deny this loudly, thinking the term applied only to social graces. This will undoubtedly be a good group to fight with, altho dull to live with. The pitch of life is so much at the surface level.”"

2017.40.119 August 1943 bulletin,

"Bob Marden writes from Nashville Tennessee: “I am in the middle of a week of tests to determine my various physical and mental aptitudes…. I am trying to make navigator, altho the great demand now is for pilots…. Army barracks life is rather grey- the range of existence is between medium discomfort and annoyance- and a mild relief at not being bothered by anybody…… I’m afraid I won’t get to B.M.C. for a good while- furloughs are practically unobtainable in the Air Corps……”"

2017.40.123 September 1943 bulletin,

"Bob Marden writes from Maxwell Field in Alabama: “The days here at Maxwell have been a continuous blur, with every one in a hell of a hurry- there are occasional periods of darkness, during part of which we sloop. The intensity of study, and amount of material we have to digest are staggering at first. Only code and air- plane identifications are entirely new; both are very interesting- a challenge to the reactions….. I rather enjoy the strict discipline here- at least most of what we do seems purposeful, which has seldom been true up to now. Life is all order- a little too much at times. I like it, until I’m forced into it….. Our days are long- 4:30 A.M to 9:00 P.M, with very few breaks, literally often less than an hour a day…”'

2017.40.144 February 1944 bulletin,

"Private Bob Marden writes from Truax Field in Wisconsin: “I’ve been here about a week and supposedly will begin classes designed to graduate me as a high-speed radio operator in the middle of the summer. A goodly number of us were yanked from the Scott Field school after getting a smathering of radio theory and a code speed of 12 w.p.m. Here we’ll take code on typewriters, which means learning the touch system, and the minimum speed is 25 words per minute, which seems faintly incredible now. I’ll work up on it gradually….Truax Field is all radio, with schools in many fields- radio, operator, mechanic, radar, fire control, and Army Airway Communications system- the last is my job, probably. Don’t know the details yet….”"

and there are many more! Bob regularly sent updates after being drafted.