History Highlight: Women of BC

Grace Van Dyke Bird was Bakersfield College's longest reigning president, from 1920-1950, and was the first woman to head a public community college in California. Read more about her remarkable life and how she led Bakersfield College into what it is today at History Spotlight: Grace Van Dyke Bird.

Back to Top

Grace Bird had a passion for hiring and nurturing the best teachers she could find. She drew many of her recruits from the high school faculty, but Bird also looked to top universities for new teachers. She was greatly aided in attracting outside talent by the top salaries that the oil- and ag-rich district was able to pay.

One of Bird’s early protégés, Margaret “Peg” Levinson, was an English teacher who came to BC in 1931 fresh from Mills College. Levinson began as the Journalism instructor, advising both the Rip student newspaper and the Raconteur yearbook in its first year of publication. She advised many clubs on campus, and Bird quickly gave Levinson more administrative duties as she became Dean of Women, Dean of Students, then Dean of Instruction.

Levinson not only became Grace Bird’s trusted administrator but also a close friend and admirer. She told an interviewer of the “great, genuine, compassionate understanding that (Bird) had for members of her faculty. She knew something about their lives. She knew something about their problems. She knew something about their triumphs.” Bird wrote a thoughtful and personal Christmas note to every faculty member each year, Levinson recalled, adding that Bird often worked several hours after midnight on college projects.

“I don’t know where this vitality and drive came from,” Levinson said. “Some inner strength, some inner concern that made her spend herself lavishly.”

For Grace Bird, the admiration was mutual.

“She thinks with her heart as well as her mind,” Bird once said of Levinson. “She possesses a delicious sense of humor which is ever present. She maintained an endearing loyalty to persons and beliefs. Spirit and ideals of our college.”

“Everyone who describes Peg Levinson mentions her warmth, her ease with people, -- her ability to listen and empathize,” former BC English professor Marci Lingo told a BC audience during Women’s History Month.  “On campus, she knew everyone, from faculty to janitor, and treated them all as friends.” Levinson would leave her own stamp on the college long after Bird departed. Former BC President John Collins called Levinson “the grand lady of Bakersfield College. She never became President, but she taught a number of Presidents how to do their job.

Back to Top

Adelaide Schafer was hired to teach German at Bakersfield Junior College (BJC) in 1938. She left her BJC teaching position in 1943 to join the WASP, Women's Airforce Service Pilots. These women were the first in history trained to fly military planes. It was not desired by our government to have women in combat, but during World War II, more qualified people were needed. Male fighter pilot schools needed planes to train their men for war and the WASP was organized to fly various fighter planes from one airbase to another. Adele wanted to serve and her only handicap was her height. She trained and flew planes sitting on a pillow so she could see out of the cockpit. She said (as reported in a 1974 Raconteur), "I applied for the program because I didn't want a desk job, and I did want to learn to fly. My father was appalled; he thought it was very unladylike.”

The Renegade Rip in April of 1946 published a letter written by Infantryman Harry Francisco crediting Miss Schafer, his BC German language teacher, with the capture of 12 Nazi infantrymen. Harry, without a rifle in hand, shouted orders in German for them to give up and they did. "They'd have shot me if I hadn't been quick with the lip---so maybe I learned something in school after all. But we'll credit Miss Schafer with the capture:' With the war over, in 1946 she returned to Bakersfield Junior College and returned to her first love, teaching students. She rented a small apartment on "A' Street for $45.00 a month. It was small and over a garage but suited her fine. It was just a few blocks and a short walk to the Bakersfield High School campus and her classroom in the JC Building. The 1947 Raconteur was dedicated "To Miss Adelaide Schafer, who generously gave time, effort and inspiration to her numerous clubs, classes, and activities." She taught German for over forty years, retired, and continued to volunteer as a tutor. She ultimately worked as a teacher/tutor at Bakersfield Junior College and Bakersfield College for fifty-two years, all the time living in that same apartment on "A" Street. Her landlady never raised her rent from the $45.00 a month in fear of losing such a good renter.

Adele was a marvelous teacher and friend to everyone who wanted to know her. She had a habit of inviting new faculty members to dinner at her small apartment on "A" Street. My invitation came in the fall of my first year on campus, 1963, and she served fondue to me and Professor Paul Gordon. She also sometimes recognized what faculty person might need a loan. She would come into an office, close the door, and start to talk about all this money she had and, "by the way, do you need a loan?" The Language Arts Building at Bakersfield College, where Schafer taught her classes from the day the building was completed in 1968 until she officially retired in 1978 was renamed "Schafer Hall" in 1988 while she was still tutoring students there as a volunteer.

Back to Top