Mary Blackstock

Blackstock Hall is named in memory of a long-time benefactress, Mary Hardtner Blackstock. In June 1937, IWU purchased the Benson residence, what we know now as Blackstock, to use as a women’s residence with housing for 24. It also held the Printmaking Studio for the School of Art in one wing.

At Commencement 1947 Dean Malcolm A. Love, presented Mrs. Blackstock for the degree of Doctor of Letters of Humanity by saying, “your … loyalty to the ideals of the church has passed over into the fields of education. You have been deeply concerned with the proper training of American youth and especially with the program of the Christian college…our institution acknowledges you as one of its most earnest and staunchest friends….”

More information on Mrs. Blackstock is available in the tributes published about her in the September 1954 IWU Bulletin (p. ).