The collection is organized by the following series: Biographical Materials, Correspondence, Meeting Minutes, Photographs, Reports, Speeches, and Subject Files. Dr. Warriner’s personal papers, 1885, 2002, including Biographical Information, such as his Obituary, 1945, and Memorial Service Materials, 1946; a Scrapbook, undated, ca. 1890; Photographs, undated; his Diaries and Date Books, 1885, 1903, 1905-1906, 1929-1937; his License to Preach, 1913; and related newspaper articles (copies). Other series in the collection include Correspondence, which includes personal correspondence, such as about the death of his son Paul Warriner, 1917, and professional correspondence, 1902-1939, undated; Meeting Minutes of various CMU organizations and committees, 1932-1940; Reports of CMU and educational organizations, 1919,1939; Speeches Dr. Warriner gave, 1906, 1942, undated; Subject Files, 1907-1948 and two student papers about him, 1952, and undated; and his Writings and Speeches, 1900-1935, undated. Lastly, there is a box of 3 x 5 inch index cards, indexing his correspondence, 1992-1939, undated.
The collection provides good documentation on Warriner, his interests, ideas, and education and CMU related issues of interest during his tenure as CMU’s president.
Items of note specifically related to Warriner’s interest, views and work related to peace and related issues include: (all in Box 2 folders): in Correspondence: Peace, 1911-1916, 1919: numerous correspondence related to peace, most notably the American School Peace League Letterhead letter about the Celebration Peace Day, April 12, 1915; in Speeches, Miscellaneous-Peace Papers, 1912-1913: the rare newspaper-style undated facsimile about Kellogg-Briand Pact “Si Vis Pacem, Para Pacem;” and in Subject file: American Association of Teacher College, Standards, 1926-1927: his handwritten draft, Essay on Socrates.
Biography:
Eugene Clarence Warriner was born in the village of Earlville (Dixon County, Ill.) in 1866. He graduated from high school in 1884 and then taught in rural schools there for three years.
Warriner earned an A.B., with honors, from the University of Michigan in 1891. He continued graduate studies in Greek and Latin for one year. Later, Dr. Warriner Pursued graduate degrees at Clarke, Harvard, and Columbia universities.
In 1892 he became the principal of Battle Creek High School. Three years later, Dr. Warriner became the principal of East Saginaw High School. In 1899, he became superintendent of the Saginaw school system, a position in which he served for 18 years.
Dr. Warriner was licensed to preach as a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1913.
While an educator and superintendent of Saginaw Public Schools, 1896-1918, Warriner became a firm believer in the peace through law movement and the integration of its principles into public education. He was a strong advocate of and involved with international peace organizations in the period before World War I, including the peace through law movement and the American School Peace League. The League worked to incorporate a peace studies curriculum into K-12 American schools. The curriculum was designed to re-orient public education to encourage the study of “peace heroes” and provide a comprehensive program in the areas of moral, social and intellectual development. The movement also proposed an annual “Peace day” on May 18, the date that the first Hague Peace Conference was convened in 1899. The day was widely recognized throughout the U.S. and promoted by the Department of the Interior (where the then Bureau of Education was located). Warriner directed Saginaw teachers to teach peace through law to children in multiple grade levels. He was also involved in the organizations’ state affiliate and served as president of the organization in 1910. World War I split the membership of the peace through law movement. Warriner sided with those who decided to support the American war effort. Although WWI ended the peace movement in the U.S., many of the education ideas the movement endorsed continued to exist in American educational curriculum as aspects of “good citizenship.” (This information is from “Professor Hope May: CMU President Warriner and WWI Peace Movement,” Clarke blog, March 2, 2013, her research and publications on the topic.) For more information see the finding aid.
During the summer of 1908, Dr. Warriner traveled in Germany, studying its industrial schools. In the same year he became associated with Central State Normal College, later Central Michigan University (CMU), as a Summer Session instructor. Following President Charles T. Grawn’s resignation, Dr. Warriner was elected President of CMU, by the State Board of Education in 1918. He served in the position for 21 years, until he retired in 1939.
While Dr. Warriner was president at CMU, the college grew from fewer than five hundred students to nearly a thousand. He led the college through the difficult years of World War I, the 1918 flu epidemic, the Great Depression, and two disastrous fires. He retired in June of 1939.
Among his honorary degrees, Dr. Warriner received an honorary M.A. degree was conferred by the University of Michigan in 1912, and a LL.D. by Alma College in 1938. He also received a varsity letter “C” at the 1937 CMU football banquet. Members of the football and basketball teams presented him with gold trophies.
Dr. Warriner married Ellen, with whom he had two sons, John E. and Paul (d. 1917), and a daughter, Mrs. Harold Bohn.
On July 20, 1945, Dr. Warriner died at Bayview Hospital. His summer home was in Bayview. He had been in ill health for several years. He was survived by his wife, son, John E., and daughter.
Dr. Warriner is remembered as a great educator who had a powerful influence on a generation of Saginaw men and women, and hundreds of CMU students. A special memorial service was held for him in Warriner Hall, CMU’s administration building, which was named in his honor, on February 17, 1946. (This information is from the collection.)
