The History of the Painted Rock

The True Story of the First Painting of the Rock at Macalester College

There have been many different accounts of how the tradition of painting the rock at Macalester began.

Here’s how it really started:

On 30 April 1958, three of us—I, along with my brother John ex’60 and Bart Mueller ’58—first painted bright red what until then had been a mostly obscure rock. We chose red because it was the night before May Day. Unknown to us, and likely to all but a few others, the rock had “08” chiseled into it, a memento for the class of 1908! The next morning (or possibly a day later), I was in a class on the top floor of Old Main when I heard scores of students alternately booing and cheering. The administration had made plans to have the rock sandblasted before the ‘08 alumni were on campus for their 50th reunion,and to do so, it had to be removed. A tow truck was brought to the site. Today’s students don’t know that the rock is in fact much, much larger than what now protrudes above the ground; in 1958 a good two to three feet were above ground, and at least as much below. When the workers made progress freeing the rock the students booed, and when it fell back down, cheering rang out. In time the rock was successfully removed, sandblasted, and returned to its original site, which was then along the walkway between Old Main and close to what is now the Campus Center. (I suspect the rock was moved closer to Old Main, where it now rests, when the Campus Center was built, or perhaps earlier.)

When my class was over I went downstairs to the snack bar in the basement of Old Main. Walking in, I saw Earl Spangler, Dean of Men, President Turck, and Art Fowler, head of buildings and grounds. They asked that I join them; I agreed since I had some matters to discuss with the first two. Sitting down, Art Fowler immediately said to me, “Nice job on the rock!” After I figuratively picked myself off the floor, I said something like “Thanks, I thought it looked pretty good myself!” Everyone laughed, some light-hearted banter followed, and we turned to the other matters. Little did I know that my brother had pilfered the paint from Art’s buildings and grounds workshop! I believe that Bart Mueller arrived in the snack bar about the same time and became very worried when he realized the red paint splattered on his shoes might give him away to those same administrators. Later that day or the next, a student petition to bring back the rock was initiated and garnered hundreds of signatures.

I know since then that the rock has been painted innumerable times. I was told (but have no verification of this) it was “rolled” at least one time across Grand Avenue, leading to the decision to essentially bury the rock, and of course, obscuring the ’08 from view. And I and my late brother have been told by others that they were the first to either paint the rock or knew the people who did. We, three perpetrators, stayed silent for many years.

One sidebar to the story: Sometime in the last 10 years or so then-President Brian Rosenberg and other administrators were on a multi-city trip to report to alumni on the capital campaign Step Forward.

My wife and I attended the Boston event. Included in the program was a short slide show, and the final slide was an image of the token, plastic red rock each of us would receive for our support. My wife and I broke out in laughter, much to the bewilderment of our tablemates (all younger than us), so we shared the story. They couldn’t believe they were actually meeting one of the original “culprits.” Brian Rosenberg was curious about the noise coming from our table, so I repeated the story about the red rock for him and the other alumni and guests. It was the first time I told the story in public. Little did we know back 63 years ago that our prank would become such a lasting tradition.

Dr. R. Bruce Ward ‘58

Lexington, MA