Cornelliana ‘A Dashing Personality’: Remembering Willard Straight 1901 Stories You May Like ‘Good Health, Tempered Courage, and Sound Common Sense’ Let’s Hit the Slope! Celebrating Classes’ End Is a Cornellian Tradition Dragon! Dragon! Dragon! Joyful Jamboree Is a Big Red Rite of Spring The hall's namesake launched the precursors to both Dragon Day and Slope Day, wed the love of his life, and died in his late thirties Throughout the 2025–26 academic year, the University is celebrating the Straight's centennial—and Cornellians is joining in the festivities with a series of stories (plus a few articles from our backlist), trivia quizzes, photo features, and more! Visual quiz • Building history • The Stump • Straight Cookies • Willard & Dorothy's love letters By Beth Saulnier & Alexandra Bond ’12 More than a century ago—on December 1, 1918—Willard Straight 1901 passed away in France from complications of the Spanish flu, shortly after the armistice that ended World War I. Just 38, he left behind three small children and a heartbroken widow, who resolved to fulfill the charge he’d left her in his will. “My wife, Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight, is to be unrestrained in the possession and enjoyment of my entire property and estate,” the document read. “I nevertheless desire her to do such thing or things for Cornell University as she may think most fitting and useful to make the same a more human place.” It was Dorothy, an heiress and member of the prominent Whitney family, who conceived the idea of a building devoted to the nonacademic pursuits that enrich student life. Willard Straight Hall, one of the nation’s first student unions, opened on November 18, 1925. With wife Dorothy. In the intervening decades, generations of Cornellians have gathered within the Straight’s Gothic walls of Llenroc stone to dine, meet, chat, perform, play, study, or just hang out. Along the way, they may have gotten glimpses into the man who made the building possible—most prominently, the advice to his son that’s carved over the Memorial Room fireplace. “Hold your head high and keep your mind open,” it reads in part. “You can always learn.” Elaine Engst, MA ’72, the University’s archivist emerita, has done extensive research on Straight’s life. “I always thought he would make a great movie,” she says. “His story has everything.” I always thought he would make a great movie. His story has everything. University Archivist emerita Elaine Engst, MA ’72 The son of schoolteachers, Willard Dickerman Straight was born into modest circumstances in the Upstate New York city of Oswego in 1880. He was an orphan by age 10, both his parents having died of tuberculosis; he and his younger sister were then brought up by two women (one was among America’s first female physicians) who were friends of the family. Brilliant and artistically talented but prone to mischief and insubordination, Straight was expelled from school at 15; after being accused of misbehavior in study hall, he vehemently denied it and refused to submit to a caning. Straight with his younger sister, and in his military school uniform. His guardians sent him to military school—and surprisingly, he thrived there, even pondering West Point before matriculating at Cornell as an architecture student. “Devoted as he was to his work, it formed only a small part of Willard’s activities at college,” Herbert Croly, a journalist and friend, observed in his 1925 biography of Straight. “He entered enthusiastically into all the varied social and other activities of which an American college is so fertile a mother.” He entered enthusiastically into all the varied social and other activities of which an American college is so fertile a mother. Biographer Herbert Croly Straight pledged Delta Tau Delta, living in its chapter house for most of his Cornell career. He did sketches for the Widow, a campus humor publication, and wrote articles for the Era, a weekly magazine, becoming its editor-in-chief his senior year. He served as art editor of the Cornellian yearbook, joined the Savage Club and Sphinx Head Society—and, if all that weren’t enough, he launched the precursor events of both Dragon Day and Slope Day. With friends on the Hill. He was also, by all accounts, an all-around nice guy. “One of his classmates describes the final impression made by Willard Straight upon his college contemporaries as that of an admirable companion,” Croly wrote, “clean and whole-hearted in all his occupations and pleasures, and a salient, even a dashing personality.” Despite his major, Straight seems to have seriously considered a career in architecture only briefly, if at all. Stories You May Like ‘Good Health, Tempered Courage, and Sound Common Sense’ Let’s Hit the Slope! Celebrating Classes’ End Is a Cornellian Tradition After graduation—inspired by one of his faculty mentors and, as Engst wrote in the Cornell Chronicle, “embracing his own sense of adventure”—Straight spent the next decade in various positions in the Far East. They included working for the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service, as a Reuters correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, as private secretary to an American diplomat in Korea, as the U.S. consul general in Manchuria, and for a consortium of American bankers promoting investment in China. He and Dorothy met in 1909. He fell hard and avidly wooed her during a two-year courtship that mainly unfolded long distance, through letters and cables. His drawing of a professor. (As Croly wrote: “Only by constantly communicating with her could he soothe his aching heart and render their separation tolerable.”) The couple married in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1911. Willard avidly wooed Dorothy during a two-year courtship that mainly unfolded long distance, through letters and cables. They spent part of their honeymoon on the Trans-Siberian Railroad to China, where they lived for six months but were forced to leave due to the revolution. Settled in NYC, Straight worked for J.P. Morgan and then for the forerunner of the insurance giant AIG. He and Dorothy also devoted themselves to progressive causes, including co-founding the New Republic magazine with Croly. The couple’s honeymoon scrapbook, with Willard's artistic embellishments. The couple had three children, all of whom would grow up to have extraordinary lives. Whitney became a Grand Prix race car driver and World War II flying ace; Beatrice won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the 1976 film Network; and Michael was a magazine editor and novelist who later in life confessed that he’d been recruited as a spy for the KGB during his student days at Cambridge. With his family before he left for WWI. When World War I broke out in Europe, Straight became involved with the movement to prepare America for what many saw as its inevitable entry into the conflict. Although he could have served his country in a diplomatic capacity, he insisted on volunteering for the Army; commissioned as a major, he went to France in 1917 to direct the Bureau of War Risk Insurance. As the war was ending in late 1918, Straight stayed in Paris to assist with peace negotiations, writing Dorothy to ask her to bring the children and join him. A guide to her papers in Kroch Library, compiled onto microfilm in 1981, sums up what happened next: “On November 17, 1918, Willard wrote, ‘Dear Beloved, are you coming? This is all I’m thinking of—I love you everywhere. Your Willard.’ It was his last letter to his wife. Willard Straight died of pneumonia on December 1, 1918, before his family could leave for France.” Dear Beloved, are you coming? This is all I’m thinking of—I love you everywhere. Willard, in his final letter to Dorothy Dorothy was devastated—and she channeled her grief into fulfilling one of Straight’s final wishes, carefully crafting her bequest to Cornell. “She actually did a lot of research,” Engst says. “She traveled around to other universities to see what they had—that’s where she came up with the idea for a student union.” At work for the army in 1917. Seven years after Straight’s death, Dorothy remarried, to another Cornellian. She had met Leonard Elmhirst 1921 during the process of establishing her gift to the University, and his insights helped her refine her vision for the building. They ultimately relocated to his native England, where they restored a 14th-century estate, founded a progressive school, and had two children. Willard and Dorothy, in happier times. In The Straight and its Origins, published the year after his death in 1974, Elmhirst described Dorothy’s hopes for how the hall might serve the school that Willard had so loved. “Mrs. Straight visualised this building as a place where every student might begin to explore the ins and outs of his or her own make-up,” he wrote. “She knew well how the imagination can begin to bud, and to blossom, in the process of exploring friendships, at leisure or in private.” (Top: Photo illustration by Ashley Osburn / Cornell University. All images courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections.) Published September 12, 2025 Comments James Morey, Class of 1994 16 Sep, 2025 Even on a bad day, Willard Straight Hall is a better student union building than any other such facility anywhere on a University campus. All hail Willard & Dorothy Straight. Reply mike hoffman, Class of 1961 16 Sep, 2025 Thank you for your insights. It’s good to know the personalities – not just their accomplishments of the academic and cultural leaders of our Cornell. Reply Katherine Saufley, Class of 1989 16 Sep, 2025 Quite romantic & intriguing. Thanks for this scintillating insight into the history of the Straight family. Reply Ann Sulliavn, Class of 1969 23 Sep, 2025 My daughter Nora, Arts ‘01 and Law ‘05 married at Sage Chapel and had her reception at the Straight, it was a magical Sunday in October 18 years ago, we had the cocktail hour on the patio. It was just magical. She grew up in Ithaca and it was always her desire to use those two venues. Ann S. ARTS ‘69. Reply ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Class of 1954 23 Sep, 2025 Leonard Elmhirst was a friend of mine. He told me personally his story about the role he played in the founding of The Straight. Bob Reply Daniel M Silverberg, Class of 1971 23 Sep, 2025 This story makes Willard and Dorothy Straight real people to me and not just the name attached to the building. Dorothy’s vision for “The Straight” has endured for almost a century and is still ongoing. Reply Michael Shea, Class of 1984 23 Sep, 2025 Very nice bit of Cornell history. Would love to see his comic drawings from The Widow. Reply Howard Rakov, Class of 1965 23 Sep, 2025 The Straight was always where I spent idle time ( between idle time & rowing Crew) —- either in the game room or in the Elmhurst Room listening to others playing the piano. One day I came down from the game room to head to class—- everyone was talking about “a presidential assasination”. I asked, “ What banana republic this time?! “. The answer was, “NO! OUR President Kennedy”. Off to the Willard phone booths to call home for details …. The W.S. “ Ride Box” always got me a Vacation ride home to Westchester (until I had a car & was likewise putting in ride offers into the Box ….) My parents & later my family always enjoyed the convenience of staying in the “guest rooms” on the top floor on weekends alumni visits. Reply Cindi (Gray) Zembo, Class of 1980 23 Sep, 2025 I had the pleasure and honor of working at the Straight Desk during my years at Cornell (’76-80). It is one of my favorite buildings on the campus. I wonder if the guest bedroom is still in use. It’s windows overlooked the garden to the south of the building and I was reminded of those leaded windows with wrouhgt iron handles on a recent trip to the Cotswolds where we stayed in a charming Inn built in the 17th Century! Cindi (Gray) Zembo HumEc ’80 Reply Sally Weisberg Goldberg, Class of 1969 23 Sep, 2025 In this day and age of technology and instant solutions, reading about real people from the past who struggled with difficult times and complicated situations and still arrived at success, that is inspirational. Then when you find out their stories are ones that have laid the groundwork for your own life, wow! Reply Alan Perlmutter, Class of 1953 23 Sep, 2025 As an unsophisticated skinny little kid from New York City I met my first Cornell girl friend at a dance at Willard Straight during my first week at Cornell. More than 60 years later I took my entering freshman son to Willard Straight for lunch. Recollections of both events are some of my fondest Cornell memories. Reply Jerry K Jensen, Class of 1969 23 Sep, 2025 What a wonderful story. Quite a life and legacy. I never would have connected Beatrice Straight to Willard Straight Hall. It is one of my favorite buildings on campus. Alpha Phi Omega and the Cornell Cinema Society had our offices there in the late ’60s. and of course, it now houses Cornell Cinema. Reply Joel Negrin, Class of 1968 23 Sep, 2025 A few years ago, I was at a nice wedding party at a mid-town east Manhattan social club. Across from the welcome desk I was blown over by a lovely plaque, dedicated to Willard Straight, who had died in Europe in 1918. It was an easy connection! Thanks for giving us the context of this touching story. Good for Dorothy! Reply Melissa Beisheim Benno, Class of 1988 24 Sep, 2025 I got married in Risley dining hall and had my reception at the Straight. It was lovely. I threw my bouquet off the balcony. I spent so much time there and had so many wonderful memories of meals at Okenshields. It is truly a wonderful, special place. Reply Heber Vellon, Class of 1983 25 Sep, 2025 Willard Straight Hall was one of the first buildings I explored on campus and is still my favorite place on The Hill. I spent many hours in the Browsing Library. I also got a kick out of the fact that The Straight opened on Nov. 18, which happens to be my birthday! Reply Paul Roman, Class of 1964 25 Sep, 2025 The wonderful building really gave the feeling of “One Cornell” back in my day, the real center of an incredibly diverse institution, a place intended for all Cornellians. When I came on my first campus visit, my dad (Class of ’33) reserved us overnight rooms upstairs in the Straight and waking up to the Chimes and the students flowing through the building erased any doubts that Cornell was where I needed to be. Quick perusal of the internet indicates these guest rooms are long gone. Wonderful details about Willard and Dorothy Straight, especially learning of Straight’s tough childhood…always had the impression he had come from wealth. Reply Dorothy Elmhirst Straight 26 Sep, 2025 I hope the editors will allow a lowly Harvard girl (A.B. magna cum laude in Classics, 1980) a brief comment. First off, many thanks to the authors for the fine piece about my grandfather Willard Straight, with its extravagantly charming photos. And second, I couldn’t help noticing that in the page taken from my grandparents’ honeymoon scrapbook, the woman pictured in the newspaper notice on the left is absolutely NOT my grandmother Dorothy! Which begs the question, obviously, of why Willard would have failed to note — or at least neglected to remark on — the error, even as he embellished the page. We’ll never know the answer, but I do think we can see the outlines of his sharp wit in his choice of which particular headlines to feature in the album. “Miss Whitney Is Bride of Poor Man at Geneva” — what a way to poke fun at himself! Well played, Willard. Reply Allison Collard, Class of 1958 27 Sep, 2025 I have my fondest memories of Cornell visiting Willard Straight Hall during lunch time between classes from 1953 to 1958. I always found the food served to be great, especially the “Straight Burger” that they invented. I met many great classmates there and enjoyed visits to the music room where they played LP records of classical music. Bach to Beethoven etc. The had a large record collection. I also enjoyed shooting pool on the second floor and had difficulty breaking loose to go back home to study electrical engineering. It was a wonderful experience for me for those 5 years on campus. Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Campus & Beyond How Cornell Has Helped Tanzania Train (Many!) More MDs Campus & Beyond Collegetown Eateries and Watering Holes: A Celebration Students Student-Run Farm Grows Crops—and Community