| Notes |
- Angus Hibbard left Racine College in 1878 and began his long career of telephone pioneering, ending in 1915 when he retired from active service to devote his time to civic interests.
The four milestones by which Mr. Hibbard measured his career were: his first job as chief clerk to the superintendent of Northwestern Telegraph Company (also agent for Bell Telephone); his appointment in 1886 as general superintendent of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in New York, following his successful telephone pioneering in Wisconsin and Minnesota; promotion in 1893 to general manager - then vice president - of the Chicago Telephone Company; and in 1911, he was chairman of a group to coordinate telephone and telegraph services in the U.S.
Angus Hibbard was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science for his achievements in telephone pioneering. He also wrote a book entitled, "Hello - Goodbye, My Story of Telephone Pioneering" in 1941, A.C. McClurg & Co. - Publishers.
Excerpt from "Hello - Goodbye" by Angus Hibbard, page xviii:
"Memories of Indian encampments near the city, of soldiers returning from the Civil War and of tolling bells at the time of Lincoln's funeral still remain to me. More vivid are recollections of happy childhood days at home, first schooling in St. James parish school, later at Milwaukee Academy and, in 1873, entry as a student in the Fifth form at Racine grammar school and college. Here for nearly five years, in schools established by the Episcopal Church on the model of Eton and Oxford, I took my place in scholastic activities, in cap and gown of the campus and surplice of the choir. Dominating the several hundred of us was the benign influence of James De Koven, D.D., our warden, guide and friend.
One day, while attempting to execute the so-called 'giant swing' at the end of a long rope, I fell from a considerable height to the gymnasium floor and was very much mussed up from head to feet. School surroundings did not favor convalescence and soon, on doctor's orders, I was sent home. From that point my head-long leap into the maelstrom of activity that came with the new fields of electricity and telephony was almost as precipitate."
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1860 - 1945 (85 years)
