Michael Sprague | The Legacy contributor
Feature photo courtesy of Mary Ambler Archives. Nancy Calvert (left) and her sister Jane Calvert Rogers (right) pose with Nancy’s Sibley Medallion award in 2006. Jane also won the award in 2002
This story is part of the “Names that built LU” weekly series issued by The Legacy that has been profiling 28 campus buildings named after Lindenwood personnel.
The dedication of Calvert Rogers Hall was unlike any building dedication LU had accepted prior. In the ceremony held on July 29, 2005, the building, “was named by board member Jane Calvert Rogers to recognize her late parents, her late husband, and her sister, Nancy Calvert,” according to the LU student handbook.
Up until 2005, no building encapsulated so many people under one dedication. Some buildings were dedicated to one person and their spouse, but never a family.
The Calvert Rogers family is different though.
Beginning with Eloise Worthington, later Calvert, the family has ties to Lindenwood dating back 80 years. Eloise enrolled at Lindenwood in 1933, spending only three semesters at the college before dropping out to marry Preston Calvert according to university records.
It was not until 1956 that the Calvert legacy at Lindenwood continued on.
Now with two daughters, Nancy and Jane, the Calvert family returned for the first time in more than 20 years while passing by on the way home from vacation. Nancy was graduating high school and decided Lindenwood was the college for her.
When it was Jane’s turn to select a college, like her mother and sister before her, Jane fell in love with Lindenwood.
According to a transcript of remarks read by Chairman of the Board of Directors Jim Shoemake at the dedication ceremony, both girls graduated from the college with communications degrees. Nancy graduated in 1961 while Jane started at the college two years later, graduating in 1967.
After going on to earn her Masters in communication at Indiana University, it was not until the early 90’s that Jane again joined the Lindenwood community. Nancy was president of the Alumni Association and a member of the Board of Directors for the university and urged her sister to give the Alumni Association a try.
According to Shoemake’s remarks, all three of the Calvert ladies are members of the Sibley Heritage Society.
Jane received the Sibley Medallion of Honor for her commitment to Lindenwood in 2002, and the Alumni Merit Award for Professional Accomplishment in 2005, according to university records.
While Jane Calvert Rogers has given so much to the university, it is only fitting that a building be dedicated in honor of those who allowed her to do so. Without the guidance of her parents, and then her older sister, Jane might not have ever stepped foot on campus.
