January 21, 1952

Anticipating the eventual creation of a development office, President Blanding announced the appointment of John Grier Holmes, formerly assistant to the president of Sarah Lawrence College, as secretary of the college. Mr. Holmes’s duties included directing Vassar’s publications, public relations and endowment office. Holmes played an important role in the college’s outreach to business and industry and to such nascent organizations of the Council for Financial Aid to Education and the American College Public Relations Association. In the years immediately after his appointment, he worked with trustees on Vassar’s “ten year development plan.”