Arpad explores history of Art Building's Phebe Conley

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With the help of campus photographer Randy Vaughn-Dotta, Professor Susan Arpad duplicated Phebe Conley's family photographs, some of which are now on display in Arpad's office. The Madden Library also currently has a small Phebe Conley display in Special Collections on the fourth floor.

Phebe Conley's father (far left) believed children should learn quickly in the mornings and ramble outside in the afternoon, so Phebe (standing by her mother to the right of her father and brother) did not spend grueling hours in a schoolroom chair.

by Mary Lisa Russell and April Schulthies

Not many people have the opportunity to reflect back over 100 years and tell someone their family history and the meaning of their life. However, Phebe Briggs McClatchy Conley did just that over a period of four years with Dr. Susan Arpad.

Arpad, a historian and the coordinator of the university's Women Studies Program, is currently writing a book on Phebe Conley. Conley is known on campus as the person for whom Conley Art Building is named; less well known is the fact that, as a member of the CSU Board of Trustees, she was a primary mover in creating student health centers in the CSU system.

Arpad met Conley shortly after the professor moved to Fresno from Ohio. Conley was her introduction to California history.

"Conley's families - the Rideout, Abbott, and Briggs families - and the family of her first husband, Carlos McClatchy, came to California with the gold rush and were successful in banking, agriculture, medicine, real estate, education, and journalism," said Arpad. "However, even though Phebe's relatives were prosperous, they suffered many tragedies that included alcoholism, suicide, and tuberculosis."

Phebe may have led a privileged life in an economically expansive time, but, because she was female, she never really had direct access to the great wealth of her families, said Arpad.

As a child, Conley spent her summers on the family estate on Lake Tahoe. She remembers running around the forest and lakeside property like a wood nymph, free to do as she pleased. But Conley also was taught that privilege brought an obligation to be useful to the community.

Conley attended Vassar College and married during the First World War. Her first husband died suddenly in 1933, leaving her to raise three sons. She remarried, to Judge Phillip Conley, in 1958. The Judge's friendship with Governor Pat Brown let to her appointment to the CSU Board of Trustees.

According to Arpad, Conley viewed her work for the CSU as one of her best accomplishments, second only to her role as wife and mother.

Arpad's book will retell Phebe's family history and examine the ways in which we tell stories about our personal lives and the histories of our families.