50th - Golden Anniversary

Like the Centennial celebration, the Golden Anniversary was a yearlong observance but it began on the school's anniversary date and ran through the following year.

At the 1958 Founders Day program, Madison College professor and author Raymond C. Dingledine gave the keynote address, “Madison College: The Heritage of Her Past.”

The ceremony also included a tribute to State Senator George B. Keezell of Rockingham County who had led the fight in 1908 to have the Normal School located in Harrisonburg.

In the summer of 1958, Madison College 's half-century of institutional growth was honored at the 15th annual Virginia Institute on Public Education meeting. The 1958 events were capped by a Fall Science Fair.

The 1959 portion of the golden anniversary program included the March 13 dedication of six new campus buildings. The six included three residence halls – Logan, Wayland and Gifford halls – along with Burruss Hall, the College Infirmary and Anthony-Seeger Campus Schools. The six buildings had been constructed between 1951 and 1959.

At the Founders Day program on March 14, Dr. Dingledine introduced his recently published book, Madison College : The First Fifty Years, 1908-1958.

A week-long Social Sciences symposium culminated that evening with “Emerging Horizons in an Age of Science,” a set of two speeches by Dr. Robert Charpie, Assistant Director of the Oak Ridge National Lab, and anthropologist Francis Ashley Montagu. Both scientists addressed national and international problems brought about by scientific developments.

In the news media, Madison College's half-century of achievements was recognized by five radio broadcasts, two television shows, and a special issue of the Harrisonburg Daily News Record which included over forty articles on the celebration and the college's past.