This year marks the Chimes’ 100th year of publication. Originally named “The Capital Chimes,” the paper was student-conceived and has been student-run since its inception in 1926.
On a train ride back from a debate competition in Pennsylvania, four sophomores, Theodore Hax, Robert Reusch, Robert Hongland and Adrian Pfeiffer, found themselves inspired by student news publications at the rival universities.
Pfeiffer, the Chimes’ founding editor-in-chief, penned a “Golden Anniversary” history of the Chimes where he recounted that next, “the group decided to approach President Otto Mees to inquire his interest in establishing such a paper at Capital.”
Mees supported the idea but questioned the students’ preparedness for the undertaking. Upon realizing they had no idea how to run a student paper, the students began their research.
Pfeiffer wrote how they overcame these early roadblocks: “Realizing that much more investigation was needed, the group communicated with long-standing college papers at Wittenberg, Akron, Toledo and Ohio Universities from which more definite information was garnered.”
They returned to Mees with a plan, and he gave his approval for the project to move forward; however, the staff faced another challenge: learning the journalistic process.
This next step is also explained in the “Golden Anniversary”, “At the time there was no class in journalism on the campus, not even a book on the subject in the library. So Pfeiffer went to [the Ohio State University] library, secured a volume, memorized it as best he could, and started producing the newspaper with a very interested and, soon to be discovered, a very capable staff.”
Once they had the necessary knowledge and resources, the students organized themselves into the first management staff, with Pfeiffer as editor-in-chief and Reasch as managing editor.
The university history book, “Chronicle of Change: Capital University 1950-2000,” explains the origin of the paper’s name: “A contest was held to name the newspaper, and student Forrest Stoneburner proposed the name Capital Chimes. The idea came from the chimes that were being installed in Schenk divinity hall at the seminary in 1926.”
The section of the building where the Schenk chimes are located served as the first logo for the paper and inspired many subsequent renditions.
The first news print was prepared for commencement on Jun. 14, 1926. An editorial on the front page of the first edition said, “It is our purpose to have the name of Cap re-echo throughout our constituency by means of the CHIMES.”
The first print covered the dedication of the chimes at the seminary and the university’s application to join the Ohio Athletics Conference.
The new paper took the place of the old literary magazine, “The Spectator,” which printed student prose writing as well as campus news; however, “The Spectator” was slow to publish because of its format, so any news stories would quickly be out of date.
The first Chimes edition cited this as a reason for its creation, “Let’s make it possible to get NEWS and instead of HISTORY!”
The Chimes began publishing bi-weekly news prints the semester following its commencement day debut.
Pfeiffer served as editor-in-chief until he graduated in 1927. He concluded the 50th history by saying, “To edit and to prepare the Chimes for all who served on its staff was a great privilege.”
