Middlebury Magazine

  • Recent Stories
  • Menu
    • Features
    • Pursuits
    • Q&A
    • Editor’s Note
    • Old Chapel
    • Road Taken
    • Review
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • How Did You Get Here Series
    • About
    • Advertising
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Writers’ Guidelines
  • Search

Summer 2017 Editor's Note

The Gravity of It All

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Suharu Ogawa
July 20, 2017
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • Email icon

A lot of thought and research went into the selection of 46 objects that we think best illustrate Middlebury’s 217-year history. Many more items than 46 were up for consideration—if we had the space in these pages, we easily could have included at least 100—but one object in particular that didn’t make the cut is worth writing about just because it is so damn weird.

It’s that gravestone-shaped slab of granite that juts out of the lawn over by Warner Hall, with the following words inscribed on its polished face:

This monument has been erected by the Gravity Research Foundation, Roger W. Babson Founder. 

It is to remind students of the blessings forthcoming when a semi-insulator is discovered in order to harness gravity as a free power and reduce airplane accidents. 

And there it sits, with no other explanation.I highly doubt I was the first, nor will I be the last, to read these words and think, huh?

About 10 years ago, an alum named Ben Gore ’04 pitched me on the idea of running a story on the monument. We ended up not running the piece, but Gore’s reporting unearthed some fascinating material. The foundation and its founder, Roger Babson, were very real and very serious about the intent to both study and perhaps alter one of nature’s four laws. His quixotic pursuit was born of tragedy: he lost both his sister and grandson in separate drowning accidents. Gravity seized them “like a dragon,” the Chronicle of Higher Education reported him writing.

And after making a fortune in finance, he was well funded to pursue his quest. The monuments—there are 13 total—are a by-product of this effort. In the 1960s, Babson made a series of stock donations to colleges, Middlebury among them. The donations came with a pair of stipulations: that the stocks be liquidated after 40 years and that an “anti-gravity monument” with Babson’s chosen inscription be erected on campus. To date, gravity has yet to be harnessed, and Babson’s monument still stands on our fair campus. As for the 416 shares of the American Agricultural Chemical Company that Babson donated to Middlebury? That fund was liquidated in 1999. Dividends of the stock, having been reinvested, were worth about $4 million—and were used to help finance the construction of Bicentennial Hall, Middlebury’s science center.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Stories

Features

What’s The Deal?

The story behind the critically acclaimed podcast, hosted by Middlebury Institute professor Jeffrey Lewis, that tells you everything you need to know about the Iranian nuclear deal.

By Rhianna Tyson Kreger
Photo illustration by Paul Dahm
December 16, 2020

Hunger Fight

How two Middlebury alumni are building on the local food economy to help hungry Vermonters.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photographs courtesy ShiftMeals
December 3, 2020

My COVID Road Trip

With their mother ailing, a writer and his brother hit the road for a cross country trek as a pandemic takes hold across the country.

By Charlie Tercek ’83
September 11, 2020

An Education Unto Itself

The stories of five teachers—all grads or current students of the Bread Loaf School of English—as they attempted to make sense of the unknown.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustrations by Tilda Rose
July 21, 2020

Dispatches

Otter Nonsense

Who had giant mutant otters on their 2020 Bingo card?

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by Daniel Houghton '04
December 17, 2020

Marble Works

How recycled stone from a College building has a second life in the local arts world.

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Todd Balfour
December 16, 2020

Home Schooled

With COVID restrictions temporarily halting normal campus activities such as in-person lectures, a pair of faculty members devised a digital alternative that should have a shelf life for years to come.

By Sara Thurber Marshall
Illustration by Harry Campbell
November 5, 2020

Home, Heart

A student-designed affordable home wins major architectural award

By Stephen Diehl
Photographs by Lindsay Selin Photography
October 8, 2020

Catching Up with Elise Morris

Our colleagues in Athletic Communications talk to the women's soccer player about one of higher education's most pressing issues: sexual assault prevention and awareness on college campuses.

By Ali Paquette
Photography by Ali Paquette
October 7, 2020

Since We Last Spoke: Hunter Sykes, MA IEP ’05

The latest in our new series, in which writers and subjects from magazine stories past reconnect, catch up, and reveal how their lives have unfolded . . . since they last spoke.

By Eva Gudbergsdottir
September 24, 2020

The Meaning of Alexander Twilight

We celebrate the 225th anniversary of Alexander Twilight's birth by continuing to examine his complex legacy.

By Matt Jennings
Photograph courtesy Middlebury Special Collections
September 23, 2020

In Isolation in Middlebury, Vermont

The fifth story in a seven-part series: audio portraits created by Middlebury students in the spring of 2020, capturing their initial days of sheltering in place.

By Olivia Green '20
September 21, 2020

Back to School, Part II

Faculty impressions from the first week of classes.

By Stephen Diehl
Photograph by Paul Dahm
September 17, 2020
View All

Pursuits

Next Steps

For much of his life, dancer and choreographer Cameron McKinney '14 has met any challenge or setback head-on. Why should now be any different?

By Jessie Raymond '90
Photograph by Yeager Anderson '13.5
August 26, 2020

Q&A

Major News

A visit with history professor Bill Hart.

By Matt Jennings
Photograph by Paul Dahm
February 25, 2020

Editor’s Note

A Brilliant Fogg

Saying goodbye to a dear colleague and friend.

By Matt Jennings
Illustration by Jody Hewgill
February 25, 2020

Old Chapel

The Magnitude of Systemic Racism

Acknowledging a national scourge and examining the work that must be done at Middlebury— individually and collectively—to combat it.

By Laurie L. Patton
Illustration by Montse Bernal
June 9, 2020

Road Taken

Airlifted into Adulthood

A backcountry accident prepares the writer to stand on her own two feet.

By Krista Karlson ’17.5
Illustration by Jasu Hu
August 24, 2020

Quotation

A summer immersed in a language can do wonders, as veterans of Middlebury College’s famous language-learning program can attest. The lockdown is clearly going to amount to the equivalent of about two summers, and there are mini-Middleburys happening in millions of houses worldwide.”

—John McWhorter, writing “The Coronavirus Generation Will Use Language Differently” in the Atlantic.

Podcasts

Alone Together, Ep. 9 with Jessica St. Clair ’98 and Dan O’Brien ’96

Dan O'Brien ’96, a playwright and poet, and Jessica St. Clair ’98, a comedian and writer, join President Patton for our final check in with the community during COVID-19 self-isolation. Dan and Jessica are a true power couple in the arts that met in a Middlebury improv group. They discuss Dan's magazine essay "Life Shrinks: Lessons from Chemo Quarantine," how reopening the country feels a lot like remission, and how their art is evolving to reflect the pandemic.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 15, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 8 with Dick Clay, Covid-19 Survivor

In this episode, Dick Clay, a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, shares his story of recovering from COVID-19. Dick discusses when the seriousness of the virus hit him, the "wilderness path to recovery," and how he will process this experience through writing.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
June 8, 2020

Alone Together, Ep. 7 with Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, Essential Workers

In this episode, we hear from Jodie Keith and Jacque Bergevin, who have been working with custodial services to keep our Vermont campus safe and clean. Jodie and Jacque share what campus has been like since the students left: what it's like to schedule hourly sanitation of buildings, how every day feels like an empty Saturday morning, and that the infamous Middlebury squirrels have lost a bit of weight.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Photography by Bob Handelman
June 1, 2020

Review

Editors’ Picks for November and December

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
December 4, 2020

How Did You Get Here?

Lizzie Apple

By Georgia Grace Edwards
July 11, 2018

Aube Strickland

By Georgia Grace Edwards
July 11, 2018

Stephen Bissainthe

By Julia Trencher
July 11, 2018

Videos

In the Blink of an Eye

Gone in less than a minute—the middle of June 2019 to the middle of June 2020, as viewed from the rooftop of the Mittelman Observatory.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
Video by Jonathan Kemp/Mittelman Observatory
June 10, 2020

All the Feels

Current students, alumni of all ages, parents, faculty, and staff come together to sing Middlebury's alma mater "Walls of Ivy."

By Chris Spencer
May 26, 2020

A (Virtual) Visit with Kenshin Cho ’20

Laurie Patton chats with the political science major and SGA treasurer, who has been unable to return to his native Tokyo.

By Middlebury Magazine Staff
April 18, 2020
Middlebury College
  • Alumni
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • icon-instagram

The views presented are not necessarily those of the editors or the official policies of the College.

© 2021 Middlebury College Publications.