Old Dominion University Faculty Wives Club

Faculty Wives Club Octoberfest Booth, 1976

The Old Dominion University Faculty Wives Club is a social and service organization made up of faculty wives from Old Dominion University (ODU).

History

Founded in 1950 by Virginia Rice Webb, the wife of Norfolk Division Director Lewis W. Webb, Jr., the Faculty Wives Club served as a source of socialization for the original sixteen to twenty members. Meetings were held on Friday evenings because it was the only night the women knew they could depend on their husbands to take care of the children. Each woman would bring a dime in order to purchase refreshments.

As the membership of the club grew, it quickly adapted to the needs of its members, developing interest groups such as bowling and bridge clubs, holding social events, as well as creating bylaws and handbooks as a way to govern this newly developing organization. As a young organization, the Faculty Wives Club aimed to serve the interests ODU community acting as a connector between the University and the surrounding cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Town-N-Gown is one of the most prominent Norfolk organizations to work with the Faculty Wives Club. As a matter of fact, the Town-N-Gown organization developed out of the Faculty Wives Club. During the 1960s, the club began publishing a monthly newsletter, entitled Furbelows. This name, also used as the name of the club, means a showy piece of ornamentation or a loose flowing part of a garment. While the collection does not give specific details as to why the name was chosen for the title of their newsletter, one could assume word play came into account. The idea of describing themselves as an ornate group of educated women socializing together seems fitting.

The Faculty Wives club was a service organization in addition to a social club. One of their philanthropic activities was the Recording Service for Center for the visually impaired located in Perry Library. The objective of this project was to provide tape recordings of books for the blind or visually impaired students attending the University.

By 1979, numbers and the direction of the club began to change, thus turning the Faculty Wives Club into the new ODU Women’s Association. It was at this point in time that the group began to incorporate interest groups around women’s awareness. It was also at this time that the Women’s Association opened their membership to include female faculty members. Previous stipulations limited membership to wives of faculty and staff. As of 2008, the organization was still referred to as the Faculty Wives Club at various Old Dominion social events.

Resources

1. Faculty Wives Club Records, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529.
2. Old Dominion University Photographic and Multimedia Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529.