The Legacy of
Millicent Carey McIntosh
President McIntosh operating steam shovel during groundbreaking for Helen Reid Hall, August 22, 1960.
Credit: Jack Mitchell / Barnard College Archives
The Mrs. Mac Fund
Honoring Millicent McIntosh
The Nexus begins another new era for Barnard and will replace the McIntosh Center, a building that no longer lives up to its distinguished name. Barnard College will continue to honor the memory of Millicent McIntosh by designating the entry plaza to the Nexus as the McIntosh Plaza.
A special McIntosh Fund has been established for those alumnae who wish to support this designation in order to acknowledge her legacy, or as a means of giving tangible expression to their own special memory of this iconic leader.
Contributing to Mrs. Mac’s fund will enable the donor to attend the special opening reception for the McIntosh Plaza.
To contribute, or for more information please contact:
nexusgifts@barnard.edu
Remembering Mrs. Mac
Millicent Carey McIntosh led Barnard with great success for a decade and a half. Six years into her tenure, she was named the College’s first president, but she was always “Mrs. Mac” to the students, faculty, staff and alumnae who loved and admired her. She died in 2001 at the age of 102, and she will forever be remembered as Mrs. Mac by everyone connected with Barnard.
Long before the second wave of the feminist movement, Mrs. Mac was an outspoken advocate for women’s equality and advancement. A working mother of five at a time when women were barred from most professions and married women were not expected to pursue careers, she was living proof that a woman could have both a thriving family and a thrilling vocation.
She was passionate about the life of the mind, but she also paid great attention to the literal nuts and bolts of campus life. In the post-war years, Barnard desperately needed a real library and more student housing. Mrs. Mac presided over the construction of the Lehman Hall library and the Reid Hall residence. She also oversaw the building of the Barnard Hall Annex, and a renovation of Milbank Hall that created the Minor Latham Playhouse. She called the opening of Lehman “the beginning of a new era for Barnard.”
The opening of the Nexus will mark the beginning of another new era for Barnard. This magnificent building will replace the McIntosh Center, a structure that no longer lives up to its distinguished name. In the Nexus, Mrs. Mac will be fittingly honored by a beautiful, forward-looking space – a space that will be admired and cherished almost as much as she is.
— Anne Schutzberger
Dean Denburg RemeMbers
Dean of College Dorothy Denburg - then a Barnard senior and SGA president - at the opening of the McIntosh Student Center 1969
Dean of the College Dorothy Denburg was a senior and president of the Student Government Association in the fall of 1969, when both Altschul Hall and the Millicent McInstosh Center were dedicated.
"It was a terribly exciting moment, because we were dedicating two buildings at once. It was the first time the College would have a real student center to replace the tiny Barnard Hall Annex, and the huge increase in science facilities provided by Altschul was significant. I felt a tremendous connection to the history and the future of the College that day; being on the program with the legendary Mrs. McIntosh was thrilling and remains an important memory for me."