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J. H. Ames (1875-1957) Ames Teacher Education Center (1962-2005) This facility was raized to make way for a student center.

When J. H. Ames retired as president of the State Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin - River Falls) in 1946, there was a lighthearted dinner given for him by the faculty at the White Pine Inn, Bayport, Minn. The program was a mock commencement with a salutatory address, class history, class will, commencement address and a valedictory address given by the retiring president himself. The ceremony ended with the presentation of an award for having been chosen as the "graduate most likely to succeed."

Thus did the faculty say goodbye to a president who had served them well for 28 years, first as a teacher, one-time football coach, director of the "training school," and president.

J. H. Ames was of New England lumberjack stock whose parents had followed the logging industry west and settled in central Wisconsin. He attended a one-room rural school and later was graduated from the Normal School at Stevens Point, after which he taught at a rural school, served as principal at several Wisconsin schools and joined the Normal School faculty at River Falls in 1909. His academic interest always centered on history and he was a follower of Frederic Jackson Turner who taught pioneer history at UW-Madison. In his later years he (with his brother) wrote several history texts for use in the elementary schools.

Though he could have been pleased with the campus development when he became President in 1917, he sought more buildings than North Hall and South Hall, and more faculty holding advanced degrees. He had no interest in building a large school with large enrollment, but sought to move the institution up the ladder of quality teaching and accreditment by the North Central Association of Schools. He was happy to report in 1925 that this accreditment had come since the school placed emphasis on academic work and the departments were balanced and staffed for granting the B.Ed. degree.

It is no accident that President Ames had the complete confidence of the governing board in those years when the college was being built. His long experience in teaching and administration, his great interest in one field of learning in particular and of learning in general, his creative drive that had caused him to become the co-author of four American history texts and one volume on education in Wisconsin; these factors explain much about how the solid basis upon which he had slowly built here had been recognized by the governing regents. Faculty and students who have lived and worked with him will always remember that his counsel was good and his attitudes not subject to whim or fancy. The college is in a large sense the result not only of historic forces that affected all institutions of higher learning in this period but also the result of wise stewardship for over a quarter of a century. It is fitting that the new campus school opened in 1962, now the Teacher Education Center, be named in his honor.