Memorabilia on display reflect iconic moments from the time, like Bob Dylan’s original handwritten manuscript of “Blowin’ in the Wind;” Odetta’s green and gold dashiki and her guitar, “Baby”; and several recordings of “If I Had a Hammer.”

Included, too, are many objects from the ’30s and ’40s, like a flier from the seminal 1940 Grapes of Wrath benefit concert on 49th Street, where Woody Guthrie first met Pete Seeger, and the 12-string that belonged to Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, the influential folk-blues singer from Louisiana who introduced traditional standards like “Goodnight Irene” to the folk world. Kurt Cobain—a big Lead Belly fan—once tried to buy that guitar from the singer’s estate.

Among the many other instruments on display is folk singer Bob Gibson’s guitar, likely the same one he played at a 1961 Wisconsin concert, when a boy named John Heller—the father of three Fordham alumni and the exhibit’s co-chair—sat in the audience.

“I had never seen or heard anything like it. It changed my life,” Heller said in the preface of the book that accompanies the exhibit. In high school in Chicago, he played in a trio that included actor Bill Murray, with whom he is still good friends.

“As I was growing up, the big scene was in New York City. I would always read about Café Wha? and Folk City and the Bitter End.” Still feeling the pull decades later, Heller and his wife, Patti, moved to New York in 2003.

After attending a cabaret night at the museum with Fordham trustee fellow Jim Buckman, FCRH ’66, a museum board member, Heller said, “It kind of struck me that we should do a night like that but with folk music.” He prepared a detailed proposal and the idea grew from an evening to a full-fledged exhibit.

The show—and its related public events—have been popular, drawing visitors of all ages and prompting the museum to extend “Folk City’s” run to January 10, 2016. A summer panel event, Dylan Goes Electric, drew about 150 people, from the “Dylanologists” of the 1960s to a young woman with the curly-haired bard tattooed on the back of her calf.

Initially, Heller thought the exhibit would focus more on Dylan’s era and just before: from 1955 to 1965. “But as we got deeper into it, we started exploring the roots more deeply.”

And if Heller and the exhibit’s curator, Stephen Petrus, PhD, needed any added encouragement to reach back to the 1930s, they got it from none other than Pete Seeger. The singer performed at the opening fundraising concert for the exhibit in 2013, not long before he died in January 2014.

“He just walked in with maybe a guitar and a banjo,” said Heller, an advisory board member for Fordham’s WFUV, a media sponsor for the exhibition. “As he made his way down the aisle the room just became electrified.”

Petrus said that after the concert, despite the big reception going on inside the museum, “I was just out on Fifth Avenue talking to Pete.” The two spoke about half a dozen times. “He really encouraged me on the phone. He said, ‘You can’t just gloss over the ’30s and ’40s.’ I’ll never forget that.”

The exhibit pays tribute to the revival aspect of folk music—a resurgence of interests in the nation’s traditional song. New songs were being written, too, like “This Land Is Your Land,” which Woody Guthrie penned in a room at Hanover House on 43rd Street and Sixth Avenue in 1940. A large photo of the dustbowl troubadour in the exhibit shows him in a subway car, strumming a guitar with a sticker on it that says, “This machine kills fascists.”

The ’40s saw performers flocking to New York for recording opportunities as well as the chance to meet other singers and feel connected to the growing folk scene. African-American artists like singer and civil rights activist Josh White came to play in integrated clubs like Café Society.

Seeger began playing and making a name for himself, supporting new songwriters and introducing the sounds of the banjo to the New York club circuit. But his leftist politics ensnared him and many other artists in the Red Scare—to which the exhibit devotes an entire case. Seeger was blacklisted and refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Louie Dean Valencia-García, GSAS ’10, an Andrew W. Mellon fellow at the museum, said the protests were effective largely because “the protesters were connected with people with power.” A doctoral candidate in Fordham’s history department, Valencia-García has written extensively about democratic and pluralistic space in contemporary history. “Often, such bans are less about the thing being banned, in this case music, and more about protecting the ways ‘things are supposed to be’—those in authority saw young people hanging out in the park, playing music, making a scene, as a threat.”

Indeed, much of the music of the era was meant to be a threat— to injustice, to racism, to violence and war. Songs like “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the civil rights movement; “Blowin’ in the Wind”; and “If I Had a Hammer” inspired protesters at rallies throughout the country, including the March on Washington in 1963.

Petrus said that while doing research for the exhibit, he was struck by how much people believed “that songs can have a transformative effect.” And the music, he said, offers a great appreciation for our cultural heritage.

“These songs provide us a window for who we are as Americans.”

An encore ensemble singing “We Shall Overcome” at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963 (estate of David Gahr); tickets to two 1963 Bob Dylan concerts (courtesy Harold Levanthal Collection, photo by John Halpern); the Weavers on a New York City rooftop (estate of David Gahr); Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives in Central Park, 1940 (Library of Congress); Josh White testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, 1950 (Library of Congress)

For some Fordham families, however, it’s the students who have led the way in their love for Fordham, with their parents following close behind.

Neither John nor Patti Heller attended Fordham, but when their oldest daughter Amy decided to leave her native Chicago to enroll at the university, they quickly noticed what a positive impact attending Fordham had on her life.

“She was really stepping outside of her comfort zone, and had just a really great group of friends who were motivated, smart, interesting, and diverse,” John Heller said.

Her parents weren’t the only ones who took note of Amy’s, FCRH ’03, Fordham experience. Her siblings Michaela, FCRH ’07, and Tim, FCRH ’11, followed in her footsteps.

Morgan and Lisa McGinley, of New London, Conn., had a similar experience. Eldest son John attended Fordham first; siblings Carolyn and Brendan followed soon after.

John McGinley, FCRH ’94, said that his Brooklyn-born grandmother first turned his attention to Fordham. When his family first visited campus, he said he knew he was home.

“It was nothing you would have expected from a campus environment in the Bronx, and I decided at that moment that I had to get to Fordham,” John said.

John, now executive director and global head of portfolio management at JPMorgan Chase and a member of the Fordham President’s Council, continues to volunteer at the university. He said giving back to Fordham was a natural response for him.

“I am still involved, because if I only pay forward 10 percent of what Fordham has done for me, it will be a lot,” he said.

Though neither the McGinleys nor the Hellers attended Fordham themselves, both sets of parents have given back to Fordham. Morgan McGinley said he is grateful for everything Fordham has done for his family.

“I don’t have a lot of money to give away, and I give to a lot of different places,” he said. “But I just feel indebted to Fordham because of the way in which they treated our kids.”

Lisa McGinley was educated in the Catholic tradition, at a Dominican high school and Manhattanville College. While she held back from suggesting where her children attend college, she said she was pleased they chose Fordham.

“We won all the way around with Fordham,” she said. “It’s really always struck me, when I tell people that all three of my kids went to one university, that it sounds like we’re in lockstep somehow, but they each went there for such wildly different reasons.”

John said that the role Fordham’s played in his family goes beyond providing a good education for him and his siblings—both John and his sister Carolyn met their spouses at Fordham.

“Our parents obviously had parental expectations for all of us, but I’m not sure if they ever expected two sons to be working for Fortune 50 companies in Manhattan,” John said.

“And obviously, their extended family and grandchildren are a direct result of the university, and that makes them a little more attached,” he said.

For John and Patti Heller, involvement in Fordham grew over the years as their children continued to attend Fordham. The Hellers began hosting recruitment and alumni events in Chicago and became ambassadors for Fordham in their hometown.

The Hellers started the Fordham Parents Leadership Council to encourage other families to take an active role in helping the university continue to expand and grow.

“In one sense we would like other people to have the great experience that we’ve had with Fordham,” John Heller said. “And we think Fordham is poised on the edge of becoming an even greater institution, and this was an opportunity to be part of that.”

Patti said she enjoyed being involved in an organization that has played such a transformative role in the lives of her children.

“I do think they had a sense of pride that we were involved. They just enjoyed knowing that we were loving something that they had loved, and that meant so much to them,” she said.

Michaela (Heller) Giovengo, FCRH ’07, said that her family’s involvement in Fordham both helped her make her decision to attend and affirmed that she had made the right choice.

When elder sister Amy was at Fordham, Michaela, who is now an account executive at Hulu, had a chance to visit a couple times each year.

“The first couple years, I got to know the campus. Later on, I really got to know the city and everything it had to offer. That’s when I really fell in love with New York City,” she said.

by Jennifer Spencer

As their children have thrived and matured at Fordham, the Hellers have become increasingly active at the University. In 2007, they began discussions with Fordham officials about forming a parents’ organization, which would help recruit students, support the University’s fundraising campaign, provide feedback on college programs, and leverage corporate relationships to promote internships for students and job opportunities for graduates.

Last year, Patti Heller was named to the Fordham University Board of Trustees, and this fall, the Parents’ Leadership Council—led by her and her husband—held its first meeting. The council’s founding members include parents from California, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“It’s an opportunity for us parents to come together for Fordham,” Patti Heller says. “Our children have had such a great experience, I decided to give back what was given to them.”

The Hellers’ involvement has deepened in recent years. John Heller says he has had more time for his volunteer efforts for the University since 2003, when he sold his business, Heller Seasonings and Ingredients, which had been in his family for three generations.

The Hellers now split their time between Northfield, Ill., on Chicago’s North Shore, and midtown Manhattan, where they have an apartment. Both of their daughters have found jobs in Manhattan that evolved from internships they had while undergraduates at Fordham. Amy manages the retail stores at five Equinox gyms, while Michaela works in sales for NBC’s cable division.

“Being in New York City is a tremendous asset for Fordham, and my kids have taken full advantage of it,” John Heller says. “There’s such a wonderful community of people at Fordham.”

John Heller says Fordham wasn’t well known in the northern suburbs of Chicago when his daughter Amy started attending Loyola Academy in Willamette, Ill. At the time, those looking to continue their Jesuit education in college were more inclined to attend Marquette University, John Carroll University, Georgetown University or Boston College. In 1999, however, Loyola sent eight students to Fordham.

Parents can play an important role in helping Fordham spread the good word about the University at college fairs and regional receptions for prospective students, according to John Heller. They also help organize summer send-off receptions for students who travel long distances to Fordham, such as the one held in Chicago earlier this year.

“We think it’s important to get more Fordham families connected to the school,” he says. “That summer send-off in Chicago was a great way to start students off with a good feeling.”

by David McKay Wilson