Beth Porter Garvey

Beth Porter Garvey in front of Garvey Commons, 1964

Construction of Garvey Commons, 1963

Students eat lunch in Garvey Commons, 1963

Exterior of Garvey Commons, 1963

Students study at Garvey Commons, September 1987

Biography

Beth Porter Garvey was born in 1892 and grew up in LeRoy, MN. In 1914, she received her bachelor's degree from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, and earned a master's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1931. She was a teacher in Austin, MN, and Minneapolis. Garvey then served as assistant principal in LeRoy and, later, as principal in Ortonville, MN. She was also the dean of girls at Albert Lea, MN, and the dean of women at Rochester (MN) Junior College. She became the first dean of women for St. Cloud State University in 1925, where she worked until her retirement in 1953. She held leadership positions in several organizations, including both the National and the Minnesota Association of Deans of Women, the Student Personnel division of the Minnesota Educaiton Association, the St. Cloud and Minnesota branches of the American Association of University Women, and the Zonta International Club in St. Cloud. Garvey died May 31, 1976, in Highland Park, CA, and is buried in LeRoy, MN.

Beth Porter Garvey Commons (1963)

To feed the growing St. Cloud State campus, work to construct a food service building began in April 1962. Construction occurred in two phases and cost $875,000. Designed by architect Frank W. Jackson, the first phase served its first meal in June 1963. A second phase began construction a year after Garvey Commons was complete, opening in 1965. In 1987, Garvey Commons underwent a thorough renovation comprising of a new west addition and an enclosed concourse linking it to Sherburne Hall. The building could accommodate 1100 people at one time.

For more information, see the individual profile for Garvey Commons on the University Archives’ website.