Awards

Honorary Degree - 1940

LL.D.

Doctor of Laws

Bloomington, Indiana

Presenter: Herman B Wells

About James W. Fesler

James William Fesler received his A.B. degree in 1887 from Indiana University. Fesler, a prominent Indianapolis attorney, served as President of the Indianapolis Bar Association in 1916. He was also a long-time valued and influential member of the Indiana University Board of Trustees, serving from 1902-1936. He was Vice President of the board from 1916-1919 and directed the board as President from 1919-1936.

Fesler was an Incorporator in 1921 for the James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association (now the Riley Children’s Foundation) and from 1921-1936, he served on the Joint Executive Committee, made up of representatives from the IU Board of Trustees and the Riley Memorial Association. The committee was responsible for raising funds and supervising the building and operations of Riley Hospital for Children. The hospital opened in 1924 and has continued to grow and flourish today because of what the members of the Joint Executive Committee did. In 1920, Fesler campaigned unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana. He and another Riley Memorial Association Incorporator, Dr. Carleton McCulloch (who ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1920 and 1924) were among the Joint Executive Committee members who met with the victor of the 1920 contest, Republican Warren T. McCray, to secure his support for the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children. Fesler along with three other Incorporators also stepped forward in the late 1920s when the association was struggling with fund raising and hospital operations challenges. In the original lobby of Riley Hospital for Children is a bronze plaque that remains as an enduring tribute to Fesler and others who “besides many other gifts and labors pledged their fortunes in a time of emergency in order that this hospital might become a reality.” Fesler represented the Board of Trustees and the Association at countless events and dedications for Riley Hospital and the growing Medical Center campus, including the 1927 dedication of the William H. Coleman Hospital for Women and the 1935 dedication of the hospital’s hydrotherapy pool.

In 1940, Fesler received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Franklin College, and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Indiana University. In 1959, the Indiana University Board of Trustees unanimously recommended that the former Indiana State Board of Health Laboratory Science Building built in 1938 on the Medical Center Campus be named the James W. Fesler Hall in his honor. Fesler Hall today houses various IU School of Medicine programs.