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[[image - black & white with eight men dressed in suits and two women in hats]]
From an idea to its realization, the United Negro College Fund took a lot of doing. The General Education Board and the Julius Rosenwald Fund had faith, agreeing to put up half the estimated expense of conducting the first campaign. The 27 participating colleges, some of whom had to borrow their share, put up the other half. In December, 1943, fund-raising council was retained, an office was leased, and a staff of two began digging for likely prospects. But the task of finding the lay leadership to launch the drive threatened to kill the baby before it was born. The "Crescent Limited" had a regular commuter from Cheehaw, Alabama to New York as "Pat" met time after time with trustees of member colleges and searched for the right man who would agree to head the drive. Almost everyone was tied up in war work and was reluctant to break away from that to lead an educational campaign. But when it looked as though the infant would die a'borning, "Pat's" integrity, enthusiasm, and remarkable chin forced its way into the heart and mind of Walter Hoving, then president of Lord and Taylor, who on March 1, 1944, accepted the chairmanship of the first campaign and, in turn, persuaded John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to head the National Advisory Committee. And thus the lusty voice of the infant Fund was first heard throughout the land. 

The first UNCF campaign opening at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, N.Y. City, May 3, 1944. L - R (standing) Rufus E. Clement, pres. Atlanta U.; Ralph P. Bridgman, pres. Hampton; Mrs.Mary McLeod Bethune, pres. Bethune-Cookman; David D. Jones, pres. Bennett; Miss Florence Read, pres. Spelman; A. W. Dent, pres. Dillard; Mordecai W. Johnson, pres. Howard U. (seated) John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; F. D. Patterson; Walter Hoving.