Annie Wright School - Shield Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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6) During our commencement address, Bishop Keator stated that a commencement address without mentioning Mrs. Raynor would be like Hamlet with Hamlet left out. That is true of an account of the Seminary as I knew it. The graciousness of Mrs. Raynor, always a perfect lady, her sense of humor, her honesty and integrity form a living part of the Seminary. Those of us who were privileged to oe in ihe beminary unaer Bishop Keator were given a friend whose inspiration and guiding influence will continue always. Grace McDonald Phillips. HOW THE NEW SEMINARY WAS FINANCED It has been suggested that the Alumnae would be interested in the proceedure of the Board of Trustees in financing the cost of the new Seminary and its site. There- fore I will endeavor to give as concise a history as possible of the methods followed. In 1921 Bishop Keator brought before the Board the absolute necessity of build- ing a new school, with additional capacity and more ample grounds, as the one then in use had become obsolete, and its grounds inadequate to properly conduct a school of its size and character. After a number of conferences, the Bishop was authorized to engage Mr. Albert Sutton, one of the leading architects in the Northwest, to prepare and submit plans and specifications and the estimated cost for a new building, to be erected on the present site upon which the Board had obtained an option at a very advantageous price. Shortly after, final plans were approved, the site purchased, and a Building Committee appointed, with instructions to proceed at once with construction. Then the problem of financing the. project arose. It was referred to a c ommittee chosen from members of the Board, who later reported that, after liquidating the then available assets, it would be necessary to borrow $350,000 to complete the project. This they felt could be accomplished through the sale of bonds for a like amount, to be secured by a mortgage on the new plant. With the help of the entire Board of Trustees, this was finally accomplished, but not without extraordinary effort on their part, and the giving of much valuable time. The members of the Alumnae, and those interested in the Seminary cannot be too grateful to these men. and to those who bought our bonds, who did so with the sole purpose of aiding in providing this beautiful and fully equipped school for the girls of the Pacific Northwest. Furthermore, the entire bond issue was placed with the citizens of Tacoma. and at par, while the best offer obtainable through bond houses was 92 ' 2; thus through their efforts, the Trustees saved the Seminary thousands of dollars in finance fees. These bonds were issued as of December I, 1924, and I am pleased to report that al! interest thereon has been met promptly when due: also that the Treasurer has been able to pay $55,000 of the principal, leav- ing present indebtedness of $295,000 against the plant. This is payable in yearly installments, out of school revenue, so we are taking this opportunity to urge all members of the Alumnae to use every means in their power to aid Miss Wilson in obtaining desirable students, to the end that the school Page twenty-six

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application of Christian virtues to everyday life. Every year he nnake a talk at the first chapel at the beginning of school. One year he nnade a particularly strong talk on the value of truth; that a man ' s word should be good without the necessity of a bond. That talk influenced the entire school year. It was conceded at the close of the year that there had probably not been a year in the history of the school when the standard of truth and honesty among the students had been higher. The Bishop was interested not only in the lives of the girls, in the educational side of the Seminary, but in the teachers as well. He wished their life in the school to be congenial. One year, unknown to the Bishop, some cleverly-worded letters had been written to a new teacher giving her the impression that her salary would be a certain amount: then that salary was refused after she had arrived. That is. it was refused until the Bishop saw the correspondence and then he. as President Ex-Officio of the Board, ordered the salary upon which she had relied to be paid to her. Often have we heard the Bishop say that he wanted Annie Wright Seminary to be the Wellesley. the Smith, the Vassar of the west. Not that the Seminary should be a college, but that as a preparatory school it should rank among preparatory schools as those three women ' s colleges rank among the colleges of the country. Bishop Keator cc : ' r plan of the new school v W c w ' stand as a living mem- orial to him. Once a Seminary girl, always a Seminary girl to the Bishop. Whether a girl were sailing across the ocean, at which times he would offer prayers for those upon the sea, or whether she were in church listening to him. he was always interested in her. It was Bishop Keator who invited the Alumnae to have their annual luncheon at the Seminary instead of in a downtown hotel: he wanted them to come home at that time and always to feel the Seminary was their home. Miss Mary Alice Port and I went to the Seminary at the same time, Miss Port as the Principal. The work which Miss Port did for the Seminary should not be under- estimated. It was she who raised the educational standard of the school and who brought it to the rank of admission without examination to the principal eastern colleges. It was Miss Port who brought Miss Golay and Miss Burnett and Madame Janoffska to the school. None of us who studied under Miss Golay and Miss Burnett will ever forget the mental stimulus given us by them, nor those who had the privilege of living and studying under Madame Janoffska will ever forget the understanding of the value of music which she gave. Miss Fitch, who began as Principal of the Seminary at a difficult moment, carried on the high intellectual standards of Miss Port and gave, generously of herself to the school. Truth, honor, integrity, fair play and honesty dominated every action of Miss Fitch. In writing of the days when I was in the Seminary, I must not omit the name of Miss Isabel Gregg. Her sense of humor and her fascinating personality gave an interest to life in the Seminary which can never be forgotten. One of the predominating qualities of Bishop Keator was his desire that the work which had been done by those preceding him should not be forgotten. Many times have we heard him say, Never forget the work of Bishop Paddock, nor the ideals which he possessed, nor what he had to do to build this school. Page twenty-ti ve

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© ZJne T Shi€l i © may be filled to capacity, and thus hasten the day when it will be freed from this heavy indebtedness. Since the school was Tirst occupied, we have completed the swimmmg pooi at an additional cost of about $17,500 and built two new tennis courts and an athletic field at a total cost of about $5,000 in our endeavor to keep the plant up to date for the bonef ' t of the studen+s. JAMES M. KEEN. Secretary. The Board of Trustees. RT. REV. S. ARTHUR HUSTON Bishop of Olympio 1931 THE FUTURE Others, better qualified than myself, by virtue of longer association with the Seminary, have written of its splendid history and traditions. I have been aslced to write something about its future. This I am glad to attempt, because an educa- tional institution which has to do with creating a sense of discrimination between true objectives and false, and with an appreciation of things that are true, beautiful and good, must also have a few proper objectives for itself as an institution. The Annie Wright Seminary, therefore, with almost fifty honorable years behind it. may well propose for itself something other than longevity which we venture to believe it has already attained, in a section of the country which still numbers its years by decades rather than by centuries. Page twenty-seven