Fordham University - Maroon Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 12 text:

QEarI1inal'5 Bzsihenre 452 Jlilahisun Qbenue 39cm fork The Editors of the Senior Year Hook of 1916 of Fordham University. Gentlemen: XN'ith pleasure l yield to your request that 1 accept the dedica- tion of the Senior Year Book of 1916 of Fordham University. the first of its kind ever issued, you say. during the seventy-five years of the life of .Xlina Mater. I congratulate you, my young' friends. and the class of 1916 on being so highly privileged as to be charged with the laying of the diamond milestone on the upward and forward path of a university which is the decus. honor et gloria of the Catholic educational system of this province. You are heirs of all the best fruits of the past three quarters of a century of l7ordham's life, and doubtless feel the burden of responsibility of such relationship, and are prepared to face it like brave men. How 1nuch every alumnus owes to his .-Xlma Mater, none but tlod can tell. The influence of environment on the making of a man's character is only a par- tially solved problem. The grace of tlod and free will are elements which can- not be left out of the reckoning, and it well may give pause to lind out how these were used. For my own part 1 am free to say and glad to confess that 1 must lay to the credit of old St, 'lohn's much of the best inspiration and strongest impulse for whatever has been of good report in my own life in t1od's service. The good nien-many of them truly great-who ruled in high and humble ways in Fordham before and after, as well as during my student days, have etched on my memory portraits of nobility that can never be effaced. The unwearied self-sacrilice in their work-the basis of all that makes for success-and their wealth of wisdom in its doing, 1 have ever found to be a light to my feet, a stimulus. stay and support. lt is just half a century since 1 left its sacred precincts, and 1 have never revisited its fair fields and hallowed walls without a renewed sense of my youthful affection and admiration for the memory of my dear old masters and guides. May God rest their souls! 1 feel the same too, for the men who, year by year, have trod in their footsteps these Fifty by-gone years. XYhen the century mark of old Fordham shall have been reached. we of an earlier generation, shall have passed from the scene, but you of the class of 1016, it is lawful to hope, will still live. 5

Page 11 text:

Beoication whom coulo this souhenir more fittinglp honor than jforoham's most oistinguisheo alumnus, that loyal son of olo Sat. 3ohn's, rnho has sheo such glory on his Qllma Mater? Zin the high post to which his great talents hahe leo him, he can still look hack tnith a kinolp eye upon Bose Ztfaill anti its memories. ilt is not alone his exalteo position as a prince of the church that has enoeareo him to the heart of cherp forohamite but his lohahle personality as tnell. Quo so, the Qlllass of 1916 is as one in humhlp oeoicating this, their effort, to that eminent member of the Qilass of 1865, Eohn Qlaroinal jfarlep, Zlrchhishop of jaetn fork.

Page 13 text:

jfurhham Mnihzrsitp May it be your pride to lay to the credit of :Xlma Mater whatever of good for tiod and country the coming five and twenty years may bring forth as the fruit of your labors in your chosen spheres of action. Three quarters of a century is a small space to make ado about in the world's history. But the evolution of the mustard-seed that was St. .lolm's College in 18-ll, with its humble surroundings, to its present protid place in our national educational system may fairly challenge comparison with the history of its sister universities of riper age and larger growth. From the little college at Rose Hill, the first Catholic institution for higher education in the State, founded by the first and great Archbishop of this See, and first governed by the cultured. gentle, and saintly priest, who was destined to become the first .Xmerican Cardinal. the advance to its present splendid cluster of noble buildings, its numerous staff of learned professors, its sixteen hundred students, its schools of arts, law, medicine and science. may well be regarded as one of the many miracles wrought under our own eyes through the Church's undying devotion to the cause of edu- cation, which she has made the greatest factor in the history of civilization throughout the Christian ages. You, gentlemen of the Class of l9lfi, share that civilization, and you are, l repeat. the heirs of all who have labored to make Fordhain great. Yours is the duty then to make your lives and your influence for good in the world com- mensurate with the larger opportunities with which you have been blessed, in being sons of .Xlma Mater in these days of her prosperity. and graduates of het year of Diamond -lubilee. 1916. Xlishing you. gentlemen. every blessing and success in life. I am, Faithfully yours in Christ, U ' 1 Y U