Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts - Mohawk Yearbook (North Adams, MA)

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page eight ALBERT GOULD ELDRIDGE

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PRESlDENT'S MESSAGE I wish to express my appreciation of the spirit of friendliness and goodwill with which you greeted me upon my assumption of the oflice of president. In so many ways and so often was this spirit shown, that I almost at once felt that I belonged, and that I could say in all sincerity, our college . I do not wish to think of our institution as one consisting of a president, faculty, and students with sharp distinctions, but rather do I consider it as a cooperative family in which each shares responsibilities and contributes to the realization of the objectives of the college. This is a college with noble traditions. Those who preceded me in my office have set high standards of character and achievement which shall ever be a challenge to me. The form and expression of ideals change, the ideals remain ever the same. This college shall, to the limits of my capacity for leadership, continue to educate and train high grade teachers for our public schools in an environment and social life that shall be beautiful, wholesome, and happy. You, as students, are always the first consideration. This college exists for you and through you for the State that supports it. To the degree it serves you, and you serve it, are its purposes realized. Because we are a small college we can know one another. As pres- ident, I hope to know you not as a student group but as individuals. In the fine spirit in which you have greeted me I trust that the barrier of officialdom may be easily broken down and that each one of you will soon know me as a personal friend. Of that honor and privilege may I be worthy. Grorcr C. Bowman If .1 ., , Hi Us HQ page seven

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C o gin emnrtam ALBERT GOULD ELDRIDGE ' 1884 - 1936 r The qualities of Mr. Eldridge's character already recounted here are those by which we in the training school shall always remember him. We appreciate this special privilege of voicing our special respect and affection. With all the perplexing details of his responsibilities, with the added burden of failing health, he always kept within the scope of his thought and interest the children and the teachers of the training school. It was no small achievement that due to him the training school personnel felt its oneness with the Teachers College in purpose and in understanding. We remember him for the truly human interest which brought him often to the training classrooms. He rose above the mechanical routine of admini- stration to sense the child as the heart of education. We shall remember those occasions of a social sort when the spirit of fun swept away the restraint of his oflice and his grand sense of humor and gift of fun-making gave great joy to those with him. We shall remem- ber him as a personal adviser whose penetrating understanding was tem- pered by a true sympathy. We who were here to stand by his side when the continuance of this institution was in doubt know how truly deeply he loved the school. We shall above all remember him as a man in the truest sense of the word. His squareness and trustworthiness find significant expression in the record of placement of our graduates, a task and accom- plishment that was his. We remember him for his quiet, firm insistence on what he felt to be decent and right when the easier way would have been to compromise with conscience and to court personal popularity. He must, we may be sure, remain in our memories as a man of courage almost beyond belief, who day after day gave way by not a fraction of an inch to the misery that would have broken the will and courage of the average man. To have known one who faced death calmly, bravely and with self-control, to have known one who did not know what it was to spare himself, who drove himself to the duties cheerfully and vigorously as long as mortal strength endured, to have known Albert Eldridge is to have been granted a rare privilege and inspiration. R. F. H. Ilflgt' nine