Muhlenberg College - Ciarla Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

Page 22 text:

Rev. John A. W. Haas, DD., LL.D. President and Professor of Religion and Philosophy. Did you ever walk into the chapel and look at the architect’s drawing of the Muhlenberg of the future ? Dr. Haas is not an architect but when that Muhlenberg does arrive, it will in a large measure be the product of fundamental work done by Dr. Haas. The uninitiated outsider cannot appreciate the work that Dr. Haas has put into the college. Did you ever step into the library at four o’clock in the afternoon and hear Dr. Haas reading modern poems to an audience consisting of one Senior, one Junior and one Freshman? Modern poetry is never more fascinating than when interpreted by Dr. Haas. Did you ever go to a football game without seeing Dr. Haas on the sidelines in his black derby and pet cane? He likes to be there and he usually is. Did you ever feel your brains go whirling at some particularly abstruse philosoph- ical discussion and then be brought back to earth by a tailor-made concrete illustration ? Were you ever chased out of the college store by a chuckling panting little figure with pink cheeks and a white goatee, laughing at your unhappy attempt to be witty? If your answer to these questions is not affirmative you do not know our president in the way that most of the students know him. Born at Philadelphia, Pa., August 31, 1862. Prepared at Parochial School Zion’s Church and Protestant Episcopal Academy. A.B. University of Pennsylvania 1884. Mt. Airy Theological Seminary, Ordained 1887. A.M. and B.D. University of Pennsylvania 1887. Phi Beta Kappa. University of Leipsic 1887-88. D.D. Thiel College 1902. Fourth President of Muhlenberg 1904. LL.D. University of Pennsyl- vania 1914. 16