New York University School of Commerce - Commerce Violet Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 30 text:

L. P: 1 V. 1 3 1 N W 1 , V W ' r l , 3 5 Q Y .,.,4, 1 A - A e

Page 29 text:

Gladys H. Beutiman Florence Cranclell Adviser to Women Recorder Dr. John ll. Prime Dr. Gerald E. Seboyar Director of Admissions Chairman Scholastic Standing Committee

Page 31 text:

An Appreciation: Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown By HAROLD 0. VOORHIS, Secretary of New York University 0 those who enjoy biography there is no more satisfying experience than the contemplation of a man happily suited to exacting responsibility. That kind of satisfaction accompanies the contemplation' of Chancellor Brown,s career at New York University. As chief executive of this institution he occu- pied the ollice with honor, grace, and dignity from the hour of his induction to the hour of his retirement twenty-two years later, and the office throughout that period was superbly becoming to the man. As the institution expanded under his hand and the problems of administration multiplied, both the oflice of Chan- cellor and its incumbent grew apace in leadership and influence. As a former public school teacher and executive, and college professor and administrator, Chancellor Brown had a pragmatic grasp of questions concerning all provinces of academic discipline that won him authority and respect beyond any decreed to him by statute. As a scholar he was unquestionably the peer of the ablest of his colleagues on the faculty. As an educational statesman he had proved himself unmistakably before donning the Chancellor's robes. He was singularly well fitted for the office and supremely happy in meeting to the limit of his rare ability its incessant obligations. One thing to the end of his days here he regretted-a circumstance beyond his power to alter-and that was his inability to have more intimate contact with students. From the time when as a young man he was a Y.M.C.A. execu- tive in Illinois, through all his years as a teacher, he loved to deal with young men and women. It was one of the perversities of his high attainment that so much of his time as head of the University Was preempted by such things as statistics, budgets, property matters, and policies, leaving so little opportunity for the academic fellowship with both faculty and students which he genuinely coveted. Nevertheless he sought, secured, and enjoyed the personal acquaint- anceship of a greater company of the membership of this institution, faculty, students, and alumni than might generally be believed. To those of that privi- leged company and to all others who knew him however slightly, there will ever remain the treasured recollection of a man who by l1is breadth of outlook, sagacity of mind, devotion to old truths, quickness of sympathy, pertinacity of effort, and greatness withal, spent his own life unsparingly in the enrichment of innumerable lives about him.