Virginia Military Institute - Bomb Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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Virginia Military Institute HE ' irgi[iia Military Institute is in its eighty-sixth year. From small beginnings ill 1839, Avith but very meager provision of quarters and equipment of any kind, I --r rsB ' i - ' ' teaching staff of two, with a patronage of less than fifty cadets, it has a ' Hu}© grown, as we know it today, into next to the largest military school of the 3 : country on a collegiate basis. It has added to its grounds from year to year; it has more than doubled the size of its original barrack building; it has acquired and built in recent times a large number of officers ' quarters and other necessary buildings; its material equipment is hard to measure in terms of what it was even thirty or forty years ago; its teaching and military staff has now reached a personnel of between fifty and sixty men; its matriculates for the present session run over six hundred and fifty cadets, and this number could be materially increased if more ample accommodations were provided, and it were thought desirable to do so in addition. But whether in youth or in maturity — and an institution such as V. M. I. should never grow old except in years — the ends, the aims, the ideals of our school have continued the same from the beginning; namely, to build up character in youth, to develop physical, mental and moral manhood, to prepare our young men for the duties of life wherever their lot be cast, to fit them for the defense of their country in case of need. Accomplishment has followed promise in abundant measure. Search the rosters of its graduates and eleves to find a long, long list of those who have gone out from these walls and whose lives have adorned , their calling whether in higher or lower walk, at the bar, on the bench, in the pulpit or forum, in high command in the field of arms, or as humble privates, in the ranks of armies or of peaceful workers — thev have exemplified in their living, or dying, and brought to fruition the priiicinles imbibed here, the seed sown here. Few must be the words here for any historical sketch of the Institute. To manv men is honor due for its guidance and development: Boards of visitors, superintendents, faculties, and its ever-increasing number of alumni in these latter years, whose interest and admiration and love for Alma Mater is one of her main sources of strength as well as one of her chiefest assets. Three superintendents only have directed its course and managed its affairs for eighty-five years. The Western Arsenal at Lexington became, by act of the Virginia Legislature, the Vir- ginia Military Institute in 1839; the garrison of young soldiers became a school of young cadets on November 11 of that year. The first board of visitors, to inaugurate the changed conditions, had appointed as the first superintendent a young man of twenty-seven, a distinguished graduate of West Point, and for fifty years General Francis H. Smith exercised the high trust with con- spicuous ability and success. In its infancy, in its youth, in its maturer years, in good and evil days, this school was the object of his unremitting interest, of his zealous care. With very limited resources he had to plan and build for immediate needs and look ahead for future growth and development. With the coming of the grievous times of Civil War, General Smith had to disrupt the orderly working of the school, but it was an occasion worthy of a great cause, for his order sent forth the corps of cadets under one of its professors, the immortal Jackson, to do valiant service in defense of state and Southland. By his order also did the corps make that march under the command of its trusted commandant. Colonel Scott Shipp, which culminated in the glorious day of New Market in ' 64. But throughout the terrible four years of war General Smith never gave up. He preserved the nucleus of the school, whether in or away from its home, awaiting the dawn of a better day; he saw its buildings burnt, its equipment destroyed, but when peace came he planned and built A

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fattnn Bom: August 15, 1859 Died: November 8, 1924

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again in the work of restoration; without the needed means he hypothecated his own limited re- sources in his noble zeal for this child of his creation; he saw it rise again from its ashes and firmly established, with all its ups and downs, as one of the educational centers of the state. General Smith retired in 1890 full of honor and good works after fifty years of distinguished service. A distinguished alumnus, and commandant at the time, became the second superintendent, and for seventeen years General Scott Shipp — a graduate of the Class of ' 59, for many years the able commandant of his Alma Mater, a man of vigorous mentality, wise in counsel and sound in judgment — presided with signal ability over the affairs of this institution. During his ad- ministration its considerable bonded debt was paid, new buildings and equipment were built and installed, its patronage increased by steady increments, and when he retired in 1907 the hearts of his many friends and admirers could fully feel that of him it should be said with well merited truth, Well done. He, too, had spent fifty years in his work of faith and labor of love at ' . M. I. Another alumnus now became superintendent, the third in succession to be connected w ' nh this school for fifty years. General Edward W. Nichols, a graduate of the Class of 1878, and for many years its professor of mathematics. A distinguis hed graduate of his class, General Nichols brought to the discharge of the weighty trust imposed upon him an abiding love for Alma Mater, a constant faith in the excellence of its system of training for young men, an unchanging hope and belief in its ever-widening field of usefulness and benefit, not only for the state, but for the whole country as well. Under the influence of his analytical mind, active in both its conservatism and liberalism, he saw the school expand and broaden in every way; in enlarged grounds; in the erection and purchase of numerous buildings to meet increasing needs; n the creation of additional courses of instruction; in financial security, and in the number of its matriculates, and a teaching staff commensurate therewith. When he retired the first of October of the present ses- sion, there were enrolled at V. M. I. more than six hundred and fifty cadets, the largest number in its history. Many and deserved honors came to General Nichols and to this institution when the United States entered the great World War. He was chairman of the Virginia Council of Defense, was given a majority in the United States army and placed in command of the war- time activities centered here at the Institute — Officers ' Training Camps, etc. Many other duties fell to his hands to discharge, too numerous even for mention. Something like two thousand pupils and former pupils entered the military and naval service of the country at this time, many of them as, or to become, high officers in their various fields, and of them it may be said that, whether of higher or lower rank, whether living or dying in the performance of duty, they main- tained and strengthened the finest traditions of their old mother. On October the first of the present session General William H. Cocke, the first distinguished graduate of the Class of 1894, assumed command of the Virginia Military Institute. An absence of thirty years from any official connection with his Alma Mater had but served to cement and strengthen the bonds of attachment and affection which now culminate In his accepting the arduous responsibilities of presiding over her future destiny. As a young teacher after his gradua- tion here, as an able officer in both the Spanish and Great War, as a lawyer of brilliant promise, as a highly successful man In the field of big business. General Cocke has brought to rich fruition the great gifts he manifested here as a youth. Of distinguished ability, with faith and courage, with administrative acumen and energy, with vision and imagination, we extend to him a heart- felt welcome as the official head of this historic Institution, and we cherish the confident trust that its lofty Ideals and noble traditions and high aspirations will find in him a worthy exemplar of all that is good and of fine repute in its past and thus to guide and direct and mold its future into the full measure of dignity and honor and usefulness which should be its inheritance. All hail and Godspeed to our present chief!