Abraham Lincoln High School - Crimson and Blue Yearbook (Council Bluffs, IA)

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hoto The athan Pusey Story When he was graduated from A. L. High School thirty years ago this June, Nathan Marsh Pusey lknown locally as Nate! was singled out by his classmates and teachers as a brilliant boy with a promis- ing future. His Abe Lynx instructors and schoolmates were right, for at forty-six young Pusey is president of Harvard University, the nation's oldest, richest, and proudest institution of higher learning. Chosen from a list of more than one hundred top educators, he is the first non-easterner Harvard has elected to its highest post in 316 years. Born April 4, 1907, in Council Bluffs, the new Harvard president is the son of the late John Marsh and Rosa Drake Pusey. His grandfather, also named Nathan, was an early Council Bluffs attorney and half-brother of William Pusey, long a prominent Council Bluffs banker, public official, and friend of Abraham Lincoln. In speaking of his Council Bluffs boyhood, Dr. Pusey recalled: I grew up very happily - de- spite the sudden loss of my father - and received a good education in the Council Bluffs pub- lic schools, while Mother resumed her teaching to support the family. Although the years have rushed by, l still remember many of my A. L. teachers as among the best instructors I have ever had, any- where. Dr. Pusey, who spent his boy- hood in the Lake Okoboii area as chauffeur and tutor and later worked in the Council Bluffs Sav- ings Bank, will be no stranger on the Harvard campus. He took his undergraduate, graduate, and doc- torate work-there after earning a Perkins scholarship on graduation from A. L. ln 1936, Dr. Pusey married Anne Woodward of Council Bluffs. He is the father of two sons, Nathan, Jr., James, and a daughter, Rose- mary. A brother of Doctor Pusey, Mai. John Pusey, and a sister, Mrs. Esther Briggs, were also graduated from Abraham Lincoln. This family group shows Dr. and Mrs. Nathan Pusey and their children, Nathan, Jr James, and Rosemary. 18

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Junior: I923 Junior year was a busy, fruitful one for Nate. He won the class presidency, acted in the junior class play, Come Out of the Kitchen , held a job on The Echoes, and took part in the oratorical section of the Gerner Declamatory Contest. In the Junior Prophecy section of the 1923 yearbook, this prediction appear- ed: Ambition - President in l967, Fate - a Virgil Teacher: Nate's picture as junior class president is at right, rephotographed from a former Crimson and Blue. Nathan M. Pusey - College Prep. Course Editor-in-Chief of Echoes. Junior Class President. President of Philo '22. School Debating Team '24. Basket Ball 724. Senior: I 924 Someone wrote of Nate in his junior year: He is now only a junior and great things are expected of him as a senior. Nate didn't let down his well-wishers. He was active in debat- ing, earning an enviable berth on the famous triangular debate squad. He won the extempo semifinals. He headed The Echoes, giving to the school paper its motto which contin- ues to this day- Echoing Vigorously, Justly, and without Prejudice. In the senior class production, Friend Han- nah, he played a leading role. At commencement, he graduated with highest honors, as he also did four years later at Harvard. Nate's A, L. senior class picture and summary are reproduced at the left. fPictures on this page and the one preceding were reproduced from old annuals. Although prints of this kind give unsatisfactory results, the editors felt that the value of authentic pictures outweighed the disadvantage of poor reproductionj 17 l i'Ii+'l1'iGN 3 Siwretnrx

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ln i944, when he was only 37, Dr. Pusey was elected as the tenth president of Lawrence College, Appleton, Wisconsin - the young- est college head in the country at the time. In his nine years at the Wisconsin school, he establish- ed himself as a great intellectual and moral leader, lt is with pleasure that the staff of the 1954 Crimson and Blue dedicates this year's book to Dr. Nathan Pusey, A. L. graduate and educator, who in thirty years has progressed so rapidly up the administrative ladder that he now holds the top spot at the nation's most famous school, Harvard. Dr. James Bryant Conant, presiding at his final commencement as president of Harvard University, meets his successor, Dr. Nathan Pusey. Dr. Nathan M. Pusey accompanies Dr. James Bryant Conant, retiring president of Harvard University, to alumni meeting in the Harvard Yard. A. P. Photo A. P. Photo