Albion College - Albionian Yearbook (Albion, MI)

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WILLIAM B. BUCK, A.B., A.M. . Uiiiiini Secretary A.B.. Albion College, 1895; A.M., Albion College, 1S96: A.M., Harvard University, 189S; Secretary, Cuban Or- phan Society, 1900-02; Su- perintendent of Seybert In- stitution 01 Philadelphia, 1900-1915; Director of Sea View Farms, New York, 1915-1S; Director of Red Cross Relief, 1918-21; Comm. Serbian Child Welfare Assn., 1920-21; Director Spcycr Memorial Hospital, 1922-20; Alpha Tau Omega; present posi tion since 1920. had experienced a year of unsuccessful leadership under William Silber and J. L. G. McKeown, Dr. Jocelyn was per- suaded to reconsider the presidency. He returned in 1871 and gave his strength and devotion to the college to such an extent that he was the victim of a sudden attack while lec- turing to a class. Dr. Jocelyn made an enduring mark on the lives of the students and on the record of the college. The fifth man to occupy the presidency of Albion College was the only graduate of the old Wesleyau Seminary ever to occupy an exesutive position in the new college. Lewis Ran- som Fiske had attended the Seminary while Principal Hin- maii was in charge and had finished his education at the University of Michigan in 1850. He became professor of natural sciences at the Albion Female Collegiate Institute and Wesleyau Seminary, to serve for three years. After teaching at Michigan State Normal School and Michigan Agricultural College, Dr. Fiske entered the Methodist min- istry, successively serving charges at Jackson, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. With Rev. Orrin Whitmore, Dr. Fiske became editor of the newly established Michigan Christian Advocate ; and from 1875 to 1877 he held the editorship in connection with pastorates at Central and Tabernacle Churches in De- troit. Elected president of Albion College in 1877, Dr. Fiske directed a twenty-one year administration, one of the longest and regarded as one of the strongest in the history of the college. When Dr. Fiske resigned in 1898, the trustees selected Dr. John P. Ashley, who had be leyan Seminary of Lima, New presidency of Albion for three years, he resigned to go to the West Coast. Dr. Ashley had an excellent academic train- ing, with graduation from Ohio Wesleyau and Boston Uni- versities and graduate work in Europe and England at the universities of Jena, Leipzig, Berlin, and Oxford. The second war of Albion ' s Century, the Spanish-American, took Albion men to become soldiers diirinu this adminis- tration. At the turn of the twentieth century. Dr. Samuel Dickie became president of Albion College. He had grad- uated from Albion in 1869, and had gone out into the public school field, but in 1877 he returned to his alma mater to occupy the chair of Mathematics and Astronomy. During 1882 he raised $10,00(1 to construct the Observatory on the campus. He became known throughout the United States as chairman of the National Prohibition Committee, and in the state elections of 1886, he received the largest vote ever cast for a Prohibition governor. After the resig- nation of Dr. Ashley in February, 1901, Dr. Dickie was appointed acting president of Albion College, and he was elected pre-sident at the regular meeting of the trustees in June. At the beginning of his administration, the college was $100,000 in debt, but by the end of 1902 Dr. Dickie had president of Seneca Wes- irk. After occupying the WILLIAM P, W. SLOCTM ident of Alumni Association Albion College. ' 13; Pre dent of United Savings Ba of Detroit; Elected Pres. Alumni Association in Jul 1933; Delta Tau Delta. 24 •

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HELEN GILDERSLEEVE, A.B. Assistant Registrar A.B., Oherlin College. 1924; Secretary of the Treasurer. Dakota Wesleyan University; sity graduates, for they selected another Wesleyan man to lill the office of Principal Stockwell. Clark Titus Hinman came to Wesleyan Seminary in 1846 at the age of twenty- nine, served for two years, and left to accept a position at Kvanston, Illinois. There lie became the founder and first president of Northwestern University. Mr. Hinman ' s executive ability showed itself in the fact that he raised Wesleyan to a foremost rank in his short term of office. The force of his great character was made known through per- sonal student contacts anil his pulpit power. It was through his influence that the name of the institution be- came Albion Female Collegiate Institute and Wesleyan Seminary, with the radical step of co-education. Wesleyan ' s next principal was a pioneer in the field of common school education. .Mr. Ira Mayhew, who had risen from the rank of country school teacher to state superin- tendent of public instruction. The Albion appointment was for the short term of fifteen months, after which he was again chosen to the state position. Mr. Mayhew was the first and only layman to occupy the Seminary office. When any boy of fifteen enters college to complete four years work in three to graduate at the age of eighteen, he would seem fated to he a college professor. Thomas Henry Sinex was no exception to the rule, for he did become a teacher after leaving Asbury University of Greencastle, i, ' erf e !e. s ' sltlon smce Nuvcm Indiana, known today as De- Pauw; but in addition, he studied law, entered the min- istry, became an academy principal, and finally a college president. He succeeded Ira Mayhew to the Albion Semin- ary principalship in 1854, and in 1861 became the first pres- ident of Albion College. During the administration of Pres- ident Sinex, the Civil War, the first of the three major wars of Albion ' s hundred years, took young men from Albion Col- lege to help fill the ranks of the Blue. ' 7 During his presi- dency, Dr. Sinex pushed the sale of scholarships for the sup- port of the college. Albion ' s second president, George Beniers Joeelyn, walked in nearly the same paths as did Dr. Sinex. In fact, they were born on the same day — January 3. 1S24 — and en- tered the same academy in New Albany, Indiana. Both en- tered Asbury University in 1839, but Joeelyn was forced to return to his father ' s printing office after one year at the university for a 1935 reason — lack of funds. He began a study of law, as did Dr. Sinex. but after a short time entered the ministry. Following a varied career as professor, editor, business man, and pastor, he was called to the presidency of Albion to succeed Ins boyhood friend, Dr. Sinex. For five years he gave every effort to further the interests of the col- lege, so fully that his health suffered and he was forced to resign to accept a ministry in Grand Rapids. The strength of his executive ability was so missed that after the college F. MORRIS COCHRAN, B.S. Business Manager of Albion College Denison University. B.S., 1919 College. 1919-1 Manager, Broat 1926-29; Lamhd Present position Bus 23

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erased that indebtedness. Through hi.s efforts the present library building was erected and the old Central Building, built in 1843, was remodeled to become Robinson Hall. The shadow of the great World War fell across these years; col- lege men in khaki drilled on the campus ; men enlisted ; men gave their lives in the service. During Dr. Dickie ' s twenty-one years of splendid service, he put the north star of Methodism into its proper place, high in the educational firmament. The graduates of twenty-one years felt the in- fluence of his strong personality. Following the resignation of Dr. Dickie, Dr. .John W. Laird became Albion ' s eighth president. Dr. Laird was the author of many papers and addresses and had tilled impor- tant pastorates in New Haven, New York, and Baltimore. He resigned in 1924 after a term of three years, and Dr. P. S. Goodrich was appointed acting president. When Dr. Good- rich occupied the office, he added his name to those of Charles F. Stockwell and Clark T. Hinman — to make it three Wes- leyan University graduates who had occupied the executive position in Albion. MARVIN FREDERICK PAHL, A.B. Secretary to the President Albion College, Sigma Rho; Phi Phi Mu Alpha; i The visiting of principals and presidents of a century from the vantage point of years has not allowed us that pre- presidential-visitation thrill which must come to those who position since 1930. actually go into the presence of the chief executive. How- ever, entering the office of the ninth president, Dr. John Lawrence Seaton, let us glance at his record. It leads from a ten year professorship at Dakota Wesleyan University, to a successful administration as president of the College of the Pacific, to the office of College Secretary of the Methodist Board of Education, and in 1924 to the presidency of Al- bion College. Other presidents saw Albion men leave the campus to serve in three wars, but Dr. Seaton waged his own private war from hi.s own private office — the war on the depression. For six years he has sent battalions of budgets and regiments of figures to the depression front, to hold Albion ' s position and to better it during that time. During those years, national honors have come to him and with them that colorful title of the little giant of Methodism. Let us go into the office and receive the greeting of Al- bion ' s ninth president. Who would guess that this kindly, soft-spoken man could be the little giant ' ' of Albion? Lest the financial fight overshadow the worth of the president ' s real force, let us record here that Dr. Seaton ' s eleven years of successful service have found him a friend to all, one who makes every campus interest and problem his own. MARY O ' BRYANT, A.B. Business Secretary A.B., Mississippi State Col- lege for Women , 1926; As- sistant Secretary , Field Co- operative Associs ition, Jack- son, Mississippi 1927-33; Graduate Work. University of Chicago. 1933- 34. Present When one has left the office of the ninth president after visiting all of the chief executives of Albion ' s century of educational life, he can find no better words to express his thought than those of Emerson : an institution is the lengthened shadow of a man. • 25 •