Beloit College - Codex Yearbook (Beloit, WI)

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I we Salute Bun! Qtuhents, Zllumni, Jfaculty, Jfr In behalf of the Junior Class of 1915, We, the CODEX Board, present to you this fourteenth Volume of the CODEX. We hope that Within these pages each may find something of interest ienhs

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NN Brut. TE. Q. Smith anh his Work When Professor Thomas Alexander Smith passed into retirement upon the Carnegie Foundation last. J une, after having given thirty-six of the best years of his life to Beloit, not only the department of Mathematics of which he was the head, but the college at large gave up more than can easily be estimated. It was truly a period of storm and stress when Professor Smith first came to Beloit on that twenty-seventh day of August, 1877, to take over the struggling departments of Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry. Equipment in these lines the college had practically none. Money was scarce, and compe- tition keen. Everything from the department of Greek to experimental furnaces for the assay of ores was huddled together in old Middle College. The day of the old strictly classical course was passing, and the feeble call of infant science was truly pitiful. Success at such a time meant ea herculean struggle against odds that might Well apall the bravest. A How that success was won is now history. But the rapid growth of the new separate departments is but the fruit and the culmination of the careful nursing of those first feeble attempts. Professor Smith came to Beloit well equipped for work in hand. He had throughout his life been accustomed to meeting and over- coming difficulties. Born on a farm in Morgan county, Ohio, he grew up used to hard work, and lots of it. At the age of twenty-one he went to Muskingum College in Ohio where he earned his way through to a degree of A. B. in 1872. There he remained as Professor of Mathematics for two years, after which he went to Yale, where a Ph. D. in the departments of Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy was conferred upon him in 1877. Then coming to Beloit, he took up the work with that whole-hearted perseverance and tenacity of purpose that in the long run could not stop short of success. Professor Smith taught from 20 to 30 hours a week in his really diversified courses. In 1884 after the installation of the obser- vatory and its management for two years, he gave over the work in Astronomy to the new head of that department, devoting all of his time to the upbuilding of the departments of Physics and Mathematics. At first all courses consisted of mere lecture and recitation work. Gradually by means of home-made apparatus, and meager purchases the nucleus of a laboratory was established. By personal solicitation Professor Smith raised at one time four hundred dollars, selling tickets to a lecture course given by himself, the proceeds of which together with a scant appropriation from the board of trustees, went to pay for the first real equipment, of which a large portion now remains in use. So, little by little the department grew, till in 1907 it became too big for one man to handle, and the work was given over to Professor Culver who has since built upon the foundation prepared for him, while Professor Smith as head of the Department of Mathematics, confined him- self to that branch alone through the last years of his service. Just how much he has really done for the college, few realize, Professor Smith himself perhaps least of all. I But even in the face of a big' man's natural modesty, itumay be said that Beloit owes him a debt that it can never pay. With con- scientious steadfastness of purpose he achieved in spite of difficulties, he devoted the best years of his life to make possible present and future success and future development in his chosen field of educational endeavor. And the good that men do lives after them. Page 6

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O, Beloit our Alma Mater, We tonight thy praises sing, For our hearts are thine forever, Thine, our grateful offering Tho' We Wander far away, From thy beauty mantled hill, Yet Wherever We may stray Thy dear name our hearts Will fill And Wherever We may be All our Voices shall unite In a song of praise to thee, ' Hail to thee, our own Beloit.