Bethany College - Bethanian Yearbook (Bethany, WV)

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Mark Mordecai Cochran Too often we are prone to give to the institutions which claim rela- tionship with great men, the entire credit for their greatness. However, institutions are man made and Bethany is the great institution she is today because she has been touched by the lives of some great men. Bethany ' s noble ideals have always existed and yet in themselves they are impotent. They must be seen by the souls that can respond and realize their great- ness. Such a man is Mark Mordecai Cochran, one of Bethany ' s noblest sons. As Clark, Lamar, Odell, Oliver and a score of others have striven mightily in the political world and McLean, McGarvey, Power, Hall and Williams have left the stamp of their greatness upon the church; so has M. M. Cochran given to the cause of Christian education the best fruits of a long and successful life, as a token of his great spirit. He has provided Bethany ' s material needs, that she may go on producing great figures in church and state and rendering her humble service to mankind. It has often been said that to Miss Campbellina Pendleton and M. M. Cochran belong the credit for Bethany ' s existence today. These two souls had faith when the stoutest of hearts seemed to have deserted. Mr. Cochran was chosen in 1882, seven years after his graduation from col- lege to take the place on the l oard of Trustees made vacant by the untimely death of James A. Garfield. From that time on he has been a faithful worker. When he was elected, affairs which concerned Bethany College were in a chaotic condition. The endowment had been spent to complete the new building and for general expenses. With painstaking care j L M. Cochran went into the details of Bethany ' s troubles. He decided that she must have endowment. He began the fund with a gift of two thousand dollars which was placed in such a manner that it could never