Campbell University - Pine Burr Yearbook (Buies Creek, NC)

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Although not a minister, Dr. Leslie is eminently a church man. For him religion and education are twin servants of the same life-purpose — to seek and to share the tmth. His is no blind belief. Faith with him is information and enlightenment; and it is the living faith of a man who spends his life in Christian work. In 59 years as a church member in Buie ' s Creek he has known every responsibility of lay leadership in a local Baptist church, and he has con- stantly shared in the co-operative ventures of North Carolina Baptists. In nothing else, however, is his faith more clearly evident than in his work for Campbell College. It has ap- peared in counsel given college young people in countless interviews, in constant pleas from the chapel rostrum for open-mindedness and greatness of heart in service of true religion, in quiet help- fulness to troubled faculty members, and in persistent efforts to open doors to the better life for the surrounding community. This faith is transparently Continued on page IM Dr. and A rs, L. H. Cam,iheU off for a week of their ChrUtmas vacation in Hawaii. The trip was financed by the staff, faculty members, and the Trustees of the College as a Christmas present to our president and his wife 16 . . . when striped suits and watch chains were in vogue Professor Leslie- dean of the Colle, m I Tbb

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His deep affection for his own family in no sense separates him from his commitment to the college. Mother, brother and sister, wife, children and grandchildren — all are a teacher ' s evidence to him that life is good and meaningful. To detect the pride in his voice when he speaks of son or daughter, the gleam in his eye when conversation turns to a grandchild, the readiness to turn aside in a busy day to meet some need in the life of his aged mother, and the fleeting moment of serenity gratefully received from the sensitive hands of his gentle wife — this is to know one source of the man ' s strength. In this giving and receiving of affection and encourage- ment, he, one suspects, has gained the most, notwithstand- ing all his generous efforts in their behalf. His life has been steadied and nurtured in its central purpose by their quiet gifts of faith, hope, and love. Without him in their day-to-day experience, life would have been a dull and partial thing for his family. Witliout them, his contribution through this great institution would have been noticeably lessened. A snapshot made about 1924 Leslie the drummer and Carlyle the bather Mrs. Leslie H. Campbell, ivife of our president 15

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To stand together at this decisive turn in the story we have traced is to ask, What do these brief days of study and friendship mean to a beckoning future? Surely as individuals inseparably bound to the past and future of Campbell College we would invest ourselves in the crucial present. Indeed we are bridge builders of a span, sturdy or weak, linking past and present. And Beyond Look about you again. What do you see through the eyes of appreciative good will? Changes, you may say, and you are right. At a mid-year faculty meeting, our president noted, Never in the life of this school have there been so many fundamental changes as have taken place in recent months. Appearing on every hand, these changes suggest the nature of the world we seek to serve through this institution. Our period in history is shaping us even as we seek to reshape it. Look about you. As we see new dormitories rising from the ground, we have witness in mortar and brick to the spiraling demand for the highly trained mind. Not the few in our society, but the many will need the specialized awareness and skill vital to techno logical society. Liberal education is no longer a luxury. It is essential armament in the ideological struggle which will determine, in our lifetime, the freedom or enslavement of the human mind and spirit. These living quarters will be monuments of hope in the preparation of others who, like you, must learn to think and love and dream in a world groaning and travailing to be born. Look about you. A three-story science building should excite the imagination to see beyond its imposing facade and gleaming laboratories to the exploration of the infinitely expanding horizon of our world. Our school motto is literally relevant — Ad astra — to the stars. In our laboratories we have the means for reaching to the stars. But this will be done only per aspera — through difficulty — the agony of disciplining the mind and inspiring the heart with aspiration and courage. So it will be, whether man pays the price of his dreams in searching out the vast reaches of the galaxies, tracing the intricacies of the cell, or finding the possibilities of cybernetics, electronics, chemo- therapy. These but hint of countless new frontiers.