Choate Rosemary Hall High School - Brief Yearbook (Wallingford, CT)

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To the Class of 1938: ln one school that I know there is a meaningful custom. Just before graduation the faculty and members of the graduating class elect a fellow who is known for life as the Key Nlan. Thereafter, that man is responsible for everything concerning his class: for keeping the class in touch with each other, for sending out a class bulletin once a year, for knowing the history of every man in his class, for bringing the loyal influence and unity of the entire class to bear upon anything which will work for the school's upbuilding. lf the election is a wise one, if the fellows from whom to choose are of the right calibre, it goes without saying what are the qualifica- tions of that Key Man. He has to be one upon whom everybody can depend. He has to be a fellow who cares-cares about every fellow in his class, cares about the existence of, and the development of, every good thing in his school. Quaesiuz' Bona Tibi. He has to be a fellow who all through later life, no matter how his other responsibilities grow, will somehow find time to help carry the responsibility for his school. If he is going to do a good job he will have to be a good execu- tive, inspiring others to work with him, for nobody could do the job alone. He will have to be the kind of fellow who, as everybody knows, puts a job through. And he will have to have something in addition, something we don't quite know how to define-it is made up of sentiment, of strong fealties, of an unsellish philosophy of life. Whatever this is in a man it is closely akin to his religion, and it is necessary for his satisfaction and happiness. People feel it about him, know it moves him to give his life rather than save it: they take pleasure in adding their work to his. Not to make anybody self-conscious, but to present a challenge, would it be a good thing for each member of the Sixth as he leaves Choate, to ponder how much consideration he would get from an unprejudiced electorate for this position of the Key Man? Benjamin Franklin, in analyzing himself, set down ten or a dozen qualities that 12

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he thought necessary. and periodically marked himself on these to show whether he thought he had improved. lt made a rather cumbersome check-up. Could we reduce our own or Franklin's list. of ten or a dozen necessary qualities. to two? l wonder if any electorate could fail to consider a man who had preeminently an effective work-habit plus a line loyalty. I think every man of the Sixth who has those two things is a Key Man. A touch of laziness. a bit of cynicism. some half-sophisticated smile at high sentiment or standards--these spoil a man for considera- tion for the post-weaken his work. dissolve his loyalty's motivating power: there in the inner regions of self they set up an alchemy that's all wrong. Hard work and loyalty make a character formula that's right. They make for simplicity and unity of self. XVhen those qualities become compelling in us. we'd almost vote for ourselves. And since nobody's good opinion of us is worth half as much as our own self-respect. I submit that each man of us check up occasionally his own adequacy for Key Man of the Class of 1038. and if he can't vote for himself as of th: stuff out of which Key Men are made. that he go to work to change himself--even by the method of the publican who stood afar off. I salute a Class of Key Men! if 'hc' Ht'uc!'r'l7cI.slc'r 13