Cornell University - Cornellian Yearbook (Ithaca, NY)

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SPORTS 253 UNIVERMTY 309 SENIORS 329

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TABLE OF CGNTENTS ACTI HON GREE

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D E D I C A T I O Bristow Adams HE CORNELLIAN of 1956 is pleased and honored to dedicate the book to Professor Emeritus Bristow Adams, a man whose contributions to Cornell and its students will remain as a testimonial to his warm humanity and boundless energy long after the man has left the Cornell scene. Upon graduation from Stanford in 1900, Adams worked for short periods in the employ of the San Francisco Examiner, Washington Star, and the New York Herald Tribune. From 1906 until 1914 he was National Forest Examiner for the U. S. Forest Service, and, in 1914, was offered, and accepted, a position at Cornell as Professor of Agriculture and head of the Information Service of the Colleges of Agriculture and Home Economics. Once at Cornell Adams organized and headed an informal Journal- ism Department which flourished for thirty or more years. Despite these academic rigors Professor Adams found time to serve as Varsity Track Advisor, a post which he has held since 1916, faculty advisor for the Cornell Widow, and part-time instructor of drawing and painting. Above all, Professor Adams was and is sincerely interested in the students, their interests, and their welfare. He never believed in prelims or finals, feel- ing that his students would become Hphonograph recordsw, and restricted his Hexaminationsw to periodic report assignments and final papers. His warmth and friendliness were not restricted to the classroom, however. For nearly forty years he maintained a Monday night open house in his small grey-stone house on Fall Creek Drive. These intimate gatherings achieved a level of student- faculty relations which were eminently profitable to all concerned, and are wistfully remembered by the parents of many present-day Cornellians. ln 1944 he was elected Professor Emeritus, and, in 1945, taught his last class as a Cornell faculty member. However, the restless vigor of the amazing Professor Adams prevented him from retiring from active life. ln 1945 he organized and edited the first copy of the Cornell Plantation, a magazine devoted to agricultural methods and experimentation. To- day, at the age of 81, he is as intellectually alert as ever, and his sharp humor and sparkling wit still grace the pages of this publication. We who are privileged to know Professor Adams just as our parents may have known him, must surely have cause to contemplate the life of a man who has left such an undeniable and richly reward- ing mark on the Cornell community.