Cornell University - Cornellian Yearbook (Ithaca, NY)

Page 12 text:

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.

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.i L az! as fjgfx 57 . Fm K 91.5,-f -V .ss , K, ' ' Vi,.gi.X cor. LL F, as a freshman, you approached Cornell for the first time at night, the first image impressed on your mind was probably the Library Towerea shining symbol of the books and learning ahead of you. If you approached the campus during the day, perhaps it was the bustle and socializing of Willard Straight Hall which attracted you initially. But no matter what your first impression was, you soon found out that both of these aspects of Cornell -and many others, including the religious and cultural-were irrevocably intertwined. You found how difficult it was for a student to go through four years at such an energetic, creative university with- out consciously or unconsciously mingling in its diverse activity. Perhaps somewhere along the line you struck out on your own, choosing to make a contented life- long scholar of yourself. This is easily enough done at Cornell, not only through its teeming library, but through its varied, outstanding faculty, its endless offering of exhibits, discussions, lectures, concerts, and dramatic productions. But scholasticism may have seemed slightly abhorrent to others, and so these perhaps took a new route, gathering on their Way invaluable social contacts with foreign students, or merely with other students who liked people for their own sake. Thus it is that places like the Library and Willard Straight gain their significance. Not only do they symbolize the enormous diversity of Cor- nell, but they are part of the diversity itself. They act as guide posts for the newly initiated of Cornell, and unhesitatingly give of their time and effort to those who are curious and eager. lt is certain that while teachers, courses, attitudes, and moods will change at Cornell, and while the Straight and Library will undoubtedly also change in form, their spirit will remain as long as Cornell possesses students. For Cornell is for people first of all, these build a college.