Denison University - Adytum Yearbook (Granville, OH)

Page 9 text:

Dedication To Dr. R. S. Colwell, Professor of Greek and Dean of Denison University, whom we all love and admire, the Junior Class respectfully dedicates this book. 3

Page 8 text:

Dr. Richard Steere Colwell, D.D.

Page 10 text:

Richard Steere Colwell, D.D. ICHARD STEERE COLWELL was born near I J Providence, Rhode Island, just over the state border [ in the Massachusetts village of Hebronville. He re- ' — ceived his preparation for college in the Mowry and Goff Classical School, of Providence, a flourishing institution at that time, but not now in existence. He entered Brown Univer- sity in 1866 and was graduated with the degree of A.B. m 1 870, after winning Phi Beta Kappa and distinguishing himself behind the bat in baseball, a combination of honors in which the ordinary rules of mathematics are set aside and addition be- comes multiplication. He then taught two years in Provi- dence, took the three-year course in Newton Theological Insti- tution, spent a year in Europe, and preached a year. Mean- while, Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews, his classmate at Brown, had become President of Denison, and in the summer of 1 877 President Andrews announced the selection of Richard S. Colwell as Professor of Greek, to succeed Professor William Arnold Stevens, called to the Rochester Theological Seminary. Thus Dr. Colwell will complete in June thirty-eight full years of service in Denison, the longest record of any unbroken pro- fessorship in the history of the College, though all but equaled by that of the Professorship of Mathematics under Dr. Gil- patrick. In 1891 the degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred upon Professor Colwell by Brown University. Conditions and circumstances lead many to go through college without Greek, but no one goes through Denison with- out knowing and respecting Dick. His pupils respect him for his positive, manly bearing and his insistence on honest, persistent and scholarly work in the classroom. Those inter- ested in athletics respect him for his athletic enthusiasm, shown by long and laborious service on the Board of Control, by ad- herence to clean ideals of intercollegiate sport, by presence at the games, and by his own participation in tennis, golf and other healthful athletic pastimes, thus carrying youthful spirit forward into advancing years. And all alike respect him for his practical common sense and strong, vigorous personality; for his fearless adherence to that which seems to him the path of duty ; for the tender sympathy that underlies that adherence to duty, even when in his relations with students or others it may assume a stern exterior; for his broad range of interest and the rich storage of his mind, gathered from literature, from travel and from intercourse with men; for his habit of inde- pendent thought and outspoken opinion, which commands re- spect even when it does not secure acceptance; for his scorn for all that is mean, underhanded and dishonest. In short, for all that has made Dick Dick to many generations of Deni- son students, and in spite of all the trouble which as College Dean he makes for us when we are derelict in college duty, he deserves and possesses our hearty respect and affection. Here ' s three and a tiger for Dick, Dick, Dick! Shout ' em out with a vigor, quick, quick, quick! And long to his post may he stick, stick, stick! 4