Duke University - Chanticleer Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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irr yi KORiAM. Dr. William Preston Few, whose mellow genius materialized a dream into a great educational institution, died in Duke Hospital at dawn on October 16, 1940 after an illness of a week. He was a remarkable man. President of Duke University for thirty years. Dr. Few directed its growth from a small college primarily of regional service into a center of versatile and competent educa- tion for the nation and even for the world. The period of his leadership was one essen- tially of reaching out beyond old borders : curriculum was extended to include new fields, the physical plant was expanded and new equipment was secured, a brilliant faculty was attracted to educate soundly the young men who came here to learn, and a reputation of general excellence was established to draw students from all parts of the country. All this had its roots in the dream of a man. The Duke endowment itself, in 1924, was one of the greatest tributes ever paid Dr. Few. James Buchanan Duke had caught the impressive enthusiasm of the president of the little North Carolina college ; he had seen the vision ; and he had germinated a faith in the wisdom of this man and in his abihty to produce an institution of sound principle, brilliant education, and national service. James B. Duke bought a share in a dream. Out of dollars and cents arose a university. Foremost in the mind of its president and manifest in his actions all through the period of growth was a firm determination that mere bigness was not to be the aim of the place he was building. The stress was placed on ideals and influence, not numbers. For Dr. Few was a wise man. These were his accomplishments. Personally, he possessed a rare serenity and a limitless patience, and, above all, he was the embodiment of that quaUty of humility that is so essential to true greatness. All who knew him were fiercely loyal; all who met him came away with admiring respect. There was something about the man. A part of the soul — for a university has a soul — of Duke University has passed.

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world are available only these two permanent and fir mly fixed bases — Education and Religion. Education for the broadening and enrichment of our minds, religion for the raising of our spiritual selves above the tendencies to undervalue the finer characteristics of life. These two intangibles can bring us to a fuller appreciation, a more complete realization of the capabilities and possibilities of our existence. If carried to the extent intended by the founders, these two goals cannot fail to bring to the fore all of our better qualities. Therefore it is to education and religion, abstract ideals of the intellect and the soul, rather than the trainsient influence of any present leadership, that we dedicate this book, the Chanticleer for Nineteen Hundred Forty- one in the firm belief that we must seek our guidance for the future in these two fundamentals.

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WILLIAM PRESTON FEW