Elon University - Phi Psi Cli Yearbook (Elon, NC)

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sought for other places — a choice of tender love and affectionate sacrifice. Rut who shall say that he ha not been led of the l.ord and wisely therefore in this choice ? Xo man is jjladder today of the pros])erity and growth of Elon than Dr. Newman. He will delight you for hours with thrilling accounts of the incnn- veniences, the hardships, the bitter struggles of the pioneer days, with ladders for stairways, with poor lamps for electric lights, with open fireplaces for steam-heat, with felled trees and the debris of the builder ' s art everywhere in profusion. But, he will add, we in those days saw in our heart ' s desire this better day and rejoiced in it and do rejoice. Like one of old he can look around this place and truthfully declare: 1 am a jiart of all I survev. Dr. Xewman is head of the Department of Greek and I ' .iblical Literature in Elon. He has had a rare preparation for this responsible position. Prepared for College in the Suffolk Collegiate Institute, he graduated in 1885 from the Uni- versity of North Carolina. He later studied in the Divinity School of Yale Uni- versity, liut his chief preparation has been his studious disposition, which during thirty-two years of constant a])])lication has rendered him the most finished Bible scholar in the Christian Church. He dreams in Greek, it is said, and his pupils can hardly see how it could be otherwise, if he dreams at all. Dr. Newman ' s library of Greek and I ' .iblical works is a collection remarkable not onlv for its size, but more so for its di crimiiiation and insight — a double insight at that, since unlike many a scholar who buys books Dr. .Newman has really seen their insides. They are his dear and intimate friends. Dr. Newman was licensed to preach in his eighteenth year and ordained in his twenty-third. He has given his life to the ministry of teaching, however, rather than to the pastorate. In this way his scholarship has counted throughout many a state and nation, and he preaches from hundreds of pulpits weekly rather that! from one. The man who trains other men to be messengers of the Good News has a stewardship of the Gospel tremendous in its consequences and preg- nant with power. Dr. Newman has been s];lendidly successful in the type of min- ister he has trained. The preachers who have gone out from Elon have been gospel preachers, consecrated, devoted, earnest. The vindication, rather the crown, of Elon ' s Greek and Bible teacher, therefore, is his handiwork in the pulpits of the churches, and equally so in the pews — for the laymen too, many of them, have studied Greek and Bible under his leadership. I ELON COLLEGE I Page Seven

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1193 PMIPSICI-I l.. | |F ' J|ft iniUfaflP X Rev. John UrquKart Mewman T IS impossible to think of Klon without at the same lime thinkino- of that genial gentleman to whom the 1017 Phipsicli is affectionately dedi- cated. How fitting the honor this, bestowed on a man whose chief char- acteristic is modesty! The class of 1917 has chosen well and all the Alumni will rejoice in their decision. Dr. Newman was born January twenty-nine, eighteen hundred si.xtv. in the city of Portsmouth, ' irginia. His parents were John B. Newman and his second wife, Miss Hannah G. Urquhart. Three brothers and three sisters followed him into the home. Two brothers and two sisters by a former marriage had pre- ceded him. A sister, Mrs. Charles Joyner. Nansemond County, Va... his tw i half-brothers and his father have passed to their reward. His aged mother, now in her 82nd year, and the other chddren are still active in life ' s busy undertakings. One brother. Rev. N. C. Newman. D.D., is College Pastor at Defiance College, Defiance, Ohio, . nother brother. Rev. C. E. Newman, is pastor at Virgilina. Va. One sister, Mrs. W. C. Wicker, is the wife of a minister. All members of the family are active in Christian work. What a record this and what an inspiration ! Dr. Newman ' s connection with 1-Ilon began in her prenatal days. When he was twenty-eight years of age and teaching in The Graham Normal College, the conviction kept growing upon him that the Christian Church in the South must have a College of its own, not to teach sectarianism, but to exemplify in education the beautiful principles of liberty and love taught by that Church as embodiments of the program of the Master for His Kingdom among men. So zealous an advo- cate was he of this need that, when the Southern Christian Convention met in extraordinary session in Graham in September, eighteen eighty-eight, Dr. New- man was by special request made a member of the Board of Education, and this Board brought in the report that made Elon possible. Two years later when Elon opened its doors first for students. Dr. Newman was here as a member of the Faculty and here he has remained till this good day, nine years of the time serving as Chairman of the Faculty, or Dean, investing his life, his heart ' s devotion, his all in giving form and loveliness to the institution that has meant newness of life and ((uickening of aspiration to so many noble men and women. It has been a deliberate choice — for many times he has been I ELON COLLEGE I Page Six

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not PMIPSIC1 I Dr. Newman ' s life has been given almost entirely to teaching. He was first instructor in English and Philosophy at the University of North Carolina. His ne.xt appo ' ntment was associate principal of the Suffolk Collegiate Institute. From that post he liecame Adjunct Professor of Latin in Antioch College, Yellow Springs, ( )hio. This was a most fortunate position, for here he met with Mrs. Newman, who was then Miss Pattie R. Long, Odessa, Mo., but a student in -Antioch. In all Dr. Newman ' s career this Christian woman has been all that the Scriptures imi)l - in that suggesf ' ve word, help-meet. She is active in Christian effort and in the good deeds which she does. Mer children, three sons and two daughters, praise her and call her blessed. So also do her frienth — and they are everybod} ' . From Antioch Dr. Newman came to The Graham Normal College and accepted the chair of Latin and Creek. There he remained till the College whose name, Elon, means strength and beauty, was founded in 1890, as we have said. Here the honored scholar and beloved man has become rooted and grounded in love, to quote from Paul, and here he has grown in usefulness and power until like kberty and union. .Vewman and Elon, have become one and inseparable, now and forever. W. A. H. I ELON COLLEGE I fage Eight