Emory and Henry College - Sphinx Yearbook (Emory, VA)

Page 160 text:

Tobiat SnytH Houic 1838 MACTE VIRTUTE' 1963 Emory Henry College E. E. WiUy Adminiitrative Building

Page 159 text:

In memorium to the life of our Dean this ly this section is presented. A day of incongruity has caused a us. Why must such a man die. a man live every moment and who so gave life unshamed to feel grief and sadness that taught us how to live, who led us to be of and to respect our humanness: who selves as selves, aware of our responsibilities was man enough to do it for us one at a time. Dr. Armbrister was not a paragon, he did not self as such. This is a part of the beauty of the man. He war' a man. with all the implications that made him human. The Dean always taught us. he was never unavailable to us. he was always honest with us: this, his greatness, because he was always honest with himself. He was dedicated to ideal; and principles of goodness and to a faith in and love for peo- ple. with their failings and their strengths, which led him to see us always as individuals. He accepted fears, weaknesses, in- insisted that they bo called human: that they humanness: that they not be hidden in as products of dishonesty. If he was of family he was completely unaffected by in his caring. The Dean was. indoed. uncommonly —Dan Adams. '63

Page 161 text:

HISTORICAL SKETCH The development of Emory end Honry College has for one hundred and twenty-five years been a major investment of Houston Conference of tho Methodist Church. The College is the oldest institution of learn- ing in southwest Virginia and is ono of the few schools in this whole aroa opened as a collogo. continued undor its original name, and still Supported by the founding organization. 1963 marks the one-hundred-and-twonty-fifth anniversary of the oponing of tho Collego. It was on April 2. 1838 thot tho first students began classos here. Emory and Henry Collego was established by the Holston Conference when tho conference memberhsip was twonty- nine thousand. Todoy. Holston Conference reaches from Chattanooga. Tennessee to Radford. Virginia, and provides for threo conference col- leges. The Collego was named in honor of two great loadors: Bishop John Emory of tho Methodist Church and Patrick Henry, the groat Amoricon orator and Revolutionary patriot. Tho first president of the College was the Reverend Charles Collins. Today. Or. Earl G. Hunt, Jr., is the fourteenth president of the institution. Among the names associated with the founding of tho Collogo are the nemos of Tobias Smyth. Creed Fulton and Colonel William Byars. Creed Fulton wos appointed to select the sito for the College. In 1835 when he was returning from Annual Conference in Abingdon. Virginia, he stayed overnight in the home of Tobias Smyth. Smyth in- fluenced Fulton to select a site one mile from his homo for the new college. A cabin similiar to the home of Tobios Smyth stands todoy on the Emory and Henry campus as a tributo to the establishment of tho Colleqe on its present location. Colonel William Byars wos a prominent land owner and planter in this area of southwest Virginia. His gifts greatly benefited tho founding of the college. The Byers name is memorialized in the Momorio! library which serves not only as the Collego library but also the quorters for tho two drnote literarysocloty halls which are as old os the college itself. The name of Creed Fulton is immortalized on the Physics Building end Observatory. This building wos built in 1915 with funds raised by the College. A major portion of this money was roisod at a locturo given by William Jennings Bryan on the campus. Mr. Bryan came to the campus through the efforts of Dr. Fred Allison. '04. Today tho campus stretches over one hundred acres of land. To eithor side of the green hills on which the college is built are mountain ranges. At the heart of the compus is tho Memorial Chapel symbolic of the emphasis ploced on the Christian religion at Emory and Honrv College. There are twenty-three buildings on the campus and sevoral others on the drawing boards for the immediate future. Among these future buildings aro tho fine arts building, a new auditorium, an ex- pendod librory or a now one. and residence quartors. Emory and Henry Collogo has benefited greatly from the qifts of many olumni and frionds. The gifts of these people have enabled the College to provide better facilities and finer academic opportunities for the students. The most recent bequest to tho college was tho bulk of the estate of Frederick T. Kelly. 'OS. and his wife. Tho amount of this qift oxceodod ono million dollars. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley's qift has mado possible incroosod ondowmont for tho institution and many needed improvements. The Kellys are buried in the Holston Cemetery on tho hill overlooking the campus of the colleqo whoso growth will bo qreatly enhanced because of their belief in higher education through o church- related colleqe. The qifts of other alumni have boon significant to the growth of the collego. The establishment of the Henry Carter Stuart Chair of Erqllsh by ox-Governor Stuart. '74. was done so by his gift of one hundred thousand dollars. Dr. Hugh Hawthorne, '06, was for many years president of the Pocahontos Steamship Company and qeneral counsel and director of the Consolidation Coal Company of Pittsburgh. He sorvod as Presi- dent of the Board of Trusteos of Rlvorside Church of New York City for many years. His death in 1962 was the end of a close association with his Alma Mater. He left two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for tho establishment of a Chair of Political Science. Recently, the first BAYS BLACKWELL LECTURESHIP was hold on tho campus. This lectureship was mado possible kfy Dr. Robert loo Blackwell. '21. who established this important lectureship in memory of his fother. The Iccfuroship brouqht Sir Hugh Foot. United Kingdom Ambassador to the United Nations, to tho campus. The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation of Winston-Salem. North Carolina, awarded Emory and Henry College a qrant ,of twenty-five thousand dollars to be used as the ondowmont for o lectureship in memory of R. J. Reynolds, founder of the tobacco dynasty, who attended Emory and Henry for two yoars. In 1913 the SPHINX was dedicated ro R. J. Reynolds. Throuqh the years Emory and Honry alumni havo made significant contributions to community, state and nation. Our alumni are found in all areas of life whore educated people aro servinq. History has recorded the nemo of General J. E. B. Stuart of Civil War famo 157