Fairmont State University - Mound Yearbook (Fairmont, WV)

Page 10 text:

Fairmont State Normal School E. E. MERCER Mr. Mercer is a native of Marion County and a graduate of F. S. N. S. He obtained his degree at the University of Nashville (Tennessee) in 1891. After that he was connected with some of the western schools; his chief work being in the schools of Dardanelle, Arkansas, and Waco, Texas, and later at Berkley Springs, West Virginia. In 1899 Mr. Mercer returned to Fairmont, and for two years was prin- cipal of the local high school. In 1901 he accepted the position of teacher of mathematics at the Normal, which place he has occupied ever since. In the past two or three vears his time has been divided between mathematics and English. The summers of 1901 and 1910 were spent in Europe, and on his last trip he witnessed the famous Passion Play. Mr. Mercer has ahvavs been extremely interested in the welfare of Fairmont Normal and has devoted much time and energy to the school and its work. As al l learned men he has his educational creed : Educate for living .is well as for making a living. Of this creed Mr. Mercer is himself a living epistle. Loved and honored by all of the students as well as the faculty. Daddy Mercer has won a place in the Fairmont Normal which cannot be taken from him. And it is with a feeling of both pleasure and pride that the Senior classes dedicate this, the tenth volume of the Mound, to a man of so superior worth as Mr. Mercer.

Page 12 text:

Fairmont State Normal School Spirit and Aims of the Fairmont State Normal School HE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSAY of The Fairmont State Normal School was observ- ed this Spring. Such an occasion is an ap- propriate time for friends of the insti- tution to think ab out the spirit which has animated its work, and the aims which should guide its efforts in the future. At the close of the first fifty years of its public service, the institution moves into a new building located on a new site. The new home is expected to be a permanent one. Ample grounds have been provided for future development, and as the years go on we may expect additional buildings to be constructed as the expanding needs of the institution re- quire them. This Xormal School throughout its history, has been dis- tinctly a training school for teachers. It is true that for the greater part of the first fifty years of its existence, it has been in a large measure a secondary school in the courses of study which it has offered. For many years this was a necessity. There were no high schools and such institutions as the Xormal School and private academies furnished the only opportunities for those who wished to get an education beyond the common schools. The history of the Fairmont Xormal School shows that it has rendered superior service in this direction. Hun- dreds of young men and young women in the past fifty years have been given thorough secondary training in this institution. While the Xormal School in its first half century largely em- phasized the academic work, it was at no time negligent of its service in preparing teachers for the public schools ot the State. Over twelve hundred young men and women have gradu- ated from the institution. In die list of alumni may be found many names of those who have been and are prominent in edu- cational work. The men and women who have gone from the