Girard College - Corinthian Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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2 In Retrospect Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief Francis A. Neibert Associate Editors Frank J. DeSanto Charles Green B. Davis Fenimore John A. Fuller Philip Bavuso “Real Courage Mattes the Man!” When you leave your school behind you And the world your service claims, When you start your life anew With high and definite aims; Classmates, lest some dying ember Chars your hope, and mars life’s plan, Take this motto, and remember That “Real courage makes the man”! Does darkness shroud the path of life Where success was wont to fall? ’Tis God’s wing that shelters us from strife, And His Love extends to all! Heads up, classmates, though the hard times Will destroy your whole life plan; Joy is coming with the good times, Still “Real courage makes the man”! Times of love, of truth and gladness; Times of pleasure and of pain; Times of hate, despair and sadness Come to us from God’s domain; Friends are closer, faith is surer. Now that we are in the van God is nearer, life is purer— Classmates, “Courage makes the man”! God until this hour has never Sent deep sorrow o’er our class Now the summons comes to sever, And it grieves us as we pass; As the future change enduring Will e’er challenge our life’s span, Let us, then, with trust assuring, Prove, “Real courage makes the man”! —Howard J. Gill, January 1934.

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IN RETROSPECT January 1934 The Record of The Graduating Class of Girard College Girard College Press i njrnjTJTjonjTja

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January 1934 3 T HE CLASS OF JANUARY 1934 leaves Girard College to enter a topsy¬ turvy world. Advancement among those workers who happen to have jobs is being secured mainly by rigid competition. The business world will not herald us as exemplars of knowledge or as prodigies. VVe shall have to be cogs that fit into the wheels of business or social work. If we do not fit, the world does not have to accept us. Therefore we must try first to adapt ourselves. As far as Girard College is concerned, we pass on as another graduating class of fifty-odd boys who have satisfied all requirements of conduct and scho¬ lastic work. The gates are closed behind us. Girard College will carry on its great work and miss us, but not in any vital manner because others have come up to fill our places. There lies ahead of us greater work than we have ever done if we are to become significant as workers and thinkers in the world. Real¬ izing this, we have respected the opportunity of the past as Girardians, and we honor those who guide us so well as our best friends. Today, after nine years in this great home and school for boys, we heartily acknowledge with sincere gratitude the character and skill and affection of those who have helped us real¬ ize the finest values in life. Yesterday, when we entered, the Grecian Temple at the gate meant noth¬ ing more to us than any big building with pillars. The High School building was not widely different from the school buildings from which we had come, so little does a small boy discriminate in his surroundings. But during our stay in the College much has been changed. In place of the old buildings mod¬ ern ones have grown up to a new magnificence. That gray building with many spires, where we lived out our early years, has given way to the new Junior School. The dining room where 1600 hungry lads assembled three times daily has disappeared with time. Its boys have divided since into house groups which now assemble in attractive dining halls not only to eat but to learn the manners of the gentleman. The beloved old chapel with its chimes, its ivy vines of warmth, life and good cheer has passed forever. Old sentiments still linger. The new and far more beautiful edifice in which we have recently worshiped will magnify and beautify the lessons of old. Long may they live! And so “the old order changeth yielding place to the new, and God fulfills Himself in many ways.’’ Like many other students of today, we have taken in all this and more with deep and serious appreciation. And so we depart. Tomorrow we become another part of a great world with our training, our habits of idealism, and our hopes. Henceforth we shall be “on our own’’; we shall have perhaps fewer friends to offer a supporting hand, but now we go out to something greater or less than what we have left behind. It shall be what we choose to make it. What shall we make this life of tomorrow?