Grand Junction High School - Tiger Yearbook (Grand Junction, CO)

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MRS. EMMA ERWIN COOLEY Our friend and benefactor to whom we sincerely dedicate the Tiger of 1922 as a small token of our esteem and of our appreciation of her interest in Grand Junction High School.

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I AM YOUR SCHOOL Make of me what you will—1 shall reflect you as clearly as the mirror throws back the candle beam. If I am pleasing to the eye of the stranger within our gates: if 1 am such a sight as having seen me, he will remember me all his days as a thing of beauty and inspiration, the credit is yours. Ambition and opportunity call some of my sons and daughters to higher tasks and mighty privileges, to my greater honor and good repute in far places, but it is not chiefly these who are my strength. My strength is in those who remain loyal year after year, faithful to their work, and content with what 1 offer them and with what they can offer me. I am more than wood, brick, and stone, more even than flesh and blood—1 am the composite soul of all who enter my domain. I am your school. ■Winifred Lass

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Mrs. Emma Erwin Cooley An Appreciation by a Friend ONE of the finest collections of natural history in the entire country has been presented by Mrs. Cooley to the school children of Grand Junction. This array of specimens and curios from many lands has already been placed in the room built by the Board of Education especially for a museum. Many of the birds and animals, so artistically mounted, are native to our own western country, but there are also wonderful spec imens of birds, butterflies and insects from the tropics and many other parts of the world. To nature lovers it is a collection extremely interesting, and its lasting benefits to the students of the present day and to those who follow after can hardly be estimated. Many persons in the community, appreciative of this valuable gift of Mrs. Cooley’s, will be interested in knowing something of her early life and the circumstances which led to the making of this collection. Mrs. Emma Erwin Cooley is the daughter of James Erwin, a Methodist minister whose memory is honored as one of the founders of the University of Syracuse, New York, by a memorial chapel on the grounds of that institution. When a child Mrs. Cooley was an invalid, the result of a severe case of scarlet fever. The greater part of her youth was spent on crutches: a fact which has made her deeply sympathetic toward all who are in any way afflicted. Owing to this misfortune of being a cripple, she was naturally barred from much of the school and outdoor life of other children: but, possessed of a keen and active mind, was largely educated in her father’s splendid library. Always a nature lover, she early in life began her collection. She gathered around her birds and animal pets of every description, the indulgence of a wise and loving mother allowing this domestic menagerie, which was often a hospital as well. All the maimed and helpless creatures of the neighborhood found with her a refuge and a home. Mrs. Cooley loves the sea, and the exquisite beauty of the corals and sea shells in the collection adds much to the attraction of the whole exhibit. Mrs. Cooley’s appreciation of music is keen and discriminating. Hers has been the privilege of hearing the finest orchestras of the great musical centers, and her immense collection of disc records has been selected with rare taste and artistic appreciation. Out of this vast store, which she has gathered, hundreds of records have been distributed among hospitals and other institutions, to entertain and cheer the less fortunate, who so much need the soothing balm of music. Hardly second to the pride and pleasure with which Mrs. Cooley regards this collection of natural hository, which has occ upied so much of her time and thought for many years of a busy life, is the deep intellectual joy she has always felt for her library. Besides many gifts to individual friends and many more to the pubic library, she included several hundred volumes of these beautiful books in her gift to the school. These books are the works of the best authors and represent the highest type of the bookmaker’s art. Much of ancient and modern literature are familiar friends to her, but the sweet and tender expressions of truth, inspiring and helpful, are her standards of beauty. Nothing coarse, however brilliantly expressed, appeals to her. Mrs. Cooley has lived in such close touch with her library that the volumes have been read and re-read many times, but never a crease or soiled finger mark of her own making can be found upon them. One practical lesson should be drawn from this library of perfectly preserved books, now that they have been turned over to us: Can students do less than hold them as a precious heritage and give them the care which is their due? Mrs. Cooley has a large fund of kindly humor and is remarkably quick to grasp the underlying thought of an author. It has been her lifelong habit, in all her reading, to methodically jot down the thoughts that especially appeal to her, and this vast collection of quotations, so gathered, has been embodied in a book called “Unfamiliar Quotations.” now in the hands of its publishers. Gems of thought, helpful and inspiring, cheerful philosophy and truths expressed in a new and forceful way are the themes chosen. Generosity and kindness are Mrs. Cooley’s distinguishing traits; she loves to give for the pure pleasure of giving and as an outlet to the enthusiastic sympathy she feels for every worthy object. During the great war her patriotic zeal in the different phases of women’s work was constant and untiring. No personal inconveniences ever prevented her using her voice and influence for the cause. No woman in the county gave more cheerfully and abundantly of her means and service. Simple human kindness is the outward manifestation of a noble character: the expression of right thought, conduct and religion. To be kind, to be unselfish, to be considerate of the rights and charitable toward the faults of others are the traits which make a grand personality. This beautiful and valuable gift has been accepted by the school in the spirit in which it is offered. The name of EMMA ERWIN COOLEY will always be held in grateful remembrance as the kindest benefactor the Grand Junction school has ever known.