Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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Valuable, however. as were his labors, in the direet work of the ministry, it is perhaps true, that the great service pertormed by l1im was as President and Professor of Moral l'hilosophy in Hampden-Sidney College. To the discharge of these duties he came in the maturity ot' his powers, bringing with him a rich experienee garnered in intimate Contact with mankind, with a thoroughly furnished and trained mind and a full appreciation of the importance of, and a sincere atleetion for, the institution whose destinies were placed in his hands. Taking the helm at a time when the College had enjoyed unwonted prosperity under the brilliant presidency ot' the gifted Green, he addressed himself to his duties with sneh assiduity and suceess that no loss was felt in the change of administration but everything moved evenly on. the numbers and morale of the College being fully maintained up to the period ofthe war. As a teaeher Dr. Atkinson was painstaking, accurate and thorough. As a eollege otlicer, he was perhaps, a little too rigid and exaeting in his expectations and require- ments, but always solieitous tor the weltare of his students and anxious by all the means in his power to promote their temporal and spiritual interests. As President, he represented the institution with dignity and sua,-cess, being ever on the alert to bring it to the front and by his well-directed Gil'iJl'tS won to it many friends. During his administration the funds ofthe eollegc were increased from S70,ooo to 251150001 important and expensive improvements were made to the college buildings and residences, a second professor in the department of Ancient Languages was added, instruetion in German and French was introduced, the Bible Course was established and the professorship ot' English and History ewas created. Thus both tl1e material and literary position ofthe college was advanced by him to a far greater extent than by any other president in its history, with the possible exception of Dr. Jonathan P. Cushing, flxfl to 1835 Q, and that during a period mostly eovered by domestic war and the evils uf' reefinstruction and its desolatiug consequences. At the same time he was sending out into the ditlerent professions and employments hundreds of honorable and in

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an honest man's the noblest work of God. IIe was wholly nnprctentioiis, absolutely without ostentation, free from the shoddyism and seltlcxaltation sometimes seen ill the pulpit ot' the present day. His worth was that of solid and pure gold, and l1is influence iV6l1t to make people humble, and honest and truthful and good. Dr. Atkinsonis service to the church and the world apart from Ztlltl beyond the work perforined by him as the head of a Christian household, the citizen of a free COll11HOIlXVQillfl1, the trusted friend, tl1e courteous and hospitable host and neighbor, and in the other 111ore private relations of life, was performed chieliy ill two directions: First, as a Christian minister, a11d second, as the President of Halnpden-Sidney College, a Christian College. In regard to the fiI'St poi11t, it goes without saying that he was an able and faithful minister of the gospel. The care he took to tit himself for the sacred oiiice by completing a regular and full collegiate and theological course supplemented by post-graduate study, gave assurance that he would be equally faithful a11d diligent in discharging its duties after they were i1SSl.l1H9Cl. He felt the need of CO1l11flQtGIlt scholarship, that he might correctly understzmd and expound Grod's word, and he obtained it before presuming to obtrude himself into tl1is responsible position. He became an accurate and trustworthy theologian, 4' able rightly to divide the word of truth, witl1 a. thorough comprehension of the system of doctrine taught ill the sacred scriptures and was 't ready always to give an answer to every man that asked l1i111 a reason of the hope that was i11 him. As a preacher, he was QV21l1g9liC2ll, instructive and earnest. As a pastor, he was faithful, sympathetic and unwearied. The writer happens to have known some members of l1is congregations at XVarrenton and Georgetown, and the affectionate and honorable regard in whicl1 he was held by them is the highest testimony to l1is ministerial efficiency. Another evidence of the same thing is the relatively large I1ll1HlJG1' of students from Northern Virginia, where he was best known, who attended Hampden-Sid11ey duri11g his administration. - 15

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well-trained men, who have done credit to themselves and their Alma Mater, who reinember with grateful acknowledgment his salutary example and intiuenee and who prize the benefits they received from his careful training and instruction. Among these may be mentioned Rev. W. U. Murkland, D. D., of Baltimore, Rev. E. H. Barnett, D. D., ot' Atlanta, and Rev. P. H. Hoge, D. D., of Ivihnington, as representatives of the ministry, Maj. R. M. Venable, of Balti- more, Hon. X. C. Manson, ot' Lynchburg, and Hon. Meade IIaskings,ot' Richmond, as repre- sentatives ot' the Bar, Drs. M. D. Hoge, Jr., and P. A. Irving, ot' the University School ot' Medicine, Richmond, and Dr. YV. D. Booker, Baltimore, as representatives of the medical profession, and President Charles YV. Dabney, LL. D., of the University of Tennessee, lVilliam M. Thornton, LL. D., of the University ot' Virginia, Thomas C. Johnson, D. D., Union Theological Seminary, and Addison Hogue, A. M., of ivashington and Lee University, as representatives of the Colleges, to whom scores of others under each head might be added, many of them equally distinguished and all doing honest and fruitful work in their several positions. V The following sentences of a private letter from Professor liralter Blair, now in Europe, who for more than twenty years was Dr. Atkinson's colleague, and who, but for his absence, would have Written this sketch, is a itting close to this tribute. Professor Blair says, Indeed, I knew him Well and long, and thoroughly admired and honored a man, who as a citizen, a college President, a Christian and a man, lived in the steady and constant view of the purest and highest ideals. t'Wliile he was without certain showy qualities, otten looked tor by the public in men who stand in conspicuous places, qualities quite commonly possessed by persons of a greatly inferior type of character, yet to those who took the trouble to inquire into his motives of action or were capable of understanding his unselishness and his devotion to duty, he was an unusually complete model of a manly man. 17