Hardin Simmons University - Bronco Yearbook (Abilene, TX)

Page 8 text:

Mr. and Mrs. John G. Hardin

Page 7 text:

DEDICATION LI RDIN-SIMMONS I MVERSITY is a pioneer school. It was created by pioneers, and pioneers have A A been responsible for its phenomenal growth. The past few years have been crucial in the progress of all institutions. During this period. Mr. and Mrs. John C. Hardin, of Burkburnett. Texas, have assured the future of our University. We love and honor Mr. and Mrs. Hardin because they are pioneers, because they have contributed so generously to our University, and because they are above everything else noble Christian citizens. It is the desire of the Bronco staff of 1935, act’ng as representatives of the student body of Hardin- lnuch to all of us. The staff desires, therefore, gratefully and affectionately to dedicate this book tc Mr. and Mrs. John G. Hardin, pioneer builders. Christian characters, friends of Christian Education and of the youth of Texas and the greater Southwest.

Page 9 text:

AN APPRECIATION By President J. D. Sandefer F PAUSE A MOMENT to pay my meed of tribute, in so far as my command of language and my ability to express myself permits, to Mr. and Mrs. John G. Hardin of Burkburnett whose contributions to causes founded upon the principles of Christ and fostered by those who are grounded in these great verities have been written into the minds and consciences of tens of thousands who love the highest and best in the field of religious human endeavor. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin, with their pioneer vision, planted themselves in this great West more than a half century ago and gave their early lives and energies toward helping in fostering and building every legitimate agency that found ex- pression in constructive pioneer life. In building in a vitally worthwhile way toward the choicest in the field of intellectual and spiritual endeavor they suc- ceeded in a very unusual way in what the world would call financial success. The great West is potentially fraught with undreamed of natural resources. These good friends and benefactors had chosen well and fortunately their ranch properties from under which within the last few years that golden liquid called oil was found to flow and some additional millions of wealth came to these already frugal servants. They saw in this a challenging opportunity for accentuated ser- vice in investing their money in the lives of boys and girls, young men and young women who need to be served; in being served their own personalities would become so enriched as that they would go forth into the world to serve in that way where- unto Christ has challenged everyone clothed with the responsibility and opportu- nity for larger service. I have the feeling that they have caught the vision of another friend of this institution, residing in another state, who has become one of its largest benefac- tors. He gave three reasons as follows: In the first place, he endorsed the policy of the management of the institution in its efforts to keep it anchored to the Chris- tian fundamentals. In the second place, this friend gave it as his judgment that there is no institution, in so far as he knows, located so strategically as this one to serve this great Southwest as its natural resources unfold during the next fifty years. In the third place, he says there is no section of our country, in his judg- ment, offering so large a percentage of the Anglo-Saxon stock as West Texas. He said further that he wanted the privilege of making an investment in a univer- sity training Anglo-Saxon youth that will equal in scholarship that offered in any other university and at the same time that scholarship be religiously cultural. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin have on many occasions given substantially these rea- sons for the giving of their monies to causes Christian. Hardin-Simmons Univer- sity therefore meets the challenge of these friends and pledges itself anew toward the maintenance of these religious and academic standards so enthusiastically en- dorsed by them. The trustees, the faculty, our great student body, and nearly twenty thous- and ex-students join me in love and gratitude unbounded to these pioneers of the great Southwest whose lives have paralleled somewhat, in time, this institution for their generous contribution to what has now become Hardin-Simmons Univer- sity. I express the hope and offer the prayer that the ideals herein set out may ever continue to be the center of the institution’s life as it expresses itself through the present and future generations.