Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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The Index, 1906 room in the listener's heart for itself as well as for the ideals which it preached. Everywhere the man was greatly beloved, The charm and brilliancy of his public speaking, remarked upon by thousands who came thus in contact with him, were equalled by his personal charm as a friend. His clear, penetrating eye, his genial smile, his kindly manner, his readiness to share the pleasures or the perplexities of those among whom he worked, disarmed the shyness and penetrated the reserve of his students. He seemed to them the incarnation of whole-hearted, helpful friendliness. The students in his classes here, in 'oo-ioo, still speak, in their visits to Normal, of the inspiration of Dr. Tomp- kins' presence and his words. The members of his faculty here, as at Chicago, found in him encouragement and good cheer and helpful fellowship. His beautiful ideals still represent him, in educational thought, and warm and vital memories of him hold his place in the minds and hearts of his friends. Sane, serene, and gen- tle, broad-minded and fair, generous in judgment and act, equally a poet and a philosopher, brilliant and eloquent, un- swervingly loyal to his beliefs and to his friends, always im- pressing those around him with his sweet reasonable-ness and his warm-hearted humanity,-he was, and is, a power. His death was a personal loss to thousands of people, and the mem- ory of his name and work is a thing to keep and think upon. ELIZABETH MAVITY CUNNINGHAM. 12

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The Index, 1906 'Iln llllemoriam. ARNOLD TOMPKINS. Un August 14, IQO5, Arnold Tompkins, once president of the Illinois State Normal University, died at Menlo, Georgia, of typhoid fever. He had had to leave his duties as president of the Chicago Normal School, in May, because of threatened illness, but had recovered sufficiently to feel that he could fill his institute engagements for the summer. En route to Knox- ville, Tennessee, for the last of these, he was in a railroad wreck, from the nervous shock of which he did not recover. Unable to sleep, and hardly strong enough to stand, he fulhlled his Knoxville engagement by sheer force of will, and then went home, to his deathbed. Dr. Tompkins was a native of Illinois. He was born near Paris, in 1850. He secured his education, so far as schooling was concerned, at the Indiana State Normal School, at Terre Haute, and at the University of Indiana. He taught for a time at DePauw University, as dean of the Normal Department, and later became Professor of Literature in the Indiana State Normal School. His Illinois work dated from 1893. He held the position of Professor of Education at the State University, from vvhich he came to Normal in 1899 to become the president of the State Normal School. At the close of a year, he resigned to take charge of the Chicago Normal School. It is difficult to put into words the significance of Dr. Tomp- kins' life. Many people, in many states of the union, heard him lecture. Still more met him thru his books. Some thousands knew him in the class room and in the president's chair. All give the same account of him. As a writer, a speaker, and an active teacher, he stood for the spiritualizing, the vivifying, of the work of the school teacher. He saw, and loved, great truths, and he had the gift of apostleship. Que must see, must feel, must resolve, when listening to him, it was impossible not to be moved. But one could not forget the man, in the mes- sage, the big, brilliant, forceful, magnetic personality made ll

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The Index, I 906 flln Memoriam.. MRS. HENRY lVlcCOR1VIICK. Our little Normal community, school and town, has met bereavement. Witli the death of Mrs. McCormick forces of kindness and intelligence and justice and fellowship which have long made for good in our life here have ceased to be. The hearty clasp of the hand, palm to palm, the light in the eyes which came like sunshine into our days, we shall not know again. The voice, with its note of good cheer, is silent. The instinctive motherliness, the practical helpfulness, the 'strength and loyalty, that gave Mrs. McCormick's presence comforting and sustaining power, have passed out of our reach. The mem- ory of these things abides with us and will ever abide. Most of us who have lived to middle age have come to know that no good which has every really been, is every wholly lost, no friendship, no love that was ever really our's dies altogether out of our lives. The very beauty and strength of life and love in the dead which make bereavement bitter make memory sweet and give the heart power to endure. Mrs. McCormick's life was sweet and true and strong and loving. lt remains thru memory a permanent force working with all the forces for good bequeathed to us by the noble dead and benelicent-and active in good men and women yet living. y J. Rosli CoLBv. 13