Loyola University Maryland - Evergreen / Green and Gray Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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vision of a greater Loyola. The ceremony of the breaking of the ground for the new building was held in connection with the first commencement held by the college at Evergreen. There was something that thrilled the hearts of every son and friend of Loyola at the ceremony. For long years Loyola men had dreams of a new and greater Loyola. They wanted it to be to Baltimore what Georgetown is to Washington, Boston College to Boston and Holy Cross is to New England. Their slogan at banquets and Alumni meetings had been, “On to Guilford.” Loyola men felt that when once Loyola College moved, the advance to greatness would be rapid, that there would arise on some new site a group of buildings worthy of the reputation of Archbishop Curley Breaking Ground for the New Science Building that institution, worthy of the efforts and struggles and energy and zeal of the Jesuit fathers who toiled in season and out of season to make that dream come true. With the help of God, that dream came true when Loyola moved to Ever- green and those who were present at the ceremony realized that what was once a dream became a reality, that they did not have to rub their eyes to make sure that they were not dreaming dreams that many men had dreamed before. When they saw Archbishop Curley turn the earth, when they saw sixteen young men in cap and gown who formed Evergreen’s first graduating class, they felt that the dawn had come and the sun was shining. After the ceremony of the breaking of the ground they saw these sixteen young men receive their degrees and heard two 10

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Making History on Commencement Day, 1922 ME threescore ten years ago, and the fathers of the Society of Jesus, that great teaching body, started their educational work in Baltimore. They had the glory of centuries of teaching upon them; they were known in every corner of this earth of ours; they were to lay a foundation of higher Catholic education and thus help the future prosperity of the universal church. Their colleges and teaching institutions raised and ranked them among the greatest teachers the world has ever known. Their work and teachings in foreign lands you have often read about. I need not rehearse it. Their vast power and good influence gradually grew and today we see them still growing. And those who were fortunate enough to be at their first graduation of the new and greater Loyola saw this, and bore witness to a great step in Catholic education in the city of Baltimore. It is true that the first number of young men to leave the arms of our Alma Mater, at Evergreen was comparatively small, sixteen in number to be exact, but with the help of God and such good friends as Mr. George C. Jenkins and our big brothers, the Alumni, we will graduate in the near future classes of a hundred and sixteen. Graduation is a glorious term and yet at the same time a very sad one; as it means the day for which we have been striving for four long years looking for- ward, and the day on which we leave the endearing arms of our Alma Mater to take our place as men of the world. Some of us will become doctors; some of us lawyers; some priests; and others will enter business and professions of various kinds; but as the years pass by all will look back with fond recollection and no doubt think of those beautiful words of the master, Shakespeare : — How like a winter hath my absence been From thee the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezing have I felt, what dark days seen. What old December’s bareness everywhere! Or if they sing, ’tis so dull a cheer. That leaves look pale, dreading the winters near. But then when we look back to the first graduation at Evergreen, we see nothing but joy and sunshine for surely that was a day of rejoicing for every son and friend of Loyola. For when Archbishop Curley sank a bright new, shining spade into the earth on the campus of Loyola College, Evergreen, Monday afternoon, June 12, 1922, he not only began the foundations of the new $250,000 Science Building, a present from our benefactor, Mr. George C. Jenkins; but he conjured up for the Alumni, the students of the college and the relatives and friends of the Green and Gray, the 9

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of them deliver the commencement speeches. They were thrilled again when they heard the Archbishop declare that if Loyola had so trained her sons that they would take their place as leaders in the world, “then thank God for Loyola and for the Class of 1922.” His Grace in his address to the graduates spoke upon the necessity of higher Catholic education. He congratulated the students upon enjoying such advantages. He referred humorously to the fact that the college had awarded a prize to a young man for his ability to impersonate a woman. He referred to George R. Gibson, who was awarded a medal for his splendid imper- sonation of Lady Macbeth in the annual college play. The ceremony of breaking the ground took place before the commencement exercises. Preceded by St. Mary’s Industrial School Band, the graduates and pro- fessors of Loyola, and the Archbishop, accompanied by the Rev. Joseph A. Archbishop Curley, Fr. McEneany and the Class of 1922 McEneany, S. J., rector of the College and Father McDonnell, S. J., marched to the site of the new Science Building. There a small patch of earth with a grass cross in the center had been marked out. Int o this earth, while every one looked on, me Archbishop plunged the spade. As soon as His Grace had tossed the earth aside, the spade was handed to Mr. George C. Jenkins, the donor of the building. Mr. Frank O’Brien, president of the Alumni Association, delivered a speech in which he visualized the new Loyola with its new buildings including the $200,000 Gymnasium, which is to be the gift of the Alumni Association. The proposed Group of Buildings, which will include a Chapel will go to make up a beautifu architectural monument. At the commencement exercises the A.rchbishop, the members of the faculty and the graduates sat on the portico of the beautiful Garrett mansion, v;hich is now being used as the administration building. The audience sat beneath a tent on the lawn. William Joseph Sweeney was salu- 11