Macalester College - Quid Nunc Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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James Vlfallare hull come to thi- new college after having been elm-tml to the chair of Creek and modern languages. leaving his home and lznnily in Wlooster. Ohio. He felt the urgency ol lllacalesteris situation. and during the first week in fXp1'il. l88T. arriwrl at the three-story red brick structure. in thi- midst ol' dry and wind-whipped cornstalks which he supposed to he lllacalestcr College. For Dr. Vllallace. this was the start ol a new life filled with hardships. discomforts. and sorrow. and at the same time. a life of challenge. joy. and love. Ile iinmediately entered into the sc-hool spirit. taking part in the literary. religious. and athletic life. He ln-lpf-rl in any way he could counseling students. planting trees. giving up part of his salary that other professors might come to the college. Macalester was poor, and from year to year it was a question as to whether or not the school would open for another session. To help save funds, the college voted to put the burden of administration on the faculty and save the salary of a president until the financial crisis should be over. Thus the otliee of Dean of the College was started and Dr. Wallace was elected to fill it. A year and a half later he wrote to his father-in-law, It has cost me unremitting toil, great cares and at times tears, but I am heartily glad I remained here. lf l had left last summer I think the college would have closed and perhaps, indeed probably, forever. l was determined that the college should never perish through any derelietion in duty on my partf' fllacalestefs first gym, in the basement of Old Main Class of 1889 in the chemistry laboratoiy. The room is now used as the Off Campu W Omen s Loun

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In 1894, at the resignation of President A. W. Ring- land, James Wallace was elected president of Macalester College. Now began, among his other duties, an undying search for money and students for Macalester. He started a seemingly everlasting trek from town to town, church to church, person to person in search of these necessities. He traveled to the East to beg for money, often arriving heavy-eyed from sitting up all night on the train, and returning heavyhearted, having had no luck. Every once in a while he would tell his family that he could stand it no longer, and if funds were not raised by commence- ment, he would resign. Dr. Wallace never gave up, however, and in May, 1901, the day long hoped for came, the last of the old claims were settled and the seven dark years in the history of Macalester came to an end in victory. The fight had been long and hard, but the spirit of James Wallace had refused to be defeated, and in the fall of the same year Macalester opened without debt or deficit. President Wallace did not rest, however. He continued to seek en- dowment, current funds, and students. ln 1907, Dr. Wallace resigned as president. He re- turned after a leave of absence to teach Bible, and in 1926 retired. He died in August 1936. At his resignation from the office of president, the secretary of the Board of Trustees wrote to him, H. . . You have been the chief instrument in making the college what it has become, an institution with not only a good history, but a good out- look as wellf, This October Dr. Harvey Mitchell Rice, Macalester's tenth president, was inaugurated, and follows the other presidents who have guided the school along the road to wisdom, service, and progress, Edward D. Neil, Thomas A. McCurdy, David James Burrell, Adam W. Ringland, James Wallace, Thomas Morey Hodgman, Elmer Allen Bess, John C. Achenson, and Charles J. Turck. Each one has left his mark on the school, bettering and building it inlsome way for those who are to follow. Edward Neill and James Wallace are gone, but their spirit lives on. It is a spirit handed down from one gener- ation to another like a flaming torch. a torch which can never go out. It was of this spirit which President Rice spoke in his inaugural address when he said, M. . . Let us achieve excellence. Let us honor those who have gone before us, and let us honor them through the quality of our achievements. Let us honor them by proving that we are worthy to follow in their train. Let us as a community of scholars produce a Christian intellectual life that will make it possible for us and our students to grow in stat- ure physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually toward the high calling of Godf' The Weyerhaeuser Library The Bell Tower