McMurry University - Totem Yearbook (Abilene, TX)

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1 DEDICATION A man and his wile drove up to the comer ol the McMurry College campus one day in September. 1942. and sized it up lor the first time. They looked at the barren acres and surveyed its inadequate half dozen buildings— one incomplete, one temporary and another disreputably worn. Only the Administration building was a college marker worthy of the name. It doesn't look much like a college to me, said the wife. It doesn't to me. either. the man agreed. That September day was a memorable one. for a decision was in the making that was to change the course of both the man and the institution. That was how McMunry and its seventh president—Dr. Harold G. Cooke—met. A short time later the two were fused and have been inseparately distinguishable since. In a parley the same day with the employment committee of the McMurry Board of Trustees. Dr. Cooke insisted. I'm no college president. and received a prompt You can learn reply. In the weeks that followed, the presidential candidate talked with several bishops; one of them Bishop A. Frank Smith who told Cooke: I’ll admit they haven't got much out there, but it is my solemn conviction that McMurry is the best opportunity to build a great educational institution in the church. The word build caught Cooke s fancy since he had built six Methodist churches, some of them the largest in southern Methodism—and he ac- cepted the post. In the years that followed. Dr. Cooke set high goals and made plans that had even the most hopeful doubting. I told them a big thing was easier to do than a little thing, be- cause a little thing doesn't challenge people Cooke recalls and it was with this attitude then he coined a spirit that can only be described as Cooke-ism. S. M. Jay, for twenty years chairman of the Board, sums it up this way: I have never worked with a man with such vision and determination—always planning something constructive, and then following through with dogged determination to see the plans are completed. He never quits. To that man who never quits, who has so successfully led McMurry College through the last ten years and who. in the next ten years, is sure to help make McMurry a beacon in Western Methodism and Education, we dedicate the 1953 Totem. The Editor.

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Foreword . . . A DECADE OF PROGRESS On Jen. I. 1943. Dr. Harold G. Cooke became the president of a college that for more than a decade had faced the threat of closing. It could boas: on.y seventeen teachers and a student body of 160 and its entire physical worth wax SS75.000—and that included a token S60.000 endowment crr.d the -acre- campus. The new executive lost no time in conceiving a daring plan that scared the most optimistic of the opamists. He decided on a minimum o. SI.000.000 in endowment and S75.000 in building and equipment In Novem- ber. 1945. ground was broken for the fir»! building—the completion of Presided- Hall A month later, a project of building a dining hali wax assumed by the college exes. Then from his hospital bed after having hia neck broken in a serious auto accident. President Cooke announced his greatest thnli —the decision of Mrs. J M Radford. Abilene business woman and philanthropist to build and equip a Student Life Center She marked $300,000 for the project and doubled the amount in 1949 to meet rising co--' - With hi3 nock still -n a brace, the President sot out on an extensive fund-raising campaign which netted enough to build Gold Star Memorial Dormitor for men. An endowment gift of S5GO.OOO by Mrs Dora Roberts of Biq Spring led the way The name of McMuny has been synonymous with 'Progress'' during the past decade THE POINT In the 1953 Totem wo have sought to commemorate two important events in the history of the college. First, that in September 1923. exactly 30 yearn ago. Dr. J W Hunt founded McMurry College; naming it for William McMurry, area bishop. And second, that ten years aao. another great builder. Harold G Cooke, arrived on the scone to lift a colleae that lay stunned from the de- pression The Convocation ceremonies, held March 1C 14 in honor of Dr. Cooke and McMurry’s Ten Years of Progress could well be considered The Point between a decade of progress and A DECADE OF PROMISE On the adjoining map is McMurry College within another decade. A nat ural though: will be that the goal is too big. but a comparison of the college ol 1943 and 1953 gives substantiation lor belief in such miracles Las: March, a courageous and far-sighted Board of Trustees, headed by J. M Willson of Floydcda. issued the following proclamation and adopted an accompanying building program. It is axiomatic that no person or institution can remain static. In recogni- tion of our obligation to provide adequate Christian educational facilities for young men and women so that they might fulfill their destinies in this highly competitive world, provision must be made for their training in those profes- sions peculiar to this great western area. It is apparent that in order for Mc- Murry College to fulfill its obligation there must be a planned expansion of present plant facilities. The program should include a building program as follows: 1. A physical education building and matching endowment for its op- eration. upkeep and maintenance. 2. Two additional dormitories, one for men and one for women, together with sufficient endowment to maintain and operate same. 3. A library building with adequate book stock and reading space for business and administrative work of the college. Matching endowment to be supplied. 4 An adequate building for Fine Arts, together with matching ©ndowment 5. An adequate science building 3hould b planned with matching en- dowment. 6. A ccmpus improvement program is a project by itself with a definito plan of landscaping by competent architects and artists. 7 This planning committee in connection with the above items, should de- velop a sound program of land acquisition and an architect should be employed to prepare a Master Piot Plan of the whole area now owned ar.d that is to be acquired end :o make a layout sketch of the various buildings now in existence and those which this committee will pro- rvM » There you have it -McMurry» master-plar. of action for the next decade The name of McMurry is also synonymous with ' Promise!''

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CONTENTS Thirty years is comparatively young for an institution of higher learning, and McMurry College, we believe, is now but an inkling of what it is destined to be- come. Therefore we have chosen the Papoose, the Indian youngster, to illustrate the various divisions of the 1952-53 college year as viewed by the Totem. The Editor RESERVATION ADMINISTRATION ADVERTISERS