Miami University - Recensio Yearbook (Oxford, OH)

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To ELMER ELLSWORTH POWELL We, the class of 1924, respectfully dedicate this book.

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juretnurh D?!D?le?00?0 HOULD you in glancing through this book find many places where the Opportunity for better- ment is evident, as you well can, then think how much more aware of such places are those who have worked long and carefully over that thru which you do but glance. No one could be more conscious of the books defects than ourselves. Yet we offer no apology for them. This book represents our best. True, it is far short of our ideale-ebut what is not? And 2a mans reach should exceed his grasp? We have endeavored to give a faithful reproduction of , the School year of 1922-23, and to place this reproduc- tion in an artistic setting. Of the measure of success we have attained, you-yourselves are the judges. We feel that we should seize this opportunity of express- ing our appreciation to those who have made this book what it is. Our deepest obligations are to the staff; without their willing, cheerful, and industrious co-opera- tion the book could never have been. We are also in- debted to Professor Modder of the department of English, not only for-his clever sketches which have added much to the lighter side of the book, but also for his inspiring interest and untiring enthusiasm; to the Brown Robert- son Co., for the use of copyrighted negatives; and to the various sculptors whose works have supplied us with book heads. -Be7'gen B . Evans Oxford, Ohio.

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Elmer Ellsworth Powell Professor Emeritus of Philosophy day of August, 1861, and was named after Elmer Ellsworth, the first llmartyrii of the Civil war. He is the son of Curtis Powell, a pioneer Methodist circuit-rider, who in his early ministry was conspicuous in evangelizing the then western frontier. ELMER ELLSWORTH POWELL was born at Clayton, I11., on the 16th Dr. Powellis preparation for university study was made at Lincoln, IllinoiSe partly in the Lincoln High School, and partly in Lincoln College, a small Cumber- land Presbyterian institution located there. In 1881 he entered the University of Michigan, where he took the B. A. degree in 1885, having completed in- cidentally the entire first year of the Law School also. When Dr. Powell was in college, intercollegiate athletics had not yet come into vogue, 8student activities8 being almost wholly of a literary character. The Alpha Nu Literary Society, of which he was several times the president, claimed a considerable amount of his attention. He was interested also in 8T he Chronicle , the student journal of the time, and served two semesters on the editorial staff, one as Business Manager and one as Editor in Chief. Some months after graduation he was seized by the conviction that he ought to enter the ministry, although, in View of the way in which his career was subsequently shaped, he has often remarked that it must have been someone else who was ilcalledii when he went. To prepare himself for his chosen pro- fession he then attended the Boston University School of T heology, receiving at the end of the three-year course the degree of Bachelor of Systematic Theo- logy. He was then appointed to teach in the Theological School which his Church had just established at F lorence Italy to train Italians for the protestant ministry. Two years later he followed the School to Rome, where he was married and his only child was born. After four years in Rome he went to Germany ,to restore impaired health, and to study philosophy at Halle and at Bonn. From the latter University he received in 1899 the degree of Ph. D. magna cum Iaude. As his protracted sojourn in Europe had given him unusual opportunities to learn the languages, he accepted, on his return to America, the temporary position of Professor of modern languages in Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While engaged in this work he wrote his book en- titled llSpinoza and Religion? In 1905 he was called by Dr. Benton to the chair of Philosophy in Miami University, which he held until June, 1922, when he asked to be retired. He says that nothing is so enjoyable as wholesome work, and that he has not retired to a life of idleness, but to one that will permit him to go his own pace in the investigation and advocacy of the truth in regard to present-day issuese religious, social, and politicalawhich, in his opinion, have lately been badly bedeviled.