Mississippi College - Tribesman Yearbook (Clinton, MS)

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An Appreciation of Algernon Jasper Atom LGERNON Jasper Aven was born in Grenada County, Mississippi, on the 25th day of August, 1858. Reared in the country, in the days of Reconstruction, he received only such primary education as the so-called schools of those Chaotic days could give. But there was that in him which refused to be kept down by circumstance or environment, and so in October of 1879, young Aven presented himself as candidate for Freshman Class at the State University. Here he graduated four years later with the Bachelor of Arts degree, standing among the first of his class and delivering one of the Commencement Orations. In 1 889 he re- ceived the Master’s Degree from the same institution. Choosing teaching for his profes- sion, he was one year principal of (the ColesCreek Academy, for four years principal of the Boy’s High School in Winona, and then in 1 889 he came to Mississippi College as head of the Department of English, being afterwards transferred by his own choice to the Depart- ment of Latin. During his stay in Winona, Professor Aven wooed and won Miss Mary Bailey, a lady whose birth, native ability and brilliant accomplishments make her a most suitable partner of her husband’s fortunes. Their union has been blessed by one daughter, Miss Anna Ward Aven, who has inherited the charming personality and strong intellectual powers of her parents. Miss Anna Ward graduated from Mississippi Col- lege at the head of the class of 1905, having the distinction of being the only young woman graduate of Mississippi College. After taking a three years post-graduate course at Bryn Mawr, where she won many honors, she has accepted the chair of Latin in the Normal Department of the I. I. and C. Professor Aven has devoted much time and attention to literary work, being an essayist, historian and poet of no mean rank. A frequent contributor to the columns of the New Orleans Picayune, his articles of philosophical and historical research have elicited much favorable comment. He is not a poet on the style of him who “lisped in numbers for the numbers came,’’ but one who adorns beautiful thought and delicate fancy by means of broad culture and ripe scholarship. As a speaker and orator Prof. Aven is much in demand and he has given his talents liberally to the great Laymen’s Missionary Movement, speaking effectively in churches and religious meetings from one end of the state to the other. In his public and official life he exemplifies to the world the highest and greatest and grandest type of Christian citizenship. It is impossible in the limitation of a short sketch to do even scant justice to the character of a man who has, for hard on a third of a century, been prominent in the educational, literary and religious affairs of our state. At Mississippi College, presi- dents, and faculties have come and gone but he has remained steadfast through twenty two years of storm and sunshine, refusing to leave the institution of his love and having the satisfaction of seeing it, after vicissitudes of fortune, take its rightful position among the great schools of the South. Besides his high rank as a sudent of the classics, be- sides the thorough and lasting quality of his class room work, over and above and be- yond even these stands the gracious influence of the noble Christian life he has lived before all men. Patience, gentleness, tenderness, courtesy, honor and generosity, — there are but a few of the virtues that in him do have their being. It may be that capricious fortune may never pour her golden tide upon him, it may be that the state will never sufficiently reward his patriotic services, but he will forever be enshrined in the graceful hearts of the thousands of young men for whom he is so freely giving his life. 5 — J. L. Johnson, Jr.

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DEDICATED TO ALGERNON JASPER AVEN Professor of Latin in Mississippi College, whose influence for twenty years has served to guide Mississippi men to Mississippi ideals.

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A. J. AVEN, A. M. Professor of Latin.