New York Military Academy - Shrapnel Yearbook (Cornwall on Hudson, NY)

Page 44 text:

iris PM --?-i-- if 1+ . HEAD EW YORK MILITARY ACADEMY offers many medals and other awards for preeminence in various types of activity at the school, but the highest honor in the gift of the school is the Head Boy Gold Medal. This honor is awarded each year at commencement to that member of the graduating class who has won his diploma in either the Latin Scientific, Technical, or Academic course, and who has attained the highest record in scholarship and conduct. This was the first major award established at the Acad- emy. It was founded by Colonel Charles jefferson Wright during the school's opening year ,and has been given an- nually since that time. Absence of any requirement of athletic excellency makes it open to every boy, regardless of any physical deficiency, and there are now fifty names on the large plaque which hangs in the main hall of the academic building at the Academy. The first Head Boy was joseph A. Green, '90. Green studied law after being graduated from N.Y.M.A. and is still a practicing attorney at Ossining, N. Y. Col. Rutledge Gibson, Head Boy in 1892, retired from the Army, is re- siding at Monterey, Cal. Only once in the history of the Head Boy award has a single family won more than once. Malcolm Stuart Sten- house, of Mt. Vernon, N. Y., was Head Boy in 1929 and his brother, Gordon Conover, achieved that honor in 1931. .-.-.ia BUYS Malcolm conducts the guest ranch at Flagstaff, Arizona, Gordon is studying medicine at Duke University. Nowhere is the broad educational background provided by the Academy so emphasized as in the variety of pursuits now followed by Head Boys in all parts of the country. William Maurice Alfelder, '22, is a physician at Mt. Ver- non, N. Y., Seth Gerson Hess, '11, and Gerald Staats Rine- hart, '07, are civil engineers in New York, Harold Ward Sibert, '10, is professor of mathematics at the University of Cincinnati. john Louis Magee, '96, Frederick William Lewis, '19, and Loren Oswald Graves, '01, are presidents of their own companies-Magee is in the importing business and Lewis in lumber, Graves is in manufacturing. Arthur Standish Moore, '97, is vice-president of Hearst Maga- zines, Inc., in New York. Most of the more recent graduates are continuing their studies in college. Harvey Cohen, '36, is preparing to enter Harvard Law School, and Edward Underhill Murphy, '38, is a student at Princeton, where he is taking a pre-medical course. The 1939 winner of the Head Boy medal was Arthur Stuart Hollander, of Paterson, N. J., who served on the Ramble and Shrapnel Boards, was a member of the Inter- fraternity Council and captain of the tennis team. He will enter the University of Pennsylvania. Page Forty

Page 43 text:

PM Xl l z 5 YW' In July, 1938, the Academy embarked upon another ex- tensive building program-construction of eleven houses as residences for married members of the faculty. The brick apartment building on the campus had been used for this purpose for many years, but had become over-crowded and out-moded. It was therefore decided to erect modern indi- vidual houses fronting on Route 9W, west of the main buildings. The entire project was completed in May, 1939, at a total cost of about 35100,000. The cosmopolitan character and far-flung prestige of the Academy was demonstrated by the large enrollment of 356 cadets when the school term began in September, 1938. This registration was six more than the supposed maximum capacity. There was cadet representation from twenty-six states of this country as well as from Belgium, France, Philippine Islands, South America and China. An important development, during the past year, in the courses of military instruction offered was the establish- ment of a field artillery unit at the Academy. Four 3-inch guns were obtained from the government and Battery E was formed under the direction of Captain George B. Barth. Nineteen cadets were assigned to the battery and William A. Nelson, of New York, was appointed Cadet Captain. It is planned to increase the size of the artillery unit until it is on a par with the three existing infantry com- panies and the cavalry troop. Elementary instruction will be given in this branch of the service, thus providing a well-rounded military training for all cadets. The present equipment is supposed to be horse-drawn but four special trucks have been acquired so that the battery is motorized in keeping with the general trend in regular army tactics. Since 1939 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the found- ing of New York Military Academy, comprehensive plans were made and carried through for the proper observance of the occasion. School authorities staged a number of special events during the year and at the commencement exercises, which were attended by a record number of alumni and parents of cadets. Highly active and cooperative in this observance of half a century of progress was the Alumni Association. The Association not only sponsored and aided materially in the compilation of this Golden Jubilee Book but worked hard to bring together the Old Boys . Thus, the largest encampment of alumni in the history of the school re- visited their old haunts when the class of 1939 was gradu- ated. The future of New York Military Academy will unfold under the guidance of Colonel Pattillo. Although he has served only three years as active head of the school, cer- tain broad phases of his educational philosophy have al- ready begun to appear. Without sacrificing the military discipline upon which the life of the Academy is founded, he has attempted to place more emphasis upon the educa- tion of the individual boy. He seeks not only to add new courses to the regular curriculum but to add to the already numerous extra-curricular activities. His object is to de- velop every boy along the lines most suited to his inherent characteristics and personal inclination. Frequent meetings between cadets and faculty members on a social, as well as scholastic, basis have been his aim. Keenly aware of the responsibility which is his, Colonel Pattillo is planning always for the future. He has seen the completion, in three short years, of many projects close to his heart, which are of infinite value to the Academy and the cadets. He is quietly confident of effecting further improvements and forsees a future for New York Military Academy as brilliant as its progress has been over the past fifty years. The fifty-year history of New York Military Academy is the history of fifty years of progress-progress parallel- ing that of the country in which the school has helped to prepare more than 4,000 young men for citizenship. In its physical aspects New York Military Academy has grown from an abandoned wooden hotel on thirty acres of ground to a completely modern plant set in almost 400 acres of the most beautiful countryside in the world. Enrollment has increased by more than five times the origi- nal registration, there were more cadets in the graduating class of 1939 than there were in the entire school in 1889. The faculty and administrative staff has increased from a handful to fifty men and women. Nor has the growth been physical only. Behind the name of the Academy there lie those more intangible as- sets of rich tradition, high prestige and unfailing loyalty, which are the soul of any institution. There is an esprit de corps which, instilled into the youngest cadet soon after his arrival at Cornwall, pervades the ranks of the cadet bat- talion and the thousands of alumni in all parts of the world. A part of youth given to only a select few to know, there are a handful of men who in their hearts can para- phrase the poet: lf there be a place for me When life is blown away I want it to be N.Y.M.A. On a sun-filled, june-clad day. Page Thirty-nine

Page 45 text:

,fag .. .. - . - 'lllllf - - ... 1 1,- G O L D B O Y S Withif1 these Halls We learned Duty. O READS A LINE on the great plaque which hangs from the balcony in the main hall of the academic build- ing at New York Military Academy-a plaque upon which are draped in reverence the American flag and the colors of the Academy, a plaque which no cadet, alumnus or faculty member can pass without twin feelings of pride and sorrow. Upon it are counted the names of N.Y.M.A. boys who gave up their lives in the World War. There are thirteen names in all, and the listing of their classes covers a period of fifteen years in the life of the Academy. Some of them had left N.Y.M.A. years before the World Warq others made the ultimate sacrifice for their country while still young boys. Perley Raymond Hamilton, for instance, was serving with the American Ambulance Service in France when he should have been preparing to graduate with his class of 1917 at Cornwall. On july 28 of that year a shell struck near where Hamilton was helping to place wounded in his ambulance, and he was instantly killed, first of the N.Y. M.A. boys to fall. The French government awarded him the Croix de Guerre posthumously. Howard Malcolm Poland and John Flenniken, on the other hand, were classmates back in 1904 and school days were far removed from their minds when the United States entered the war. Both went into the service, and were killed in action in France-Poland as a Hrst lieutenant of the 104th Engineers and Flenniken as a second lieutenant of the 101st Infantry. Other N.Y.M.A. men to die in France were Edward Byron Rhodes, '07, John Franklin Merrill, '09g Harold Rainsford Pouch, '12, Albert Hansford Cowart, '13, Wil- liam James Freeman, '14, Homer Russell Smith, '14, and Caldwell Colt Robinson, '16. Donald Buford Cowles, '15, died in a hospital in England, Darwin Feather Berry, '18, and Theodore Daugherty, '19, succumbed to illness while in the service here. Of all the others who served their country in the World War but were spared to return to their homes General Davis, writing in the 1919 Slarapnel, had this to Say: I have found it impossible to get definite information in regard to some of the graduates, but the data actually collected shows that something over 500 of the N.Y.M.A. men were actually in uniform and giving service during this war. The great majority of the men were naturally com- missioned as junior officers on account of their youthful- ness and lack of recent experience, but our list shows that the school furnished the army one brigadier-general, eight colonels, five lieutenant-colonels, twelve majors, fifty captains, and a swarm of first and second lieutenants. Twenty-six men from the faculty entered the service, including one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, four majors, and many junior officers. Page Forty-one