Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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05' i is Q5 l 1 b v! . ,Q we m Wi .?A Q gf? 1 '11, , m in HE character of any institution, it is almost trite to say, is judged by the product it turns out, and this is particularly true in regard to a college or other educational institution. Nearly everyone is familiar with the fact that it is not equipment, nor buildings. not the peculiarities of curriculum which make a college, nor even the faculty, but the body of alumni. If this familiar statement holds good for Oberlin College, then it is worth while to take stock of the Oberlin product, and ask who and what are the alumni of Oberlin, and have they made good? From the beginning, Oberlin has laid greater emphasis upon social service, in the broadest sense of that phrase, than upon the achievements of the remunerative professions and business, as ends in themselves. And, while financially the institution would probably be better off if its alumni had more generally gone into money-making, nevertheless, it is probably true that the college glories most in the service its alumni have rendered to all kinds of good causes. In common with most of the privately endowed institutions of the country, Oberlin in the beginning, sent out, in proportion to the number of its graduates, a very large number of men and women into purely religious work-preachers and missionary teachers, and missionaries, and in common with other institutions of the same class, as the years have gone on, the number going into this particular group has lessened noticeably, and other branches of social service, including the fields of medical missions, institutional work, and social service in the strict sense. have all had their quota. In the total number of graduates, teaching has been the preeminent profession. The United States Bureau of Education report of 1912 on the Professional Distribution of College and University Graduates. stated that out of a total of 4,029 graduates from all departments, 1,374 had gone into the profession of leaching. Recent statistics support this statement. For a period of years, approximately forty per cent of the graduating class each year have gone into some kind of teaching, about ten per cent into business, eleven per cent into graduate work, and the balance, in small percentages, are scattered through a wide variety of fields. Probably as I7

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many as twenty-five or thirty-five per cent of the graduates continue for rather extended periods in the teaching profession, many in high schools and colleges, some doing .1 peculiarly unique work, as for example the president of one of our first Correspondence institutions. It would be hard to estimate, also, Oberlin's large contribution to the field of music and musical appreciation. Oberlin has not been, however, without graduates who have made preeminent success in other fields, as for example in the field of surgery the achievements of the late Dr. Dudley P. Allen, '75, would honor any institution of learning. In the field of invention, the work of Elisha Gray in the development of the telephone is noteworthy, and the discoveries made by Charles M. Hall, '85, of the commercial process of reducing aluminum, which has meant so much to so many industries: and John R. Rogers, '75, the inventor of the linotype machine, which has revolutionized modern printing. Among our distinguished representatives in political life, it is quite worthy of note that Oberlin can count among its alumni General Jacob Dolson Cox, '51, distinguished as a soldier and a scholar, as Governor of the State of Ohio, and as an educational executive. It will not be invidious to mention also our distinguished alumnus, Theodore Burton, whose long and unselfish term of service in public life is an honor to Oberlin College from which he graduated in I872. Particularly though not exclusively in teaching, Oberlin's women graduates have made a large contribution, as is illustrated by the fact that Helen Shafer, '63, was a distinguished president of Wellesley College, and that Helen lVlorgan's f'66J thirty-eight years of unique service for the education of the colored race at Fiske University, was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Many of Oberlin's alumnae are occupying important professorial and other teaching positions at the present time through- out the country. Rather uniquely, too, Oberlin, the first college to give a degree to women, numbered among its early graduates a woman who became distinguished in the ministry, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, D. D., '47. The first director of the United States Geological Survey was an Oberlin graduate, F. V. Hayden, '50, and the director of the last United States Census was Dana Durand, '93, In the field of philanthropy much pioneer work has been done by Oberlin people. The work of Sally Holley, '5 l , in the south is peculiarly unique, and at the present time it is worth noting that Oberlin men have had much to do with the social service development of the city Chambers of Commerce, notably in Cleveland and Minneapolis, and in the development of the federation idea for city charities. An Oberlin man, a pioneer of the work of child-welfare, is at the head of that work in the Sage Foundation. Oberlin may well be proud also of its lawyers in all parts of the country, who are standing con- spicuously for civic righteousness, clean court practice, and-reform in politics. A long list might be made of Oberlin's graduates who have contributed largely to all kinds of community betterment, and who are conspicuous leaders in the religious, social, and philanthropic enterprises of the country. As representative of this important group, the wide-spread influence of Dr. and Mrs. Lucien C. Warner, '65, of New York City, may be mentioned. l 9