Oklahoma City University - Keshena Yearbook (Oklahoma City, OK)

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PREXY N September, 1912, when Woodrow Wil- son ana the first rioosevelt were running a neck to neck race for the presidency, a husky young school teacher, late of Guy- mon, Oklahoma, stepped off the train at Guthrie and found his way to the regis- trar's office at Oklahoma Methodist Univer- sity, then housed in famous old Convention Hall Where homespun statesmen, five years before had penned the Oklahoma consti- tution. Lven in those days Guthrie was no new experience for young Aaron George Wil- liamson. lt was really his home, and from it he had gone tour years earlier to enter the Methodist academy at Marionville, lvilS- souri. Graduating there in 1911, William- son taught a year at Guymon, but declined a second contract. A university education was calling him, and besides, the 21-year-old teacher had resolved that the pulpit rather than the classroom was to be his forum. From Guthrie, where his parents still lived, Wil- liamson was receiving letters which told of the new Methodist University just removed there from Oklahoma City. Somehow the thought of casting his lot there appealed to him. At O. M. U., A, G. , as he was familiarly known, made his way by working in stores, selling insurance, and snapping up odd jobs which widely varied abilities placed in his way. On weekends he went out to preach at nearby Navina, and during his junior year was president of the student body. With a sheepskin in his trunk, off he went in 1916 to Boston University where he gained an S. T. B. three years later. Memories of Oklahoma still lingered, however, and in October of that year he was back in the Sooner state, serving the M. E. church at Shawnee. Pastorates at Blackwellg Kansas City, Mo., and Salina, Kansas, followed be- fore his call to Wesley Church, Oklahoma City, in 1932. Before going to Kansas City he had served briefly as superintendent of the Oklahoma City district, but long enough for O. C. U. to award his LJ. U. in me spring of 1925. Williamson reach.ed the O. C. U. presi- dency December, 1934, in the darkest hour of the schools 16 years at Oklahoma City- less than two decades after he left it as a student. Dr. Walter Scott Athearn, two months in the presidency, had suddenly died in St. Louis where he was attending to business of the University. How Wil1iamson's firm hand steadied Scarabia's falling fortunes, revived the con- fidence of students and bolstered her finan- ces is now a matter of history. Where crit- ics predicted short-lived failure, his success has been complete. Nothing so graphical- ly portrays this fact as the increased enrol- ment of the past two years. Today there are nearly 200 more regularly enrolled stu- dents on the campus than in May, 1935. The end of his third administrative year finds him still at work. He has wrought greatly in the building of a New Scarabia. And succeeding years, wherever fortune may take him, will find A. G. Williamson still laboring for a greater Oklahoma City University.-Paul Bennett. -'Fr 11 -4'

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IL the CHIEFS OKLAHOMA CI'I' Y MEMBERS Dr. A. G. Williamson, O.C.U. president R. I. Benzel, Board president V. V. Harris, Board treasurer M. M. Gibbens, Board secretary Bev. Iohn R. Abernathy Newton Avey Tom Baugh Virgil Browne George Frederickson Ed. B. Galloway C. F. Heidbrink Dr. I. M. Hargett Victor Harlow, Ir. H. G. Hatfield Edith Iohnson I. Henry johnson Carl C. Magee C. S. McCreight Dr. G. A. Nichols Moss Patterson Dr. W. E. Robinson Iohn D. Thomas R. I, Benzel OUT-OF-TOWN MEMBERS Bishop C. L. Mead, Kansas City, Mo. Bishop A. Frank Smith, Houston, Texas Rev. Virgil Alexander, Chickasha, Okla Bev, l. W. Armstrong, Chickasha, Okla, Rev. C. L. Crippin, Tulsa, Okla. Bev. Phil Deschner, Blackwell, Okla. Dr. Forney Hutchinson, Tulsa, Okla. I. B. Holmes, Muskogee, Okla. Rev. I. L. LaGrone, El Reno, Okla. Dr. George McDonald, Tulsa, Okla. Dr. R. E. L. Morgan, Shawnee, Okla. S. S. Orwig, Wewoka, Okla. Mrs. Ellie Wootten Siddens, Chickasha, Okla Bev. I. D. Salter, McAlester, Okla. W. M. Vickery, Blackwell, Okla. Bev. I. C. Curry, Ada, Okla. +P- 10 if-

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THE FA LTY EBED A. BEPLOGLE: Dean of Col- lege of Liberal Arts, head of health education division, professor of sociology, A. B., Manchester Col- lege, A. M. and Ph. D., North- western. Dean Fred A Replogle IAMES I. HAYES: Head of literature and speech division, Professor of English, A. B. and A. M., Harvard University. E. LYMAN TIBBITTSL Head of occupational guidance division, associate professor of education, A. B. and A. M., Oklahoma University, Ed. D., Stanford University. EBNEST L. LLOYD: Assistant professor psychology and religious education, A. B., Vanderbilt University, A. M., Northwestern University. G. E. MEADOR: Professor of mathematics, A. B. and A. M., Oklahoma University. MABY HAYS MABABLE: Librarian and instructor in library science, A. B., Oklahoma City University, B. S. in Library Science, lllinois University, certificate, Oklahoma Library Commission. lames I. Hayes E. L. Tibbitts Ernest L. Lloyd G E Meador P. W, Swartz Blanche Hanna Iacob C. Hess +V 12 -4+ Mary Hays Marable