Park City High School - Kalendar Yearbook (Knoxville, TN)

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if 1 KALENDAR ISV' by no means confined to his text-booksg there was no worthy school activity in which he was not the leader. He was intensely fond of music and was the leading member of the high school glee club. Like the healthy, normal boy that he was, he was devoted to athletics, but it. had to be clean athletics. And so, though a member of the Freshman class, he had the honor of being chosen captain of the baseball team. Such an honor as this is never conferred upon a youth by his mates unless he eminently deserves it. Boys are the keenest readers of character and the shrewdest judges of ability. So it goes without saying that young Cecil Powers could not have held the position of leadership that was his in school if he had not given evidence of every fitness for it. The gap that he has left will not soon be filled. A It is not too much to say that this young man represents just that type that the modern high school strongly desires to pro- duce: A combination of a faithful student, a beautiful character, and a mind keenly alive to everything in which a young person should be interested, If Cecil Powers had lived and had the opportunity to fulfill the promise of his young manhood he would certainly have be- come, at some future day, one of our most prominent citizens. An evidence of this is his Work in the Junior Board of Commerce, of which he was an active member. The fact that he met his death while en route to a meeting of this Board is not without significance, he died while answering the call of duty, just as surely as do those European youths who are perishing upon the field of war. Nay, his death was nobler than theirsg for they blindly sacrifice their lives for the selfish cause of kings, but Cecil Powers was a soldier in the army that fights for the common good, and he died loyal to the high ideal of service that he had formed in his boyish heart. 63

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gb, KALEILITDARW Eulogy To Cecil Carlyle Powers By Supt. J. R. Lowry. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north-wind's breathg And stars to setg but all, Thou hast. all seasons for thine own, 0 Deathll' When a man dies in the fullness of years, his life rounded out, his work complete, it seems a natural thingy but when the career of a brilliant youth is cut short just as he is beginning to give evidence of his great possibilities, there is universal mourning. Such a death was that of Cecil Carlyle Powersg in him the com- munity loses one of its most popular and promising young men. This most excellent youth was a model son: loving and obedi- ent to his parents, always kindly and atfable in his home, he has left his dear ones nothing but pleasant memories of the beautiful relationship that ever existed between them. The thought of him as he was wont to move about among them, in his characteristi- cally sunny way, must be a perpetual consolation. But young Powers' loss is felt deeply not only in his homey by his death the Park City High School will suffer keenlyg for he was one of its most commendable students. He seemed the very embodiment of all that is worth while in the modern high school boy. Possessed of strong native ability, he endeared himself to his teachers by the interest with which he pursued his studies and his attitude toward those in authority. But his interest was 62

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KALEWJAR WW Best ot' all, this young man was a Christian. His life, with its many-sidedness for one so young, is a complete refutation of an erroneous impression that is far too general among young people :-the idea that for a boy to take a deep interest in religion makes him as effeminate and unfit to cope with his more sturdy fellows. Cecil Powers was too good a judge of values to fall into any such mistaken way of thinking. He was a consistent member of the Fifth Presbyterian Church and an earnest attendant most all his life in the Sabbath School. The Home, the Church, and the School,-these were the three intiuences to which young Powers gladly subjected himself. These were the forces that he deliberately chose to mold his character. They furnished him the discipline, the training and the culture that made him what he was. A model son, an ideal student, an earnest Christian-what more could any young man wish to be? After the fatal accident, when it was ascertained that serious internal injuries had been sustained, it was decided that the youth is only chance of recovery lay in a speedy operation. To this he submitted, and to the end fought bravely for life. VVhen the news ot' his death was spread abroad, a groan of horror went up from all those with whom he had been associated. Sorrow for the loss of the son, the brother, the schoolmate, and the friend, regret for the promising life brought prematurely to a close, wonder at the mysterious ways of Providence: all these emotions were mingled in our bereaved hearts. But we should not hastily assume that the boy 's death was premature. We should rather say that a person 's death is premature where he leaves this world none the better for his having been in it. In this sense, many a man aged in body dies too soon, dies before he has accomplished anything worth while. But who shall say that Cecil Powers had not already, though but a youth in years, fulfilled the mission for which God 64