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

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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

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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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KAL.ElLlDARW sent him to this earth? Doubtless his Maker saw that he no longer needed the discipline of life in the tleshg and so called him to a wider realm of duty. So let us cease to mourn for our friend and to presume to wonder that God allowed him to die so young, witl1 all his ardent ambitions unfulfilled. lt is far better to rejoice because the Divine Goodness sent this beautiful spirit to live in our midst for a season. Cecil Powers' life was 1lOt lived in vain: his work I'GlH21lI1SQ for it consisted in setting a noble example of young manhood at its best. W' , f kt S3271 65