Penn State University - La Vie Yearbook (University Park, PA)

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O o 12 PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE . I . l . HONIE OF DR. ATHERTON lacked the exact and fitting word to express his thought. Love of truth was the basis ofhis fine, accurate scholarship, the breadth of which amazed many a man of affairs who came in contact with him. All his life he remained a student. His busiest years were never so full as to crowd out daily study. Aside from his special held of political and economic subjects, in which his interest never Hagged, and in which he kept abreast of the times, he was constantly forging ahead in linguistic study. Classically trained at Yale, he left college equipped with Greek, Latin and English, and began teaching the classics. Later, he took up the study of German. After he became President ofthe Pennsylvania State College he took up French, gained sufiicient mastery of it to read any French book almost as easily as an English one, had little difhculty in using the lan- guage in general discussion when travelling abroad, and made a transla- tion of at least one important French work on Political Economy. Later, he took up Spanish with similar success, and had begun Italian. All this was clone largely as a diversion of mind, in the midst of the administrative work of the college which taxed his energy to the utmost. In addition to other things, he was giving more or less continued and exhaustive study to Magna Charta, and had ready for the printer, at the time of his death, a revision of a brochure which he had published in 1900 on the subject. So brief a sketch can scarcely touch upon the field of his activities. - - - -'1-'---- M.,-5' ,Avi -V .su w-m.1.,.,....,.,1 5 .-.. .' .f .ff -- - - . . - f . . . K H ' ' ' ' '-v-'f v+-41 1+. 'hiv-:Am-Anya-qaxmvau--4-1,-,--,.,, - . ., , ..

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Os D LA VIE 11 George W. Atherton, LL.D. President of the Pennsylvania State College June, 1882-July, 1906 .3 .33 A U Heaven doth with us as We With torches do, Not light them for themselves: For if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike As if We had them not. Spirits are not finely touched But to line issuesf' 1- RESIDENT ATHERTON was one of the rare characters which measure up to the standard of Sir Philip Sydney's idea of a gentleman- High erectedithoughts seated in a heart of cour- l tesy. Courtesy, helpfulness, consideration for others was in- born in his nature because high thinking was inborn in it. Over fifty of the sixty-nine years of his life are an unbroken record of absolute devotion to high ideals. As student, soldier, teacher, lawyer, politician, college presi- dent--nowhere is the standard lowered, in every position the man rings true. Born into the world physically strong, he had, as a boy, exuberant spirits and abounding joy in mere living, which made the ordinary duties and tasks of a country boy's life no hardship to him. He once wrote of these days: My early habit of regular industry became so much a part of my being, that I cannot recall the time when I ever looked upon work as anything but a natural and blessed privilege. An obstacle, a difficulty or hindrance of any kind, was simply an occasion for the application of a little more energy and persistence and courage and helpfulness. The idea of being thwarted by it was one of the unthinkable things that never presented itself to my mind. I have found, too, that my familiar knowledge of common things and common Ways of think- ing, acquired in the country, has been of inestimable advantage to me in dealing with the ordinary matters of daily life. g The ordinary matters of daily life were seldom shirked or overlooked by him, and his happy method of dealing with them was no small source of strength and usefulness. A In a character so finely balanced as President Atherton's no single trait overshadows others. A deep-seated love of truth made him scrupulously careful to get at the factsof any matter brought to his attention, and equally careful in the simplest statement of opinion on any subject. This habit of mind, this weighing of thoughts and expression, helped him to ac- quire that remarkable vocabulary for which he was noted. He seldom

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CL D LA VIE 13 There is not space even to enumerate the work he did, with others, in influ- encing both Congressional and State Legislation in the cause of Industrial Education, in which he was an acknowledged leader. I What he accomplished for the Pennsylvania State College in ways material and financial needs no mention here. His epitaph might well be a copy of that of Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's, London: Si1no11u- mentum requiris circumspjcef' He had able co-workers, helpers in all- direc- tions, but everybody recognizes that his enthusiasm and untiring zeal and energy inspired and gave direction to the whole. The absence of self-interest from all that he did was most marked. He did not decide upon a given policy or course of action from the point of view of how it would affect himself. His one thought was, how will it affect the college. His splendid optimism was never blind. He did not de- ceive himself as to opposition and the effect of failure, but, seeing clearly even a most difficult and thorny path to success, he carefully thought out a plan of campaign and threw his whole soul into the work. A characteristic remark was: H Now that course is right, we'll face front. His was not the courage of ignorance, but that of an unconquerable, clear-sighted soul which could measure the keenness and bitterness of defeat, and yet dare his all in the cause. He was always found facing front. A Of his active patriotism and warm love of country there is not space to speak. No one could know him at all and not be influenced by it. It is impossible for one to give any just conception of the depth of the spiritual nature which controlled his life. The character of his whole life- work best expresses it. His was always a religion of deeds, not of words. A friend who knew him well, a clergyman, wrote of him : !7 No man could have had a more profound and steadying belief in the great principles that are the undercurrents of the Bible than had Dr. Atherton. His reading made him broad and generous in his views. His charity led him to say little, never 150 argue any mem out of his belidv. Individually, he Wanted the highest, the highest in religion, in morals, in literature and general culture which so engaged his attention. Early in life he formed a conception of what life meant. He was brought up in a religious household. Tl1e education he was eager for he found at the fountain heads of Exeter and Yale. He entered life nurtured by the instruction and example' of very great men. He began his career as teacher with tl1at high sense of duty which these institutions fostered and sent forth. It was that sense of duty which made him successful as a teacher and as a president. It was not a sense of obligation founded upon his relation to his fellows, but in a higher relation, that of all men as under obligation to tl1e Father of all.', The relations of President Atherton to the students under him, the im- pression his character and personality made upon individuals is best told in their own words. The following quotations are from letters written by