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

Page 25 text:

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

Page 24 text:

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,-,--,.,, - . ., , ..

Page 26 text:

q Q g o 14. PENNSYLVANIA STATE COLLEGE DR. ATHERTON IN HIS OFFICE alumni successful in various walks of life-engineering, journalism, law, col- lege teaching, etc., etc:-whose experience with men in the world at large has given them standards ofjudgment: I first saw this great and good man twenty-five years ago when he walked up to the main college building in company with the late Professor james Y. McKee, during the drill hour, when the cadets were at 'parade rest.' My first impression of him has not changed in any material point in all these years, but the original estimate has been amended from time to time as my range of observation has broadened, and the revision has always been to his credit. He appealed to me as being much above the average-out of the ordinary-a man who knew things, and one who is master of self. Then, too, there was something about lnm, his general make-up, that demanded respect for the individual. He took in the situation from the start, accepted the conditions as they were and had been as history, and proceeded to make more history, and make it fast. He was a modest man and did not expand his chest and throw back his shoulders with importance because of his position, but he was President. He never appealed to me as an orator, he never came up to my ideas of a public speaker, his gesticulations were very poor and frequently meant nothing, but as a talker who said things, as a talker who gave you thoughts to carry home, he had few equals and no supe- riors. He could say the right thing at the right time and in the proper manner, and, being trained in law, was especially resourceful. I remember that one day a great educator of the State visited the college and talked to the students in chapel. In his remarks, which were in the main good, he paid special attention to the nobility and purity of womanliood, but, un- fortunately, by inference, left the impression that the life of a boy or a man would be about the same, pure or not pure. The next morning in chapel Dr. Atherton's reply to this speech was one of the finest tributes to the purity and nobility of manhood I have ever heard, and were it in print would be a classic. This speech was the talk of the students for weeks. We were never nervous for fear he would not say the right thing. A bright VVestern editor some time ago said of President Roosevelt: 'He is not what I would call an orator, but he is one of the best single-footed talkers 'I I have ever heard? I can say the same for Dr. Atherton. I learned to know Dr. Atherton well during the four years of my college life-possibly better than most students, since I was frequently called to his office for a discussion of things I did and things I failed todo, and now, as I look back upon those school-day experiences, tht- man grows on me. To the best of my knowledge he always played fair, never took a nu-an :idx'antagc, and, if he wanted information, went for it in the most direct manner, and 3 1 . nffff ' grilllil YCIQS- :EDT 1 f ,ffir :Cf coil' ,wmv gird- III?-' If Q ami -if look Z? Oi SUTM I1Z'3'7 IIIOIE 7 have sion i ILE what br r.:f book him. the ra' Hll III alrey arriva- lor so: fail' r by... i f PHIECZ ,.. llllrrt who: teatr . Ever is and Y C3IlSi too h A gflllef Fork la his flllraj. s. found had : T -L 4. gefltji' -. .--v-sf-, N- -.. .- . 1 .. .. -., ,. .zs,.q.s--..,,,,...,,,..uL-.,...-.'-... ,.4-eg.-.gf',,g-,g..1n.. -af-gggbqaggggighhg.,-c,.,:,,.,c:,A,,n, I ',.4,,,:--..-I: , .1 ' ,mg ,, ,., ,w,4,4rmii H L . eatll t