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

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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

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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

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CE D LA VIE 15 never used his high position to force information. I never knew a time when he was not willing to meet students more than half way on any reasonable propositionf' I have talked with a great many State boys since graduation, and the almost universal verdict is that he grows bigger as we see more and more of other men. He wears well and stands up good and strong when subjected to comparative tests. I think it was during my junior year that a few of us conceived the idea of re-establisl1- ing fraternities at the college. A committee of four went to the President's office and pre- sented our case. As was his custom, he listened to everything we had to say, and, while non- committal in his remarks, ended by saying: 'Young men, I have found that the best time to set a hen is when the hen wants to set.' One of us suggested that the fraternity hen was call- ing for eggs, and tl1e interview closed.. At the january meeting of the Board of Trustees, the restrictions were removed and fraternities were re-established. U I enjoyed him most in the lecture room, for, to my mind, he was a natural born teacl1er, and, since he was full of his subject, we were always impressed with his breadth of view. I look upon it as a great privilege to have been under his instruction, and even now recall some of his magnificent talks on International Law. State has always had her share of good in- structors, but Dr. Atherton is in a class by himself, was the big man of the college, and the unbiased historian must so place him. He was especially strong witl1 illustrations, and had more ways, direct and indirect, of explaining things and making them clear than any man I have ever met. He told few stories, but he never told one with a double meaning, and the story was always told to illustrate a point. He never told one simply for the sake of telling it. He had two striking peculiarities in the lecture room. He very seldom, if at all, repeated what he had said, and only occasionally looked at the class. Apparently his mind worked better when his eyes were focused on the floor or on a book, and while he generally held a book in his hand it was seldom open. When he spoke to a particular student he looked at him, and that look meant many different things to those who knew himf' He did things that did not meet with our approval, but, as I look back upon him from the vantage point of years, when I subject them to the tests of a maturer judgment and from an unprejudiced point of view, I find that he was most always right, and that we were most always wrong. There is no man that I have subjected to more exacting tests, no man that I have ex- amined more rigidly for purposes of comparison, no man that I have more frequently set aside for some new standard of measure, some new god, no man that I have tried harder to find fault with and criticize, and yet, taken all in all, I am compelled to say that Dr. Atherton is by ,far the strongest man I have ever met. I have met those who could excel him in certain particulars, those who could shine where he could show but little light, those who could draw while he would repel, but, taken all in all, he belonged to that family of college giants of whom there are few. ' With all due modesty I will say that I have met with some measure of successuas a teacher and a disciplinarian, and one of the contributing causes-the chief- one-is tl1at I have ever before me the question: How would Dr. Atherton handle this proposition or this case ? H In the past fifteen years I have been intimately associated with five college presidents and I have successively compared each one with Dr. Atherton and-no discredit to them- each one has grown smaller by the comparison, not because of their lack of ability, but be- cause Dr. Atherton is my standard, and I am forced reluctantly to admit that my standard is too high and that I am expecting too much. His indiscretions, if there were any, I have for- gotten, his errors, if there were any, I have forgiven, and since he has been the greatest in- spiration of my college life, I shall always cherish his memory and remember him for the great work he has accomplished. It is not necessary to erect a marble shaft over his grave-' State' is his monument. , , During my college days and since, on all occasions when I needed counsel, I always found in President Atherton a helpful, sympathetic friend. VVhen a student at the college I had frequent cause to come in contact with President Atherton on personal matters and also general student matters, and without exception, if the subject was stated in a straight-forward