Pfeiffer University - Chimes Yearbook (Misenheimer, NC)

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 HR 1 .. tur- s t %;5 ;: - ■•■ . ■ . . . I can assure you the three percent tax goes to the state, not the Business Office ' Tom Watkins looks on as Joe Johnson and the bridge majors do their homework. 29

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The Student Government say! Let's Twist Again ' and a soc hop affords an excellent oppor tunity. Soft lights, sweet music, Harvest Ball: this makes for a welcome change in the daily routine The band plays This Can Go On Forever, but you know forever will be over at twelve , I

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By Mary F. Floyd Dec. 7, 1961 To trace the history of a liberal arts college through its development from an elementary school to a high school to a junior college and finally to a senior college is a thrilling assignment. One could hardly say that this is a unique type of history, but certainly it does not conform to the usual pattern. It was in 1885 that Miss Emily Prudden, the daughter of a Congregational minister from Con- necticut, erected a two-story, eleven-room house on the side of Lick Mountain, six miles from Lenoir and four miles from Hudson, North Carolina. She had previously visited this section and had become disturbed because so many young people in the remote mountain areas did not have adequate educational opportunities. This institution for mountain children was given the name Oberlin Home and School ' By 1930, Miss Prudden saw that the operation of the school had outgrown her strength, and she kindly offered the school as a gift to the Wom- an's Home Missionary Society of the former Meth- odist Episcopal Church. The conversations between the church and Miss Prudden culminated in the property being transferred to the women of the church, and since 1903, Pfeiffer College has been connected with an agency of The Methodist Church. By 1909, the women of the church saw that the school had outgrown its usefulness in that geographical area, and it was moved in the spring of 1910 to Misenheimer, North Carolina. By the time of its removal, it had advanced to secondary school status and remained a secondary school until 1928, when the trustees authorized that col- lege work be begun. Junior college status was declared officially in January, 1932, but it was not until 1942 that the junior college was accred- ited by the Southern Association. In 1954, the Board voted to undertake a senior college program, and the institution moved rapidly in this direction. The first senior class was graduated in 1957, and accreditation by the Southern Association came in 1959. As one examines the history of this college, he is led to say that it is the lengthened shadows of a number of people Dare names be called'5 Miss Emily Prudden, the founder Mrs. Mary Mitch- ell, an early benefactress . . . Mr. W. S. Sharpe, the first bearing the title president . . . Mr. Chi M. Waggoner, the second president . . . Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pfeiffer, whose large gifts saved the college in the early thirties and whose continuing gifts guaranteed the on-going of the academic pro- gram . . . Mrs. W. H. C. Goode, whose leader- ship of the Board of Trustees helped fashion school policies over a period of many years. As with Paul, these words come forth: And what more shall I say? For Time would fail me to tell of . . . all . . . who through faith conquered . . July 1, 1953, and a new era began with the arrival of Dr. J. Lem Stokes, President. The ex- pansion of the college since this memorable date may be called his dream child, and the implemen- tation of the dream is constantly being realized not only through efforts of the dreamer but also through the devoted service of faithful colleagues over a period of years, by gifts from the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation, the Woman's Society of Christian Service, and other interested friends. To appreciate Pfeiffer College is to visit its expanding plant, to see its varied facilities, to know its versatile faculty, to converse with its eager and alert student body, to study its sound academic offerings, and to hear of the support given to it by friends and agencies too numerous to list. There has to be in the whole life of an institu- tion a particular formula for success. Key words culled from reports from 1885 to the present day f -.1 11 ' L' • i are faith, sacrifice, vision, work, pray- er. At the beginning of the organized expansion under President Stokes, a prayer candle was light- ed, and the college community sought God's guid- ance. Periodically this candle is brought forth to light the way when we are baffled and to express appreciation for the blessings of God. At this moment Pfeiffer College is grateful that it has been led of God, and it commits itself afresh to a system of higher education where there is no divorce between religion and education. Pfeiffer College is devoted to a program which is academ- ically sound and Christian without apology. 30