Polytechnic High School - Polytechnic Student Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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PIIILLIP NoR'roN W, A. DUNN CARI, ll. Wmscuwo 'IUIIN llnatx Jllemomfzdum 0 C0lldifi0ll5 RLII,A'l'lVE TO NVILLIS A. DUNN MEDAL AVVARDS F1RsT: It is anticipated that the Willis A. Dunn medal awards will be made annually to selected students of the Polytechnic High School of Los Angeles by the President of the Alumni Association. Siacorsin: lt is anticipated that three awards will be made, as follows: Gold Medal Silver Medal Bronze Medal Timm: lt is anticipated that the recipients of these awards will be selected from the student body by a group of the faculty to be selected hy the Principal of the Polytechnic High School annually, Fouaruz lt is anticipated that in making the Willis A. Dunn awards that much weight will be given to scholarship accomplishments of students under consideration, but it is not anticipated that scholarship alone shall be a determining factor, as the governing elements of the award shall be based on the accomplishment of the students as regards effort, character building, and actual achievement. Primarily it is intended to give large consideration to the elliorts of selected students, rather than to a high grade of scholastic accomplish- ment, and it is conceivable that in only infrequent instances will the awards be made to those having the highest scholastic grades.

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9135 Willis A. Dunn Medal Award Mr. Carl Wirsching, President, Polytechnic Alumni Association, Los Angeles, California. Dear Sir: For many years past Mr. Willis A. Dunn has faithfully served as Principal of the Polytechnic High School, and for some time past I have felt a desire to express my appreciation of his personal interest during the days I attended Polytechnic. Too often we unintentionally neglect to recognize and to express appreciation to those to whom we are indebted, and it is natural that the organization of an association of former students of Polytechnic should serve as an inspiration. With this thought in mind, and with a desire to honor Mr. Willis A. Dunn, it has occurred to me that this objective might be accomplished by the annual presentation of medals to the student body, to be known as the Willis A. Dunn Award. The award of such medals to the stu- dent body will perhaps serve as an inspiration to the students in whom he has always been, and will always be interested, and such awards might assist him in stimulating interest. Recently Mr. Frank visited my office, and I advised him of this viewpoint, and at his suggestion I am presenting the matter to you. Inasmuch as this thought has been prompted by contact with the Polytechnic Alumni Association, and believing that this association will be an enduring group, it would seem proper that the presentation of such awards should be made annually by the President of our Asso- ciation, if agreeable with you. I am therefore delivering to you herewith the aforementioned medal awards, together with a memorandum of suggested conditions relative thereto, with the request that you advise me whether or not our Asso- ciation would desire to undertake the presentation of these medals annually, and if so I would appreciate any comments or suggestions in connection with the awards that you might care to make. Yours very truly, LYNN ATKINSON. P.S. It is noted that I have neglected to mention that all expenses in connection with engraving dies and striking of medals will be borne by me personally. L A

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uotedfrom the Alumni Books will never lose their interest, but they have lost much in charm by the substi- tution of machinery for hand-copying. The reason why the stalls of second-hand dealers never lack for wistful Caryatids is that most book-lovers want volumes mellow with experience as well as wisdomvrich not only with the considerations of the author but with the opinions of former readers,though it be shown only in an excla- mation point in the margin here and there .... And so it is with the manuscripts of Chaucer's great bouquet of stories. None of the scribes or readers, or writers of spuri- ous lines, can give a grain of what the poet accomplishes in a single phrase, and yet the master's revelation of his age in its learning and muddle-headedness, its piety and grossness, is enforced and emphasized by the additionsgyes, and the blundersfof these lesser men. From Readers and Writers of Chaucer, a study of manuscripts of THE CANTERBURY TALES. Delivered before the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast, 1925. MARGERY BAILEY, S'O9, Ph.D., Yale Anociate Prafenor of Englixli, Stanford Uf1i1'tfJifj' Stajf of the P0lj'fECl9l1fC Student and Poly High, IQ09 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference. These lines, taken from a poem by Robert Frost, epitomize the lives of those men and women . . . the few in each generation . . . who shape their lives less according to the pattern ofthe many, than to a design of their own making, who determine upon a career, the road to which may be rough but which appeals to their imagination and expresses their idealism. I fear that most of us, when choosing a profession, follow the line of least resist- ance, provided it promises in due time a reasonable assurance of financial advancement and personal success. And by taking this road of comparatively safe travel, have not some of us, perhaps, shut our eyes to the alluring by-road, abandoned our dreams of those other and more ideal walks of life in which our essential idealism might have found expression? Only the rare ones among us have the courage to take the road less travelled by. The young person who dreams a dream and insists upon making that dream a reality has the difficult by-road to travel, with little encouragement from his skeptical fel- lows, yet the bright blade of his own shining ambition will serve as an instrument to cut his way through the tangle of the untrodden roads and bring him ultimately to high, clear places. From an address by ISABEL FOTHERGILL SMITH, S'09, Ph.D., Bryn Mawr Dean and Pfofcuor of Gealagy, Scripps College Prexident Girlf' Self-Government, 1909