Randolph Macon College - Helianthus Yearbook (Lynchburg, VA)

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meet the growing demand for enlarged facilities, yet she has marched steadily forward and upward from yearvto year. In this age and especially in this new West, and in the incipient stage of a new college, the material part of it, the business end, the uprearing of brick, stone and mortar, the meeting of obligations, the paying of bills, the securing and investment of funds, must necessarily occupy a con- spicuous place. This has been true of Washburn. But while all this has been going on, the inner and scholastic life of the institution has devel- oped, and to this the president has given great care and thought. Wash- burn from the first has stood for thoroughness. A high standard has been rigidly adhered to, although the temptation to superficiality has at times been strong. President McViear, by a process of natural selection and survival of the Httest, has drawn around him a choice body of in- structors, to whose hearty and self denying co-operation the highest credit is due. As a result the higher, or college department of the institution has been rapidly enlarging, the proportion of advanced students is increasingg and the graduating classes, for many years small, are, in num- bers, as in ability and promise, very gratifying to the friends of the College. The alumni, too,who have gone forth during the present administration and are now dispersed over the country, and in foreign lands, are a body of men and women of whom the College and its leader may well be proud. Many of them are making their mark in the various professions which they have entered, and so the institution is becoming increasingly blest in her children. This is designed to be a sketch, not of Washburn College, but of President McViear, But the life of the latter is so intimately interwoven with the growth and prosperity of the former, that it seems impossible to separate them. We can neither speak or think of one without including the other. What Washburn College is to-day is largely due to the wisdom, vigi- lance and self sacrificing devotion of our honored president during these continuous years. Sir Christopher Wren's inscription over an inner door at St. Paul's Cathedral, might well be copied upon the walls of Washburn, and applied to its faithful president, even while as yet his vr' 'k upon its not ended: Si monumwzizmz reguiris circunz.vpz'cc. 9

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In 1866 he resigned his pastorate, and later served two terms as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The years of his incumbency were marked by vigor of administration. Many amendments and improve- ments of our school laws were made at his recommendation. Notably by his prompt action, involving an official visit to Washington, he saved 5oo,ooo acres of valuable land to the permanent school fund of the state which was about to be alienated to railway companies. The school funds of the state were invested in no worthless securities during his term of office, and upon his retirement there was no call for an investigation. Upon the resignation of Rev. Dr. Butterfield at the close of 1870, Mr. McVicar succeeded in February, 1871, to the presidency of Washburn College. He had been one of its original incorporators, and from the first as one of its trustees had taken a great interest in thegrowth of the struggling institution. It then occupied a small building at the corner of jackson and Tenth streets in Topeka. College Hill was a stretch of open prairie, with only a few straggling houses between it and the recently erected, and porticoless east wing of the state house. The site was inno- cent of trees or human habitation. Instead of college young men and women, the brightest of the commonwealth resorting here for culture, quails and jack rabbits exclusively enjoyed its advantages. But the new president saw in his vision with the eye of faith, rising in the future the walls of a great institution, whose influence should tell on the state, and on coming generations. He at once threw himself into the realization of this vision. He canvassed the West and visited the East for funds. One after another of its commodious buildings materialized, from Science Hall the earliest, to our splendid chapel the latest of its well planned edifices. The vested funds of the institution slowly grew from 525,000 to 8IO0,000, through his personal solicitation 5 and other valuable property was secured, upon which in time the College hopes to realize. Thus twenty-five of the thirty years of Washburn's history, during which President McVicar's administration has been prolonged, has been characterized by continuous, substantial and permanent growth. While other similar institutions have been wrecked by bad management, or have succumbed to the financial stress of the times, Washburn, under the far eing and 'atchful care of its president, has never lost a dollar of its vested funds. And though sorely in need at present of endowment to . 8

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1894. September I2, November 29, November 30, December 19, 1895. january.. I, january.. 29, january... 30, january.. 31, March... 27, April .... 2, May ..... 29, May ..... 31, June ..... 5, June ..... 7, June .... . 9, june ..... IO, june ..... II, june .... .. I2, September II, Qlialenhms. semen WEDNESDAY .... FIRST HALF YEAR BEGINS. THURSDAY' Thanksgiving Recess. FRIDAY .... I WEDNESDAY .... . Christmas Recess Begins. TUESDAY ..... Christmas Recess ends. TUESDAY ...... First Half Year ends. WEDNESDAY .... SECOND HALF YEAR BEGINS. THURSDAY ..... Day of Prayer for Colleges. WEDNESDAY . . . Spring Recess Begins. TUESDAY .... .. . Spuing Recess ends. WEDNESDAY. .. Prize Orations. H Address Before- the Literary So- FRIDAY .... cieties. VVEDNESDAY. . . ' First Graduate Musical Recital. FRIDAY .... Prize Declamations. 3:30 P. M., Baccalaureate Sermon. SUNDAY .... 8 P. M., Address Before the Relig- ious Societies. , 8 P. M., Graduating Exercises of MONDAY ' ' ' Academy. f9 A. M., Examinations for Admis- sion. I - 1. ., A l ' - - TUESDAY. i v 3 I M nnua Meeting of Trust ees. I 8 P. M., Second-Graduate Musical L Recital. f'IO:30 A. M., Commencement Exer- I cises. VVEDNESDAY' ' 3 P. M., Meeting of the Alumni. 8 P. M., PI'esident's Reception, WEDNESDAY. .. FIRST HALF YEAR BEGINS. 'IO