Rowan College - Oak Yearbook (Glassboro, NJ)

Page 10 text:

Out of the lire and earthquake shall arise a new world, strengthened in peace. It was in this hope that the class of forty-seven strove to maintain the ves- tiges of a normal college life in a time when our country was disrupted by external and internal strife. Endeavoring to continue our college traditions we adapted them to the wartime pattern. The dramatic club with several individual performers turned their talents to entertaining at local convalescent hospitals. The college students fell in whole-heartedly to support the War Bond drives, helping to win for the college the Minuteman Flag. One of the dormitory recreation rooms was donated as a first-aid room for the American Red Cross and many of the students further supported the drives by soliciting for funds. The peace, which came in forty-five, set a new pace for us to meet, but with the cooperation and spirit already shown, the class set forward on a new path. Many of the boys who had served with the United States Armed Services joined us, bringing a taste of pre-war campus life to the college. The noon-hour juke-box dances took the place of the noon-hour sessions with V-mail paper and overseas letters. The college outdoor play returned, featur- ing in its cast a majority of the newly acquired male talent. It is for us in the future to prevent for the children we will be guiding such a period of heartache and horror as the world is presently struggling to erase from its memory. We have been more than adequately prepared for this task by our college teachers, who have been an inspiration to us in the dark war years and the tumultuous early days of peace. With thanks in our hearts we face the future years with this thought in our minds: Go thou and do like- 4 The Class of Forty-Seven 1

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Miss Merriman, it is an honor for us to have the opportunity of dedicating our yearbook to you. As you leave formal teaching, we are entering that field with a fervent desire to bear on high the torch entrusted to us and to do our work as nobly and courageously as you have done yours. At times we feared your disapproval, but because of it, we grew, for as we sat in your classes we acquired something more than just subject matter. All of us enjoyed the spice you added to geography by inserting human interest and personal experiences. We value the advice and teaching suggestions which you gave us, for we found them to be practical and effective. Last of all, we admire you as an individualist — your delicate manner with its firm character background. Because of the deep im- pression you made on us, you will live in our memories as an inspira- tion urging us on to our best. With love and appreciation, we dedicate the Oak of 1947 to you, Ethel G. Merriman.

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THE FORGER OF MEN Smeltered ore to torge the steel, For timbers a giant tree, And a man to guide the girdle and span, Or the bridge would never be. He builds horn a jumble of rivets and bolts Of timber and steel and rod, And his building proclaims that his mind is linked To the mind of creative God. Crude human ore at the schoolroom door, And the bridge of life to span; The teacher copes with slag and dross And seeks to forge — a man. He The lull free run of the mill he knows, But warm is his heart and kind, For he deals not in metal or sodden clay, But the God-given fabric of mind. He visions a time when the children of earth Find each their place in the sun, And as bolt or mighty timber, ieel A content in work well done. Out of the dreams of the past he builds For a world he hopes will be, And he forges a chain in the flow of thought That links with eternity. Edith Leonard