Salem State University - Clipper Yearbook

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I I I I I n I 4 I I I I 1 I I v v I 4 i 5 I I I I I P l I I I I I I I I 1

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Dedication To MARIE BADGER Teacher and Friend We Dedicate Ufitlz Affection and Respect THE CLIPPER OF 194.0 7

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The President's Message The optimist believes that reality is essentially good. Ile sees life as a glorious adventure full of thrilling experiences and the pursuit of exciting ideals. llis- appointment, defeat, frustration and kindred reverses are to him only stimuli toward the realization of happiness and the accomplishment of worthwhile things. The pessimist is a misantlirope whose world holds nothing but a vast potpourri of shattered illusions and broken dreams. He subscribes with Schopenhauer to the monstrous teaching that misery and failure are the natural state of man. To him the past offers xno inspirationg the future, no hope. Somewhere between these divergent philosophies lies the true perspective. Life is not exclusively either joyful or sorrowful. It is a medley of many tunes. That man gets most out of life who successfully harmonizes the greatest mnnber of notes. Most of us have difficulty in attaining this objective because discourage- ments usually multiply with the passing years. Youth is a time of brave ambition and high resolve. Maturity is a test of courage and will. Too many of us go down into the shadows and have not strength enough to dissipate the enveloping gloom. The garlands belong to those who find the sun. Tennyson expressed this truth perfectly when he wrote: I hold it truth with him who sings To one clear harp in diverse tones That men may rise on stepping stones Of their dead selves to higher things. You seniors stand at the portcullis of life. Behind you are roads which have been not too torturous. You have come a long way with comparatively few un- pleasant experiences. Possibly your troubles have been magnified for a time, but the buoyancy of youth has served you in good stead to preserve optimism and intensify faith. Before you lurk your enemies. They are the same implacable foes whom we all have to iight. They are fully armed and they know no fear. Bunyan tells about them in Pilgrim's Progress . They have been campaigning for cen- turies behind the same red moat. This is not a professional exhortation. XYe are not concerned so much with your success as teachers-we are interested in your success as men and women. Despite a popular misconception, nearly all of our graduates eventually tind their niche and build auspiciously on the foundations laid in the classrooms at Salem. I hope we may be able to say in the years to come that you have been good war- riors too, that you have fought with the tenacity which characterized your earlier struggles. that you have never lost sight of the standard-bearer in the vanguard- that you have marched in a solid phalanx to the victory of our dreams. EDXYARD A. SULLIVAN 9