Springfield College - Massasoit Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

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The Alumni Association The first class graduated from Springfield in 1887. Four years later a small group of alumni in attendance at the Conference of Employed Officers, held at St. Joseph, Mo., in May, 1891, decided that this school should very properly have an alumni organization. A committee of four, consisting of one member from each class, was appointed to prepare a constitution. On May 8, 1891, during the International Convention at Kansas City, this same group again met and a proposed constitution was presented and adopted. The object of the Association as expressed was “to afford an opportunity for the expression of that devotion which the past students of the school feel toward their Alma Mater, by sustaining the fellowship now existing amongst them and by furthering the interests and extending the influence of the school in its work.” The first officers of the newly-born Association were as follows: Frank M. Pratt, ' 87, President; John W. Cook, ’89, Vice-President; George F. Poole, ’87, Vice- President; Y. Y. Locher, ’90, Vice-President; H. M. Fillebrown, ' 90. Secretary- Treasurer. During all the years since its organization this Association has held an annual meeting, occasionally at a convention or Employed Officers’ conference, but usually at the College during Commencement week. The presidency has in turn been held by the following men: Frank M. Pratt, ’87; G. D. Baker, ’90; A. L. Parker, ’90; ' W. G. Lotze, ' 88; E. M. Aiken, ’88; F. D. Fagg, ’88: I. V. Cobleigh, ’95; Y. H. Davis, ' 92; Robert S. Ross, ’98; Henry D. Dickson, ’90; Christian Lantz, ' 94; L. E. Hawkins, ' 98; J. C. Armstrong, ' 03; M. I. Foss, ’99; John Roy, 05; Donald North, 08; Louis E. Day, 06. Although the alumni body has never been large as compared with other colleges, nor have its members been in a profession which would make large personal gifts possible, yet there has ever been evidenced an earnest devotion to the cause of the College, hearty loyalty to its faculty, and a desire to lend all possible financial aid in its great tasks. At the annual banquet held in Providence in 1892, fifty-two alumni underwrote the sum of $14,800 for the much needed dormitory building. The Alumni Association has presented to the College portraits of Henry S. Lee and Jacob T. Bowne. Its members have contributed to the Student Loan Fund and to the Extension Fund of 1913. In 1914 the Association raised a handsome sum for the purpose of sending Dr. and Mrs. Doggett around the world, thereby giving the President the first real vacation since he assumed the burdens of leadership in 1896. The plans for the trip were being fully outlined when the war broke and its postponement was made inevitable.