St Marys College California - Gael Yearbook (Moraga, CA)

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tesihents' Massage My dear Graduates: In response to your request for a brief message, I am pleased to submit a few thoughts for your earnest consideration. You are a serious, industrious and intelligent class of young men. I am firmly confident that because of your fine friendly spirit you will discover some thought or suggestion in this unpretentious message that may serve to direct your aim in life and impress each of you with a deeper and a fuller appreciation of his possibilities and of his obligations to those who have cooperated in making his college education a possibility. We have reliable data to show that, of all the freshmen who entered College four years ago, only half of their number will qualify for gradu- ation this year. That you are numbered among the successful candidates for college degrees is one important achievement to your credit. Any young man who has successfully passed through four years of high school work and four more of college, merits the praise and the con- gratulations of all who are interested in him. Graduates of an institution like Saint Maryls should not forget that they owe allegiance to the Church under whose auspices it is conducted. They owe service to the community that lends its aid and encourage- ment to the growth and development of the College. Through these agencies you are permitted the freedom of selecting the type of educa- tion that appeals to you. In the Catholic college, teaching is not limited to the training of the mind. It reaches down into the heart and influences the will. It brings its students in contact with men whose lives are edifying and inspiring. It creates a firm belief in and a profound respect for the teachings of Christ. Students trained under these conditions are, or at least should be, prepared for correct living and for a true conception of the higher things in life. This year's graduating class has two important distinctions. Yours is the largest class that ever graduated from Saint Mary's. Yours is the last that 'will ever graduate from the Old College that has won the esteem and confidence of the public. With its fine traditions and its remarkable prestige you have an Alma Mater that is justly entitled to your unswerving loyalty. May you ever prove worthy of her and may you profit by the lessons instilled under her fostering care. BROTHER LEVVIS.

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Brother YUSBIJIJ HEN any great work is com- pleted, when a bridge is thrown across a bay, or a towering cathedral is raised into the sky, there is usually one man behind the bustle and noise of construction who has been big enough to dream his dream and great enough to see that it has been realized. Such a man is Brother joseph, into whose hands t.he task of supervising the erection of the New College has been directly given. It would be difficult to find one more fit to be the architect of the material destinies of Saint Maryls-difficult to BROTHER JOSEPH find one more deeply interested in the College, or better fitted by the rich fruits of a long and varied experience as Provincial. Closely connected with Saint Mary's was his capable management of the drive for funds for the building of the New College conducted in California in the past two years. The success of these campaigns is due largely to his remarkable skill at organization, and his enthusiasm and impressiveness as a public speaker. When it became imperative for the College to move from its present crowded home in the center of Oakland, Brother Joseph was the first to realize the inadequacy of the site that had been selected near San Leandro. His foresight and experience told him that, though the place was beautiful, the rapid industrial growth between the foothills and the bay would soon render it unsuitable for a center of education. So, at his suggestion, the land in the beautiful Moraga Valley was obtained. In less than a year the new city that will be Saint Mary's has sprung into existence. Since the first spade of earth was turned at the last Commencement exercises, Brother Joseph by his unsparing zeal has justiiied the coniidence that the Brothers, the students, and the friends of Saint Mary's placed in himl His wise selection of contractors and workmen has been responsible for the remarkable record of rapid con- struction which is being made in the building of the New College. In another section of this Annual we have tried in a small way to portray the great work he is achieving for Saint Mary's.

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Qrahuates' iflilessage HE most interesting phase of college life is the manner in which the men grow. This growth is in a mental, not a physical sense. As Freshmen there is a great deal of sameness about the men, aside from the usual timidity and constant fear of going awry of custom and running afoul of the truculent Sophomore. The Senior Class is a case in point. They soon began to find that they had a position in the world to attain, that there existed obligations for them to fulfill, first of all to their God and then to the social order of which they were to become a part. , Campus luminaries boomed their way into prominence-and their satellites were not long in coming. The athletic field claimed its share. But the cause of good fellowship was not to be outdone. Decorous class rooms-many a time and oft had their equanimity somewhat ruffled by the belated arrival of one of these heroes of campus achievements. They were inevitably greeted with a hoot-a loud and discordant hoot which seemed to threaten the foundation of the Old Brickpile. These men of the Class of 1928 are of fine clay, they are the salt of the earth, and in the way the world measures success, they shall no doubt go far. But the minority-those in whose college career a certain blight intervenes-what will become of the dreaming lads? Those who sought the quiet corners and sought after, in their humble way-truth. Whither will they drift, these idealists who will not stoop to the standards of the world but will aim high? I am at a loss for the answer. They will build their worlds no doubt far different from this one which man has constructed. In conclusion, the growth does not appear on the faces of the men as they have been recorded on the preceding pages. With the photog- rapher, however, the Senior Class has no quarrel. What sacrifices to intelligence have been made, the Seniors feel have been made for the sake of art. So where this quality does not appear, beauty reigns in its stead. Some say both cannot exist simultaneously. What truth is pos- sessed in the assertion is of no import here. Suffice it to say that the photographer was intent upon beauty and not intelligence. -A. DE MARTINI, ,28.