Stephens College - Stephensophia Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

Page 12 text:

ames fvladison Wood . . Born on an Ozark farm in southern Missouri, his schooling begun at the age of three under the guidance of a simple country teacher whose book learning was far surpassed by knowledge of the deep, fundamental truths of living, a teacher himself at the age of sixteen, when he spent half the year as a student in the tiny high school and the other six months in a posi- tion of authority over grade-school children, James Madison Wood early discovered his capacity for hard work and acquired the stableness of char- acter that comes with responsibility. just out of high school he married Lela Raney, and four years later they both were graduated from the State Teachers College at Warrensbtirg. During the following years he served as principal and superintendent of schools in various Missouri towns, finished college at the University of Missouri, and completed his graduate work at Columbia University in New York City. In 1912 he left the department of education of the State Normal School in Springfield to become the presi- dent of a small female academy in Columbia-where to this day he re- mains, but as director of one of the great educational institutions in the country-Stephens College. Visitors wonder at the temerity of a college president who places on his office door the sign Please Do Not Knock and at the unbelievable vitality of that man, who all day long welcomes with an unhurried air and friendly smile the throngs of students who stop in-to discuss college problems, their own personal difhculties, or more often, merely to say a word of greet- ing or just to talk. President Wood cannot appear for a moment on the campus without a knot of young women congregating about him. The door of his home is never locked- his girls we always welcome.

Page 11 text:

4 i Y .s. '43 l A quarter-century ago the daring dream of a young educator, Stephens College is today his accom- plishment. We pay tribute to the past achieve- ments of President james Madison Wood and willingly entrust the future to his hands.

Page 13 text:

President James 211. Wood twenty-Jive years ago T he ' 'Ks Stephens student body of 1912 His unassuming manner, his sincere interest in even the most trivial matter if it concerns the Welfare of another person, his deep religious convictions, which evidence themselves in a boundless faith in the essential goodness of human nature, have endeared President Wood to everyone with Whom he has come in Contact-but most of all is he respected and admired and loved by the students who know him as constant friend and adviser.