Stevens Institute of Technology - Link Yearbook (Hoboken, NJ)

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Q ,APPIPQCLATTON OF FEW 5 OF' Fam-IFVL Simca THIS BOOK LS IESPECTFVLLY DEDICATED To CHARLES FREDERICK KROEH A.M.

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Charles Frederick Kroeh URING l1er half century of existence Stevens has brought to the fore many striking careers, many careers of renown. But of them all what could be more picturesque, what could be more unique, than that of being actively, intimately, and sincerely associated with her faculty throughout its fifty long years of existence! Verily, to witness the growth of an institution from a mere untried experiment and to see it blossom forth into one of the finest and foremost tcclmical colleges of the land. and at the same time be instrumental in its growth and progress, is indeed an ex- perience to be envied! Yet it is our pleasure and privilege to have among our ranks today a friend and professor who has lived through these periods of progress and has fully contributed his share to make possible the Stevens of today. When he was comparatively young, the adaptability of his mind to the sciences and the languages attracted tl1e attention of his associates, and ere long he was the possessor of an instruetorship at Lehigh, where., in addition to French and German, he perfected himself in the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese languages. The scientific and the linguistic ability of this per- sonality pre-eminently qualified him to instruct in foreign languages at an engineering college, and so it was that in 1871 Professor Kroeh attached himself to President Morton's faculty, and from theneeforth he has been a part of Stevens. From the start Professor Kroeh assumed the position as head of the Department of Languages as well as that of Secretary to the Faculty, in both of which ofiiees he has fiourished up to the present day. The compara- tively limited enrollment of students in the early days of Stevens afforded him an opportunity to devote time to the sciences so dear to him and to fre- quently lecture on scientific topics, as well as to contribute articles on similar subjects to the various periodicals. Throughout all these early years Pro- fessor Kroeh also dclved into the all-absorbing realm of modern languages and the attending methods of teaching them, with the result that at the end of his first quarter of a century at the Stute and after exhaustive research his novel textbooks, of which How to Think in Spanish is the most familiar, appeared in three foreign languages, and at the time proved quite a sensation. . Two score and ten years of constant teaching-a half century in an atmosphere where his own ideas predominate-tend to make a man set in conviction and obstinate in views. Yet in the face of such environment Pro- fessor Kroeh has alwavs maintained an open mind-always been quick to Seven