Temple University School of Dentistry - Odontolog Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 5 text:

THE RECORD of the Sixty-Sixth Class 1929 Philadelphia Dental College Temple University Harry A. Patchen Edilor'iri'Chief Anthony J. La Greca Business Manager

Page 7 text:

d- Dr. Russell H. Conwell H. CONWELL was born on February 15, 1843, among the hills ern Massachusetts. Having come from poor parents, it was neccs' him to work his way through school. taught music, waited on tables, did all sorts of things to carry through Wilbraham Academy and Yale University. The Civil War, however, interrupted his college course, he volunteering and serving until the end. In camp he read law, and after the war he returned to Albany Law School. While at this school he worked as a reporter for a few' New York newspapers until he received his diploma allowing him to practice law. He had the gift of oratory and the young lawyer began to make speeches and deliver lectures. He. taught a great Bible class in the Tremont Temple, and here the feeling grew that he must go forth as a preacher and a teacher. He studied theology as he gave lus lectures. His success spread so rapidly that he was asked to preach in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving Day in 1882. After a course of a few years in Philadelphia, Dr. Conwell realised that in order to accomplish the things that he began, his audience needed to be more educated, so at this point he began to teach and prepare a small group of men for college. By 1888 he realized that the need was so great in Philadelphia, and the classes he had started already became so numerous, he decided to obtain a charter. This charter was first made to read: Primarily for the workingmen. Later it w'as changed to Temple University. Dr. Conwell enjoyed life not through physical or material pleasures, but by mental and philanthropic efforts. He found pleasure not in accumulating wealth, but in giving it away, and to say that he gave away to Temple University and her sons and daughters one million dollars would be hardly enough. He collected a much greater sum than this through his internationally-know'n lecture, Acres of Diamonds, which was delivered over a thousand times to several million people throughout the United States. Many people benefited by this lecture, which in itself is a homespun common sense story. How much money he gave can never be calculated, but it is a known fact that he died poor, leaving only a few thousand dollars. This w'as the leader who began in Philadelphia forty-two years ago as a teacher of a mere few students in the department which now has in its folds 10,000 students scattered through the eleven schools and three hospitals of w'hich it is composed. Three U39