University of Akron - Tel Buch Yearbook (Akron, OH)

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academy members of the faculty and their families and alumni Professor Knight presided Devotional exercises were conducted by Prof O E Olin Discrlmlnating and heartfelt tributes were paid by Prof A I Spanton and ex President Dr I A Priest Musical selections were rendered by the college male quartette and the student body Then the procession headed by the faculty marched across the campus to the Presidents home and passing through soirowfully looked for the last time upon the good and kind face of their personal friend , ' . -. ' ' 9 ' 9 . . . . - A a u ' I OI F' '. 0 u o 0 I . . , , - 3 . I i' 9 19 l ' . ' o u 1 . 0 I 0 0 n V Q At l 30 p m Rev Dr Cray conducted the private service for the family and then the funeral cortege, escorted by the -entire student body, wended its way to the First Universalist Church, .where the casket reposed amid a wealth of bloom and' Horal designs emblematic of the college and love of many friends. The audience, which crowded the spacious church to the limit and overflowed into the chapel, waspnoticeable by reason of the number of men present from every walk of life. . I The services included addresses by Prof. O. E. Clin and Dr. Gray that dealt with the various phases of activity and helpfulness illustrated in the noble life of Dr. Church, and a touching prayer by Prof A. I. Spanton, The musical numbers were provided by Mrs. F. A. Seiberling, alsoea friend of the family. l , ' The 'student body escorted the procession, to the Union Station, and the funeral party tookithe night train for South Edmeston, N. Y., where the intermentlwas made on Wednesday, November 20. , A X . ' A public memorial service was held- Sunday evening, November 24, at the First Universalist Church, when the life-work of Dr. 'Church was calmly' reviewedu Four addresses were given upon thelfollolwing themeszi HDL Church asf a lVlinister,,' Rabbi I. E. Philo, Dr. Church as a Citizenf' Judge C. R. Grant, Dr. Church as a Philan- thropist,'7 Rev. .W. Lowry, D. D.g Dr. Church as an Educator, Prof. A. I. Spanton. ' - ' Y L - STORY OF I-IIS LIFE. . Dr. Church came to Buchtel College from a very successful ministerial career, and had been identified with the college since'September l, l897. V This decade was one of remarkable growth for the college, and to Dr. Chlurclfs scholarship, devotion and executive ability much of this progress must be attributed. y I f ' v Dr. Church was born January l l, l858, at .North Norwich, N, Y. In the district school he developed an unusual love of books. From the Union schools at Sherburne, he went to the Clinton Liberal Institute, at Fort Plain, N. Y., and in l882 he entered St. Lawrence University, at Canton, N. Y., where he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1886. l-le took the theological course in the same institution and was there graduated in l888, immediately entering the activeiwork of the ministry. His first. I5

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Zin fllivmnriam DEATH OF PRESIDENT CHURCH A A No other death in Akron during the year has caused so wide-spread and 'sincere sorrow as that of our beloved president, Dr. A.. B. Church. Next to the immediate ' relatives and closest personal friends of Dr. Church, we, as teachers and students of Buchtel College, feel the loss most keenly, for it was here on the hill that his work, and interest, and sympathy centered for eleven yearsg it was for our college that this noble man lived and died. But Dr. Church's interests and labors werenot confined to the institution of which he was president: he was active in all efforts for a greater and better Akron: for several years he had been presidentof, the Ohio Universalist Convention, and held the position at the time ofhis deathg and he was a member of the NationallCom- mission on the Increase of the Ministry inthe Universalist Church. Hence, at his death the entire community was stricken as with a personal sorrow, and to the Universalist church throughout the whole land came the senseof a great loss. ' The suddenness of Dr. Church's death greatly intensified the shock of his untimely . ,J removal. A slight cold, which he attributed to exposure while watching a college contest i l A earlier in the week., did not prevent his going to be present at a church dedication in Belpre 'T ll 1 on Sunday. He attended that service and preached two sermons. On Monday he made Q A . several calls-one on the widow of his personal friend, the late' President of Marietta College, who passed away a few weeks before. Returning to Akron Monday evening A much exhausted, with the cold more developed, he took active measures for'relief and ' 4 sought rest. On Tuesday he seemed betterg and, though far from well, went to his'i'office to attend to duties which it was never his habit to neglect. Wednesday and Thursday he remained in and called a physician, rather as a precautionary measure than because W 1. he considered himself seriously ill. Thursday night symptoms of pneumonia appeared. A in Friday, other lurking enemies of his life joined in the attack, and Saturday evening, Novem- ber I6, the short and hopeless struggle ended. V 5 FUNERAL AND MEMORIAL SERVICES. 3 Q On Tllesday. N0VCmbCT l9, at IO a. m., a very pathetic memorial servicewas held in Crouse Ciymnasium. The room was filled with students of the college and the . Q ,Y '4 ll . s rl. 3 1 E Q .1 ' Qi it

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ed from July, less, to charge was the church at South Berwick, Me-, Whffeh heN5erftL Adams, Massachusetts, Septem church, where he continued until 189 7. y . U . 1. t In that year he was offered and accepted the pastorate of the First DIVCYSH IS church of Akron, in which he labored until his appointment as president of Bufzhtel Co lege, ' 1901 Prior to this he had been identified with the faculty Of the C0 6536, 1630 mg 1n . . I , mental and moral philosophy, and he entered upon his still more responsible duties with full comprehension of what they included. As a student, SCh016f HHC1 theologian, DT- Church was recognized honorably by many institutions of learning- In 1892 the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by his Alma Mater, in 1899 Buchtel College conferred the A. M. degree, and in 1904, Tuft's College of Boston conferredthe Ll... D. degree. ber, 1890, when he accepted the Pfwtofate 0 t e 0 On September IO, 18189, Dr. Church was married to Anne Atwood, daughter of Rev. Dr. I. M. Atwood, then president of the Theological school of St. Lawrence Uni- versity. ' As expressive of the high esteem in which Dr. Church was held throughout the community, we print the following tribute, part of an editorial in the Akron Times of November 18, by Judge C. LXR. Grant: ' g ' PRESIDENT CHURCH. In the death of Dr. A. B. Church not' only this community, but mankind, has ex- perienced a real loss. We who knew him, knew in him an accomplished scholar, a public- spirited citizen, a pure-minded patriot, an upright and trustworthy man. .Dr. Church was an- unassuming man, a plain man, not onlyof the people, but for the people. Thatiis, he was for the people in the same sense that he was with them-he was of them in sym- pathy and for them in helpfulness. Like every other true man of the people, he always put his cause forward, even to the overshadowing of his personality. ln his contemplation the office of a liberal education was of the old-fashioned sort-to make men and not ma- chines, gentlemen. and not apothecaries--at least not primarily. The impulse and the ultimate of collegiate equipping and discipline in his View was threefold-the acquisition of knowledge, the taking on of culture, the formation of character, each of these ranking above the other in the order named. The tendency of this 'conception is to gall out the whole man. And what calling in life can be nobler or more useful? And as it is trans- figured in usefulness, what more nearly divine? s Although Dr. Church did not leave his college opulent in money and although it remains, through no fault of his, one of the lesser lights of learning the Satisfaction Comes clear in remembrance of him that it shines with a clear ray and is doing according to that light its destined work-a work helpful and guiding, if not brilliant. i That it is doing I 6 A .H ff!! .iff 1 an . :fam wr :-,,. w ' ,A I khpi hifi , c ,g ft. -w Nth.. sta , JA