University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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President Tillman

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THE CARDINA L—NINETEEN TEN AND ELEVEN GEORGE WESLEY BROKE George Wesley Droke, son of George and Diana Droke, was born in Morgan County, Indiana, September, 1854. His parents, who were Virginians, came to Benton County, Arkansas, in 1856, and purchased a farm three miles south of Bentonville, upon which young George grew to manhood. About 1867 the first public school at the Droke school house was opened and here George at¬ tended his first school. In the summer of 1871, at the age of 16, he made his last crop on the farm and in the fall he taught his first school. In the first of February, 1873, he entered the high school at Bentonville and continued there five successive terms of five months each, in which time he prepared himself to enter the Junior class of the University of Arkansas, 1877. These months in the Bentonville school marked the turning point of his career, for it was then that he definitely decided to leave the farm and turn his attention to the get¬ ting of an education. During the year 1878 he taught as associate principal in the Shiloh Institute at Springdale, Arkansas. In January, 1879, he re-entered the University, from which he graduated June 10, 1880. receiving the B. A. degree. Four years later he returned to the University and received the M. A. degree. In October following his graduation he was elected assistant in the preparatory department of the University and in June, 1887, he was made first assistant. Four years afterward he was promoted to the college department as an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, later, as Associate Professor, and in June, 1897, as Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, which position he now holds. Since boyhood he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and has for years been teacher of the College Men ' s Bible Class of that Church in Fayetteville. Without doubt Professor Droke is one of the most brilliant alumni cf the institution. Rarely does it happen that a student rises from the ranks to such an eminent position as that occupied by Professor Droke. His life is as a race well run. It marks the course of one who, with modest determina¬ tion, conscientious convictions and high conceptions of duty, pursues his ideal through the mutations of life and receives at the end the wild olive garland of victory. He is a man who hews to the line in every performance of duty, whether in moral, intellectual or business afFairs of life. It is said that during his superintendency of the boys ' dormitories he made a line in front of the mess hall door across which no one dared to go without his permission, and some of those boys would now fight for him. Freshmen have for a long time thought him to be rather stern and severe, but long, intimate acquaintanceship with him will remove such a feeling from the mind, revealing the twinkle of fun in his gray eyes and the magnanimous soul and the devout Christian character of the man. His life is simple, honest, irreproachable, devout, pure. He is just what he is—just plain Professor Droke. Bight