University at Buffalo - Buffalonian Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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Foreword AS inen and wonien constantly :none through the changing fcenef of life, .ro their endeavors may he compared to the piecef which coinprife a gigantic chem hoard-each in hir own ininiitahle fafhion .x7rining to attain hif goal. lrVe ofthe 1949 Buffalonian Jtajjf, in accord with our thenze, would like to portray thif one par- ticular phafe of thif ever-evolving hoardrethat of a juinping-off place. Studentf who graduate from our inJ7itution, here inalze their final paufe hefore plunging into the depthf and nU.GerieJ which the world haf held in Jtore for thenz. Then, KIJ' the yearf fade into eternigg they niay glance hack upon the dayf and the wigs which laid the foundation of their achienenientf, and reineinher how they, af infignifcant pawnf, niooed Jlowl y acroff the checkerhoard of life to reach the world where kingf and queenf, knights and cailef rei n in niani ec? lor . 3' 3 Y w --.-J

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Chancelloris Message ON the evening of October 3, 1946 the Alumni gave a banquet to the delegates of Amer- ican and foreign universities who were attending the Centennial Celebration of the Uni- versity of Buffalo. One of the speakers on that occasion was the Hon. John Lord O'Brian, L.L.B., 1898. In the course of his remarks Mr. O'Brian referred to the dedicatory sentence written on the walls of a lecture hall at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, which had been built by American friends of that institution. The inscription read: To the Liv- ing Spirit. The inscription is there no longer. It was obliterated by the Nazis shortly after they seized power. And they were wise to erase it, for the living spirit connotes free inquiry, freedom of thought and of expression. Where these exist no form of tyranny can feel secure. Mr. O'Brian went on to point to this University's consistent championship of free- dom of ideas and of the great humanitarian tradition of America, and he expressed the hope that we shall never cease to hold as our motto that lost inscription: To the Living Spirit. In the conduct of our intellectual and social lives l do not fear that we shall abandon these principles to which our University has for so long given unstinted allegiance. They are the warp and woof of this institution. To every member of it, student or teacher or alumnus, they are precious. But for every college or university the living spirit has an additional connotationg not so fundamental, perhaps as that to which I have referred, but still very important. The living spirit includes the color, the movement, that indescribable thing which we call the atmosphere of the place. And in every institution this is peculiar. lt is, l take it, the chief object of the Buffalonian annually to capture this phase of the living spirit of the University of Buffalo and to record it, first for the benefit of the present generation of students to whom the book will be a permanent reminder of one of the most delightful and valuable periods of their lives, and second for others who come after them and who may thus catch a glimpse of a time that has passed. The work of each board of editors puts every member of the University in their debt. I am happy to extend to the present editors not only my personal congratulations and thanks, but also to convey to them a message of appreciation on behalf of all the other members of the University from whom they not hear. 4