University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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Benjamin Ide Wheeler For many years we waited for a president to appear, All for the sake of California ; To lead us onward, hand in hand, to triumphs that were near. All for the sake of California. At last one came ; a noble friend and comrade is he now ; We ' ll stick to him through coming years and loyally we vow, Then here ' s three cheers for President Wheeler, with an osky-wow ! All for the sake of California. runs the rag refrain, and it holds a wealth of meaning, too. Who can blame us if we give only a glance at President Wheeler ' s achievements of the past; and, if we dwell long on the confidence and satisfaction gained from his half year ' s stay with us, and even if we give way to dreams of the future. Thankful he may be that he is a son of New England with a continent between him and those stories of youthful precocity which rise up and haunt men of distinc- tion. The biographer can only chronicle the record of his preparatory education at New England ' s honored Academies Thornton and Colby. His college days at Brown reveal his ingrained traits of character, for in his day he is reputed first on the campus as in the classroom. In 1875 he graduated a mem- ber of Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Delta Phi, twenty-one years of age, distinguished as an athlete in baseball and rowing, and a brilliant classical student. Teaching he at once took up as his chosen profession, beginning at Providence High School and shortly going as tutor to Brown. Next he went to Europe for a term of study and preparation at the German Universities of Leipsic, Jena, Heidelberg and Berlin. He ended with a half year ' s stay in Greece, whither he went in l885 with the degree of Ph. D., magna cum laude, from Heidelberg. To this Princeton added LL. D. at her sesquicentennial, and among other associations with learned men he has recently been made a member of the Imperial Archaeological Institute of Germany:- On his return he instructed at Harvard until called to Cornell, and there he taught, adored by students, known and courted by people of culture, held in highest honor by the world of letters. While education has been his first concern, this has meant in no degree the ex- clusion of literary pursuits, nor the negligence of the active duties of citizenship. His writings, while not individually voluminous, have given to the cultured as well as to the learned world the results of his researches in Greek life and letters. In politics he has promoted purity, not by active participation alone, but as well by leading and organizing. Desired in vain by many institutions of learning, California secured from him a visit in the spring of 1899, in the summer his acceptance of her Presidency. For her voice had become one not to be left unheeded among Universities. Younger than himself, hers was not an invitation to come West and grow up with the coun- try. She has grown up, as it were, almost in a night, and is making ready to cast off her swaddling clothes and to enter into her true estate. Two destinies have met, and who can tell how they will soar? So he met us at the flagstaff on that memorable October morning, and from that 10

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moment we were won. Then the dignitaries had their turn, and he received the sym- bols of his office under the autumn sky. But every undergradute has grown to know his privilege oi being for that time the first claimant on the President. As we know him better our loyalty passes all former bounds. Of the greatness of his heart many may have still to learn who think they already know. The briefest sketch would be incomplete without mention of the President ' s wife, Miss Amey Webb, who was, of Providence. As the President holds all the devotion which can belong both to man and to office, so her quiet interest and her kindly pres- ence have won to her all that personality can add to the difference which belongs to her own presiding office as the First Lady of the University. A word remains, too, for Benjamin Ide, Junior a most uncompromising supporter of the BLUE AND GOLD. His devotion has even mastered the intricacies of Osky-Wow-wow, and his growing knowledge has an item of information about Stanford that Dey got beat.