University of Detroit - Tower Yearbook (Detroit, MI)

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Very Reverend Gharles H. Cloud, oe AR President jpyey Wh a Gregorian University Page 26

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Reflecting the Jesuit spirit of submerging the individual to the perfection of the whole, an unostentatious transfer took place at the beginning of the scholastic year when Rey. Albert H. Poetker, S.J., who has done an outstanding task of leading the University since 1932, handed over the rector’s burden to Rey. Charles H. Cloud, S.J. True to the tradition of the Jesuits, one president laid down his duties and his successor quietly assumed them. The loss of so able a leader is tempered by the knowledge that an excellent record of achievement such as Fr. Cloud brings with him to the University, promises a stable and glorious future, So with the special affection and reverence in which the University always holds its rector, the students and faculty welcome you, Fr. Cloud, extending the promise of unfailing cooperation in your work of maintaining and advancing the prestige of our University, knowing full well that their interests will always be closest to your heart.

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Page 27 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Graduates: This year’s ‘Tower, in its dedicatory words, commemorates the fourth cen- tenary year of the Society of Jesus. In 1540, the reigning Pontiff, Paul III, formally instituted the Society as a Regular Order. It had at the time, besides its founder, St.[gnatius of Loyola, hardly more than a score of members. ‘Today it numbers some twenty-six thousand. History records that the Jesuits from the beginning have done notable work in many fields, not only in the most important fields of morals and religion, but also in literature and the sciences. “Their schools set a standard of academic excellence for all European schools, and their students won distinction in every walk of life. In teaching literature and the natural sciences, their purpose has always been to fortify the mind against the temptation, so common in intellectual pursuits, by which the thought of God and our obligations as rational creatures to His divine law—the basis of manhood—are forgotten or ignored by complete absorp- tion in purely temporal aims and selfish ambitions. Jesuit endeavor, still in force in the field of education, is to impress upon the mind the primary need of being a man, first and always, whatever else he may be in the world of science, commerce, or art. “The world has always needed— and it is a crying need today—in every department of human activity, men who will place God and His law in the forefront of their consciousness. If, as some prophets declare, society and civilization are threatened with disruption, it is only such men who can save them. As graduates of the University of Detroit, you are the inheritors of a great and noble tradition. I know of no occupation or profession in which the fact that you come from a Jesuit school will not be a recommendation. In wishing you from my heart a future filled with blessings, I cannot wish for anything more calculated to make your life a success than your fidelity to the scale of values in life and conduct which the Jesuit tradition inculcates. OH Gena dh May 15, 1940.