University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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lln Memoriam comfort, itself. One beautiful thing about Dr. Schaeffer as a friend, one which all his friends will recall, was the genuine pleasure that he always showed when he could do anything for a friend. He enjoyed his friends, their presence, their talk, their interests. And he loved to show his affection. Never was there a more hospitable man. And never did he appear to better advantage than at his own fireside. He was an ideal husband and father, never so happy as when at home; and it is no tion to say that no one could visit that home without feeling the better for the sight of its happiness. We all know that our friend did not talk of virtue; he only lived it. Whatever other men might do, he never compromised with his ideals. And in an age of compromises, his serene confidence in the highest both as a man and a citizen, was a continual inspiration to his friends. One could say of him, that he satisfied not only the mind and the heart of his friend but the soul. For this reason his friends were at their best with him. For this reason they must always miss him. ALICE FRENCH. SCHAEFFER ' S great virtue was doing. His was a nature in which the predominant factor was not words but deeds. Add to this the fact that he had a definite policy and pursued it, and you know the wherefore of his success. Like all men who are men of action, he proved his activity by the honor of having active enemies. And active enemies won for him his host of fighting friends. His life was a success. For who, of all the University ' s alumni who have been and are striving after honor, can, at the hour of passing to the great unknown, hope to point to a nobler ment of a life ' s efforts than he, for whom growing, honoring him as he honored it, shall stand Iowa ' s great University; standing as a school where all are equal, if their inherent abilities and ings are. And so he has for his monument, while not a complete product, yet a wonderful accomplishment of his executive ability and energy, the Greater University. Wm. T. CHANTLAND. 13

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lln Memoriam it mattered not; in all things the one object he seemed ever to have in view and seemed easily to attain was simple fairness, jus- tice. I believe every man in the Faculty appreciated the dent ' s peculiar equipoise of judgment. The second characteristic was a gift of manner perhaps only less valuable in his position than the trait just mentioned, and certainly growing out of it. Every professor who consulted Dr. Schaeffer left him with the feeling that his cause would be the President ' s especial care, that his wishes would be consulted to the last degree of possible attainment. The President had no favorites; or if he did, none of us ever found it out. To be just is better than so to seem; Dr. Schaeffer was fortunate in that for him seeming and being were but different phases of a noble nature. THOMAS H. MACBRIDE. only knowledge of Dr. Schaeffer is that of a friend. For years, he has come to our home and I have come to his on the most informal footing. And every year I think that I felt more strongly, that the friendship of such a man was a privilege. As a friend, my first impression was of his exceeding modesty. He was a man who talked well and clearly; but he always ferred to listen. He was one of the best listeners in the world, a stimulating listener because neither his attention nor his pathy ever wavered. Therefore, he was a man to whom people unconsciously brought their best. After a very little, I came to feel that his courtesy, that beautiful and indestructible courtesy which neither fatigue nor hurry could affect a hair ' s breadth, which was as patient with bores as it was ingenious in escaping from them (for he was a shrewd man as well as a tolerant) which treated every man as his equal and every woman as a queen; I came to feel that this courtesy was more than the natural good manners of a well bred man, it was the expression of a wide and deep sympathy and a vast tolerance. But it was only when one was in trouble that one came to understand how delicate and wise was his tact. He never jarred on one. He said very little; he did a great deal; and one had a sense of safe dependence on him which was 1 12

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In Memortam editors of THE HAWKEYE have very kindly tendered me space for some brief remarks concerning President Schaeffer as I knew him personally. I have to make no apologies, fore, for writing entirely from the personal point of view. My acquaintance with Mr. Schaeffer, on account of a variety of cumstances which brought me into frequent intercourse with him, happened to be very favorable for definite appreciation of his personality. The one phase of his character I am allowed space to .speak of only one —which impressed me particularly was, in a word, his approachableness, his willingness to tolerate anybody ' s intrusion upon his time and privacy, and his successful effort to make you feel comfortable while you were inflicting the intrusion. However much he was imposed upon by loquacious advocates who thought they had something to say, he did not betray indifference, or resort to hints that you were not the most acceptable company. He did not shun iarity; rather did his manner encourage it to a degree that ularly impressed all who knew him. A few minutes ' tion sufficed to put one in easy and intimate communication with him. And then you felt that you were conversing with the real man, not the official man with guard-irons to keep you at a distance. President Schaeffer had dignity, but not the chill often mistaken for such. He never shrank from any of the severe tests which fall to the lot of college presidents and give abundant opportunity for unfavorable criticism, although he might have done so under ample cover. President Schaeffer did not have two sets of manners. The humblest man about him was received with the same tion and cordiality as the most pretentious. Rarely did a year go by that the most insignificant of his colleagues in the University did not have something for which he had President Schaeffer to thank. There was no condescension in his relations with the meanest of his fellow-men; neither was there effusiveness in the presence of those who lay claim ' to homage. His office door was open to all of us alike. Probably there is not an institution in the world where University employees as a whole enjoy such dom of consultation with the President as that existing in this University under the administration of President Schaeffer. HARRY E. KELLY. 14