University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

Page 28 text:

-Z, ' -s M. . 9' 1 psf people in his declination address, February 4. l926. A N N liviEeRis'A RY Proud UM Views 25 Year's Growth Twenfy-five years is nof a greaf age for a universi+y. In The eyes of ihe na+ion's older uni- versifies ii' is s'rill an age which should be seen and noi' heard. For when 'iheyy were 25 fheir faculfies were in sideburns and middie biousesf and 'rhe ivy on +heir walls was hardly more rhan' peach fuzz. i Bui' for 1'l1e Universify of Miami if is a proud age. H' is fhe firsf significanl' birihday ihe UM has had. I+ is a iime for Miami for pause, iake a deep breafh, look back on whai' has been ac- complished over a 'rurbulenf quarfer of a cenfury and plunge on ahead +o greaier accomplishmenfs. The Universily of Miami has no ivy on i+s walls: if never will as long as ii' can affordsa mainfenance crew, buf ii' can poini' fo a more frui'l Ful firisi' 25 years 'I'han mosf ofher universifiesl in +he'world. Miami was conceived during an era of gran- deur, born amidsi 'Phe mosi desiruciive hurricane +ha+ ever hi+ The s+ai'e, grew during ,'l'he na'I'ion's worsi' depression, wen? 'ro war in his1'ory's grea+es+ confiici' of nafions and maiured in a period 'rha'r bred uncer+ain+y. Yei' i+ has grown sfeadily and sfrongly, even 'io a poini' fhai' surpasses i+he' dreams in which i'r was conceived. The service if has rendered +o ihe communify and +o fhe youfh of 'lhe nation has noi' been 'I'ha'r of an in'Fan'l school, , M A , V The. Universi+v of Miami confinues io nurfure 'I'he building spirif, and f+hose who inscribe fhe hisfory o'Fl1'he nexi' 25 years will have the privilege of recording even greaier growih. '

Page 27 text:

Universdy of Miami will be Miami's greaiesi' maierial as well as cul+ureI asset found er George E. 1 ,N -' 'Af 1 M, :ff XT X 9 235 K 5 xi, r Merrick fold 7,000 , . . .4-.-gn.-1 ' ,H M sa, i r, .1:,.-...Lf-,. in... M . , .i,. i ,i 1 r gp -r,lw'f-iq, :M ',-YL 1 . iF .,. Y .' -ltilffq , . I, ,7 :.-. gl ,.. 'J . 1.7. ,:.,.,, J., in .i V, ,.u, ig, -1 y 1-YUM i ,yr -. 1 - -A ,...w.:f1 i. mn f A Zi ' -, .-gi 5'--'nz-1 'Q1,'.Q:,'1-1.:!f,, 3Qi,-iff' Quai,-1'-iMa,,, .31n.::Q'2iE1Qf,, if J A ', , ,r ,Lx vgaegwi-,lr 27, ,,? wh: Hqeg wi 5 PHIL' wily? ' , . wi' yi Mig ifffvjpg'l4f,iqg,:,!yf3bgn?v:5',2+y-Lxjfrigigir, gg.-y ' 1 - r X. .V f-L43 ,LL .,3b',1,,r,f,.f3fg'i1f, ig , , , -'1,ff,r?'!lv1- rf' 15:-,pfgifgi2wuf3fF.,Qx11j4-:+f+Q:g1 ,, i .i ,..:13,.lJm.,1,V,awA:f:q+: QW., -,gig-5,5.f-531155rrcgiolwijvi wi-1 'H-v .. iw' 1: irfi'f:--.ws-. 'rw-H X ,',,- i. H i i - ,wif-pg f'gA,j,m f i,'4'V fl-:M::?'u'.,,.-ibfv:i-U ' 'f N ,L La 5'.i1,.g-11511 'N tfw- 9:L'f +:Zg 'T'EQfwq71137.-0'5,ifg'x - l ,, fr-1-rl-Yl f5 'f1 i 2f 55'2'l 'WYGM df , iii . -w,w:gg-A-:'1'a.1,5-1:,1z'.gi,3, 5-1n.15,f.j'y5-5,-,g- iii' z J. .1 . -.,i---1.L..,f ii:-1.4,-1 y .4 'if .51 1 A i , :-.,:T,,mM .iw 31g',1,i, ,,:I,,..ggg,5.5y1:l,. gLay,fQ5yAgf.3kj. 5271 'V ' wit ,. 5 -ry-r5.1 'W-ilw' 'wifi aq nu ,., gn, , H,-l1,M . ,.,f,.m.T9,3.g i,3,',,g., ,WH,efibA QM H' i 1 X 'fwjf ,N ,, w,g2,i,,,p5,i:,?f Jlfgff-' ,wifi-lgzl, -9,- i -- ,Q V -.-f,4,' i . ,V :ffm - i fl, ,i L-.' iw- J 'i31-'-Q.,,1i'Q,a,,fi NYU iii if-1 , 1 ,Ha , e 1 usiggs-'-. 1:52 amz' ' 'r if- ' if '-,-'ifflbifl,.F:'f',:i.2Y!e1i

Page 29 text:

TI-IE EARLY YEARS i A gala parade through the decorated streets of Coral Gables preceded UM Born During Miami Land Boom It was certain that somebody would suggest building a university .... Miami in the mid-1920's was sleek and sassy, feeling its oats, rarin' to go. A war had been won. Coolidge pros- perity was shifting from second gear to high, and in South Florida a wonder had happened. For years the schoolbooks had been saying that the American frontier had disappeared in the l890's. But the historians were thinking about the West where the Indians were long since safe on reservations. They overlooked the Florida frontier where Seminoles remained free, buckaroos were wrangling scrub cattle and pioneer families were making arrowroot starch in palmetto-bordered clearings. Right up to World War I you could find as rip-snorting a frontier in South Florida as any Red Gulch in Colorado 50 years before. Excepting this . . . beyond the borders of the unexploited and almost empty Southern half of the Florida peninsula was a fully-developed 20th Century people bursting with energy, money and curiosity. -Some few had long known that along a stretch of water known as Biscayne Bay the winters were warm, the air salubrious and the sea full of fish. Once get that idea into the minds of snow-weary Northerners and you could start a stampede. George Merrick did just that. His father, the Rev. Solomon Merrick, had homesteaded a mile or so back from the-Bay when all you had to do to claim land was level the pines and keep an eye out for the varmints. 26 George was a pioneer kid with a taste for romantic poetry. His father sent him for his education way up North to Rollins. When George returned to the empty piney woods, everything combined to make him the man to give the signal to outsiders that started the rush to Coral Gables. There was the land. He had the imagination. The time was ripe. They came in busses and trains by the tens of thou- sands. The auctioneers' hammers rapped values skyward. The unbroken cover of Caribbean pine became a checker- board of sidewalks, streets and canals. Across the Bay a mangrove swamp was pumped full of sand to make Miami Beach and its satellite islands and causeways. Americais last frontier really had disappeared. Americans like to live within the sound of a school bell. The newcomers brought with them the universal American idea thatgevery American child has the right to an educa- tion plumb to the top of his capacity. But the little red schoolhouse would not do well at all-not for this com- munity which built skyscraper hotels in the wilderness and imported Italian gondolas to glide between canal banks still scarred by the teeth of the dredging buckets. Talk of a university began to circulate. William E. Walsh tossed in the idea of open-air school- ing, a revival of the natural setting in which Plato lec- tured under equally benign skies. But George Merrick, whose dreams always had substance, saw a towering Spanish Renaissance palace of education springing com-