University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Order T Boole I-IV Campus

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fames; purrtii , ' (1829 =1916) Although the sad event had been anticipated, the bare announce- ment of President Angell ' s death must prove of peculiar significance to every educated American, poignantly significant to Michigan alumni the world over. A chasm yawns between the present and the past of our education and of our University; an entire order of associations departs. The commanding figure of President Eliot is still spared to us, indeed. But, even so, the children of all American state universities will feel that they have lost their most venerable and venerated leader. It is the end of a complete life, rarely ordered, dignified yet touched with the veritable savor of democracy, simple albeit stately an em- bodiment of the sterling qualities native to old New England. And, for the thousands who owe allegiance to the great institution at Ann Arbor Dr. Angell ' s monument something has gone from the order of the universe, never to be replaced. With them the first of April, 1916, will always remain a day of sorrowful but elevating memories. What was his secret? Not intellectual adroitness, with its restless experimenting; not energy , with its bane of new departures; em- phatically not ambition, with its itch for results and conspicuous- ness. Rather it reposed in a character that served as a sounding board for moral acoustics; an ability, that is, to let the right men alone, never harrying them in their work; an ability, moreover, to set the insignifi- cant in its place, and to let it take its own meaningless course. Dr. An- gell knew that the human mind can face actual issues, even if they be hostile; but he also knew that, to provoke this courage, the issue must be real and definite; and he permitted it to shape itself ere he met it. He could use prompt decision when necessary; but he had learned, what so few ever learn, that quick decisions are proper in exceptional cases only; while for the rest, even blunderers may be counted on to correct themselves under kindly persuasion. The charm of his public speech was an index of the man here. It bespoke his temperament. His tran- quil unaltered humanity was the clue to much that others did not understand, or even misinterpreted. For his ripe wisdom lent him in- sight to see that great results come very gradually, and thanks only to the co-operation of many whose gifts, as is inevitable, are most various. He could abide the defects of qualities. His charm of address was indic- ative of that rarest of all faculties in an executive, the power [to wait on glances that stand agreed . By this principally he won to his unique place. Now that he is gone, many of us must think of him as of one who sowed the harvest we shall reap and was content to have sown. Keenly as we must feel the absence of his accustomed gracious pres- ence, we cannot grieve as for a career cut short in its prime, with prom- ise half fulfilled. Nay, remembering his mature performance, which so evades our feeble words, we would rather say, with Madame de Stael, When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not the decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality . R. M. WENLEY. The Michigan Daily, April 2, 1916 11