University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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» O William Watts Fol ' well, L.L.D., who for fifty years has devo ' ted himself without reserve to the service of the University and of Minnesota, VA e, the class of 1918, re- spectfully dedicate this volume. ( We gratefully recognize that we are reaping the fruits of his wise planning and skilful direction when foundations were being laid, policies established, and plans form- ed, for the natural and harmonious development of the various departments of the University, which should increasingly meet the manifold requirements of the complex life of the State. Q We offer the Educator and the Scholar our tribute of honor and esteem; we offer the Man our tribute of homage and of love. f?m x?

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HEN William Watts Folwell was graduated in 1857 from Hobart College, the world in the light of recent events was young. Queen Victoria was busy bringing up her family of children, who have since crowned more than one European court. Napoleon III, amid all the glitter of the most splendid court France has ever known, was heading toward that downfall from which only in the last two years has France magnificently recovered her moral grandeur. Bismarck was making ready first to render Austria secondary to Prussia; then to grind France into the dust; then to establish German militarism on a rock which, whatever one ' s views concerning the present world war, has proved to be the most solid in the history of the world. Russia was scarcely half barbaric, and no one dreamed that she was in the half century since to pass through almost a com- plete cycle of military and political experience. No Open Door was even foreseen in China, and Saigo had not made his last stand against feudalism in Japan. Buchanan was just beginning his impossible management of a house which Abraham Lincoln said divided against itself could not stand, and William W. Folwell was to teach Mathematics at Hobart for two years before winning his spurs in the great Civil War. Of his career at Hobart there are too few still surviving to fill out in detail the picture, but that does not matter. Even from a single bone the expert can, it is said, construct a complete anatomy, and I have at least a few specimens of personal experiences from which to build up for the readers of the Gopher a characterization of our Professor Folwell. He left our faculty in 1860 before a single member of the present faculty, except our beloved Dean, was born. He has sometimes come back to see us, and no visitor has been more welcome. I had a glimpse of him two years ago and a handshake as he was looking about the Hobart of today. It was an honor as well as a pleasure to see him and to recall that, though Virgil ' s lines are true, rari nantes in gurgiti vasto, it is still not quite true for Hobart so far as he is concerned that All, all are gone; the old familiar faces ; for our Professor Emeritus Charles D. Vail, who was graduated when Dr. Folwell was teaching here, is still with us and often speaks of Dr. Folwell with affection and respect. The picture we have of Dr. Folwell here is the picture that every reader of the Gopher will have, — ability, scholarship, public spirit, social grace and general lovableness. Of course, Hobart ' s President counts it an honor to be asked to speak this word about him. And of course we all say, since he is still so much alive — in the words of Horace — Late may he return to Heaven. Lyman P. Powell, President of Hobart College. January 24, 1917.