University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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saab .v..f s Y - --X-f--my M..--51 fi R R ' . N Nts. ,. RODNEY M. WEST lbelozuzl MOST STUDENTS FINISH four years of col- lege without ever seeing Rodney M. West, Registrar of the University, but he is the man who controls both their admission and graduation. For twenty years he has been admitting freshmen, directing the maintenance of their grade records which are kept in his office, checking the tedious Work of putting their names in the ad- dress book every fall, and finally approv- ing their application for a degree. He himself was a university student in 1902. In 1909 he joined the teaching staff as instructor of chemistry and eleven years later he succeeded E. B. Pierce as Regis- trar of the University. Since 1920 he has held that position. JOHN T. TATE llfffl ALTHOUGH Mosr PEOPLE call him head of the Arts College, John T. Tate personally emphasizes the science in his title, Dean of the College of Science, Literature and the Arts. His outstanding work in the field of physics was recognized last year in his election to the presidency of the American Physical society, whose publications he has edited since 1926. He assisted in the formation of the American Institute of Physics in 1931. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and former president of the local chapter of Sigma Xi. He came to Minnesota in 1916 as an instructor in physics and in June, 1937, became a University dean. THOMAS A. H. TEETER lflfffl BEING DIRECTOR of the second largest summer session in the country would be enough for most men, but it is merely the beginning for Thomas A. Teeter. Besides approving the budgets of the several de- partments, he is chairman Of the advisory committee handling questions of policy, staff appointments, announcements, pub- licity and class schedules. Then it is up to him to arrange convocation programs and represent the president's ofhce in all matters during the summer session. 'When he finally does take his vacation in Sep- tember, he first goes to his summer cabin near Brainerd and then is off to preside over the meetings of the Deans and Di- rectors of Summer Sessions. MALCQLM M. WILLEY lffsbfl SELECTING CONVOCATION PROGRAMS that will bring 4,500 people to Northrop Au- ditorium every Thursday is only one of Dean Malcolm M. Willey,s jobs as As- sistant to the President. He came to the University as a professor of sociology in 1927 and still edits the Sociological Re- view. Before that he had been a news- paperman on his family's own Pll1f71ll7lZ Pazfriof, a Connecticut weekly. Not un- til 1934 did he undertake the multiple duties of University front man. NVhen he isn't busy correlating the work of the scores of administrative ofhcers on cam- pus, he can usually be found in the garden or the library of the house de- signed for him by Frank Lloyd Wfright.

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Adminmtrefion WESLEY E. PEIK I rigbfl I HAVE so MANY HOBBIES that I don,t have any, declared Wesley E. Peik, Dean of the College of Education. He might have added that he is in so many organizations and on so many committees that he himself can scarcely list them all. His Hrst study of teaching techniques was experimental. He had just finished his senior year in high school when he was hired as the only teacher in a country school that had sixty pupils. His educa- tional methods and standards have changed a good deal since then. ln the meantime he has completed his education at Columbia and at Minnesota and done independent work in educational research. ERNEST B. PIERCE lrisbfl FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND ALUMNI keep in touch with the growing University through the alumni ofhce and its active secretary, Ernest B. Pierce. He first came into close Contact with the students as registrar of the University from 1904 to 1920. He points with pride to the Presi- dents, trees on the lower knoll whose planting he supervised when he was chair- man of the Committee on University Functions. An alumnus himself, he was a member of the 1904 national champion- ship basketball team and still keeps up his own athletic program. It was his class that contributed the University hymn, Minnesota, Hail to Theef' Today he is a leader in the Coffman Union drive. RUSSEL A. STEVENSON llfffl TO KEEP FEES DOWN is my main ob- jective, says chairman of the Fees Com- mittee Russel A. Stevenson whose oflicial position is Dean of the School of Business. A professional accountant before he be- came a professor, Dean Stevenson believes that accounting is the best fundamental training for a business career. He also worked in the evaluation of public util- ities. Whenever he can, he spends his vacations climbing mountains and he has already topped many of the peaks in the Rockies and Canadian coastal ranges. Last summer he tackled Mount McKinley in Alaska, but he did his climbing the easy way, in an automobile, and he never did reach the top. ROYAL R. SHUMWAY lbelowj THE MAN XVHO KNOWS all the reasons why students fail is Royal R. Shumway, Assistant Dean of the College of Science, Literature and the Arts. As head of the Student XVork Committee he gets his in- formation first hand-from the quak- ing students who answer his little White notes. Genial, fatherly, with an undeni- able resemblance to Irvin S. Cobb, Dean Shumway just smiles at the old excuses and looks behind every failure for the ugermsu that breed E's and E's. Thirty- seven years of teaching and counselling have made him wise. A dealer in failures, he is a success himself not only at work but in one of the rarer carpentering skills, master cabinet-making.

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LAURENCE SCHMECKEBIER Fillf' Arlx ins JOSEPH M. THOMAS English f .a 4 Qfiifacttilfyt THE PROFESSORS YWRITE AND EXAMINATIONS AND GRADE REPORTS are only a bi-product of professorial pens. Dozens of books, en- cyclopedic and digested, chatty and erudite, are turned out by presses all over the country, the creative efforts of faculty men in every department of the University. Mexican Art, beautifully illustrated and popularly written, was the work of Laurence Schmeckebier, chair- man of the department of fine arts, and was published by the University Press. Beginners who depend upon the Burkhard series of elementary German texts now have the Hfth of the set to help them on their wayg Oscar W. Burkhard, chair- man of the German department and Lynwood Downs, assistant professor completed Schreiben Sie Deutsch this fall. In the shadow of the current war, Harold C. Deutsch, professor of history, is at work on a new history of the last world war. After three years of intensive work, Raymond L. Grismer, associate professor of romance languages, pub- lished early this fall an Index to 12,000 Spanish Ameri- can Authors, which is already widely used in this country and in Spanish America itself. Shakespeare came in for double consideration with Elmer E. Stoll's Shakespeare's Young Loversf' scheduled for early publication, and Frederic Skinner, assistant professor of psychology, analyzing his sonnets. OSCAR C. BURKHARD Gcr1na11 Five hundred fifty thousand words long and still growing is the anthology of Great English Prose Writers on which Joseph M. Thomas, assistant dean of the senior college, is already reading proof. A small book in itself is the ofhcial register of faculty publications which puts to shame any half-column list- ing of work in progress. A-m.,,,g RAYMOND L. GRISMER HAROLD C. DEUTSCH Romance Laugzuzges H isto ry