University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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OUR MASTER O speak for the men of Carolina is to speak for men who shun affection ; who know not sham ; who love naturalness ; who seek the truth, and when they find it follow it as their guiding star. To phrase the feeling of these men toward Edward Kidder Graham is to phrase the relationship of free men toward a life which lived with the freedom of the open air and the romance of the morning in a personality which breathed into their lives the inspiration to aspire. It is the revelation of leadership. It is the story of men who, free to choose, chose him as their leader. He saw with the keenness of insight which symbolizes the prophet. He illustrated a strength and stamina transforming inward conceptions into the body and substance of reality which signifies the master builder. His was that way which loses itself in the perfect realization of its pur- pose disclosing the artist. It was the presence of these fundamental parts, each in its fulness, which gave to his life its perfect proportion of life ' s realities, and explains how, in the intense activity of executive require- ments, he was a stimulus without a sting, a force without a jar. These elements, thus perfectly proportioned, and each in its fullness, blending, grew into a life — whole, and wholesome in its wholeness, which gave reality to his vision and accuracy to his conception. Its very com- pleteness e.xplains why he never was, or could be, one-sided, unreasonable, impractical. And so it follows, even as the rosebud is followed by the full-blown rose, that he was the source of his own truth and the origin of his own standard. Being this, there was no place in him for imitation, and he was free from the hollowness and pretence which attends it. Being this, to increase by addition was to belie his nature, and he was free from the affectation of qualities not his own. Attaining his fullness thru growth, his life demonstrated the freshness and the richness of simplicity. Because he knew himself, and was true thereto, there were no other gods before him. Without constraint or friction in himself, he brought into his relations with others that rare union of sweetness and gentleness and strength which breathed the incense of consecration. Self-contained in his completeness, he was come not to be ministered unto but to minister. Complete in himself, what could he gain by con-

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came into contact with him could escape the feeling that here was a spirit richly human that yet gained its power in remote and secret places. To get beyond one ' s immediate circle of duties and interests, to enter into some sort of relation with the world outside, with even the remotest parts of the earth, and then to bring to bear on the tasks of the day this sharp- ened vision, is one secret of greatness. For it gives breadth, drives out the provincial, corrects values, enables one to see the day in its relation to all the days of the children of men. Such was Graham ' s secret. It explains why he could speak so simply and yet so wisely, and to all men. His life, looked at from this point of view, was not only an embodi- ment of the Christ-life ; it was a proof of the immortality of that life. The wonder and the mystery of life is that thru the ages this divine life is born, now here, now there, from one race and from another, incarnate in spirits that catch the flame from heaven. Here is the answer to all the doubts that assail us when we look upon the wrecks of civilizations and cultures — The One remains, the many change and pass; Heaven ' s light forever shines, earth ' s shadows fly; Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, Stains the white radiance of eternity. So to us who are left to carry on as best we may the work to which he called us conies joy as well as sorrow. We will do as he taught us. His spirit shall have a double immortality — an immortality in the life of the University that he loved so well, and that other immortality which is the substance of things not seen, the secret life whence he drew his strength. The One remains. That this clear spirit dwelt among us for a time is proof that, amid the crash of principalities and systems, man still may lay hold on the infinite; proof that, whatever be the fate of the individual, the human spirit is an undying flame. And to us who knew him best this, after all, is but another way of saying that he is not dead. He is the Beloved Captain — we feel towards him as Donald Hankey felt towards the leader whom he lost : But he lives. Somehow he lives. And we who knew him do not forget. We feel his eyes on us. We still work for that wonderful smile of his. There are not many of the old lot left now, but I think that those who went West have seen him. When they got to the other side, I think they were met. Someone said: ' Well done, good and faithful servant. ' And as they knelt before that gracious pierced figure, I reckon they saw nearby the captain ' s smile. Anyway, in that faith let me die, if death should come my way; and so, I think, shall I die content. — Edwin Greenlaw

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quest? He did not need to master; he could serve. And thus he Hved. To all men he was the inspiration and the way to a larger life. Not con- cerned in what he got but in what he gave, he lived that men might have life and have it more abundantly. Without imposing anything upon men, without resorting to trickery or force to advance the cause he stood for, he revealed the supreme con- fidence in truth which betokens the idealist. And the practice of this faith has forever taught us that idealism is only another name for com- mon sense. His life was an ever-increasing triumph. In it was the substance enduring into an eternity which robs death of its sting and the grave of its victory. Secure in his own reality, he looked into the face of his black-browed visitor until she hung her head before him. And Love took up the harp of life and smote on all its cords with might. Smote the cord of self, which, trembling, passed in music out of sight. When the three days of gloom had passed, he rose again. And in the spirit glow of eternal life he dried the mists of grief and dispelled the clouds of dumb despair. In resurrected strength, his spirit, touching ours as before, stirred us to depths before unsounded, revealed to us possibilities before unknown. And today on this campus, even as when he walked among us, he is still the living leader loved of men, inspiring them to that life which is the way, the truth, the light of the world. And he still glows with the glow of triumph, still grows in the affections of men. — Albert M. Coaxes THE SPIRIT OF THE UNIVERSITY Edward K. Graham, September 15, 1916 E meet today — not only to welcome you here, but to pay recog- nition to the true significance of your coming. The sense of joy that the college feels in having you here, and the stirring sense of pride that she feels in having so great a throng of you for her Si I sons, has a deeper source than the mere happiness of association. What seems important at this moment to you and to me, and compels our attention as I think of you and face you as a group — and as individual