University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

Page 10 text:

T he G R I STETT E To Honor Our Adviser Russia had its Dostoievsky England had its Thackeray, France had its Flau- bert, but the Class of Forty-five has and will always hold dear its Miss Reilly. As freshmen in 1941, we chose Miss Mary Alice Reilly as our class adviser, and in her we found the strength and encouragement needed to make us an outstanding class. At all times she proved herself a person from whom we could gain advice and to whom we could go in sincerity with any problem, whether it was an academic one or not. Although she was on leave for one year out of our three-year stay in college, when with us she made up in every way for this absence. Little did we think that nearly co- incidental with our being awarded our B. S. degrees our adviser would receive her doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. We will say Dr. Reilly, but in our hearts and minds we will always re- member Miss Reilly — a class adviser of whom we shall always be proud.

Page 9 text:

To the Members of the Graduating Class — • Your days in college have been history-making days. The tempo of war has paced your college careers. Your aims and purposes as under- graduates have been geared to the demands of the emergency. For you, college has been different from the leisurely regimen enjoyed by former generations of students. You have had to forego some of the normal at- tributes of college; you have gained other benefits by reason of intensive- ness of effort and definiteness of objective. During your sojourn on our campus, the college has been living up to its tradition of patriotic endeavor. As never before, the nation in this war Kas been called upon to give complete service. Through its diverse program of instruction, research and extension, the college has functioned as an essential war agency. Our students who have remained in college, applying themselves diligently under the accelerated program, have all played their appointed part in this total effort. On behalf of the adminis- tration, it is a pleasure to recognize their spirit of devotion and to acknowl- edge their cooperation. College these recent years has been a challenging adventure, but a still greater challenge awaits you as you enter upon the new adventures of the post-war world. Wherever duty calls, the good will of your Alma Mater will always attend you. September 7, 1944. CARL R. WOODWARD, President, Rhode Island State College

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Th GRI T E T T E Ladies and Gentlemen, the Seniors: I think you know, as you go out, that you have my God-speed and my wishes that you fare very well. It happened that your years at college were those particular war years spanned by the fall and the liberation of France. While not un- aware of the flickering of the candle in the wind, you had enough insu- lation from the inquiet world to go on w ' ith your work. You laughed, too, and you made friends ; you testified your generosity and your common sense; you began sorting the trivia of life from the essentials. When you thought of your absent classmates, who are manning posts all over the world to prevent “the fall of the city,’’ you nursed everyman’s chronic dream : a future in which peace is that human achievement which has no peer. To transmute the dream, peace, into reality is an incomparably difficult assignment. After the farewell to arms, we shall have our chance at the assign- ment. What do we know about it? We know that the intoxication of vic- tory, together with the physical and spiritual exhaustion which follow wars, heightens the difficulty of peace-making. The rule of dog eat dog, rusty cynicism, that blight, fatalism, escapism — none of these are loyal friends of peace. Idealism, alone, will not insure peace, inspiring as are the concepts that love is the universal solvent for the world’s troubles and “that man to man, the world o’er, shall brithers be for a’ that.” Realism, alone, will not insure peace, important as are the sharing of property and profits, the measuring of boundaries, and statistics of all kinds. It may be that the perfect blending of idealism and realism can induce man, equipped with a brain and emotions, to live in peace with his fellow-man. The snag, of course, is the word, “perfect.” Yet despair need not claim us, for we hsfve now some powerful internationalists to send to the utopia : we have humanism, world-literature, world-science, and the most astute of all ambassadors, music. When we achieve a world-conscience, peace may well be a religion . . . Mary A. Reilly.