University of Wisconsin Stevens Point - Horizon / Iris Yearbook (Stevens Point, WI)

Page 10 text:

President Pra.y Mr. Pray began lais educational work in Wisconsin In 1872, as teacher of mathematics and vice-principal of Wayland Academy at Beaver Dam. During the thirty-four years since that time he has won promotion from one position to another and has steadily broadened the field of his influence. In 1877 he resigned the position at Beaver Dam to take the principalship of the high school at Tomah. where he remained for three years. From Tomah he went back to Beaver Dam as principal of the high school, leaving there in 1881 to accept the position of teacher of mathematics and civics in the Whitewater Normal School. In 1888 he became institute conductor for Whitewater, and served the slate in that capacity until 1894, when he came to Stevens Point as president of the sixth normal school of Wisconsin. Besides the regular service here described. Mr. Pray has been Identified with many other educational interests in Wisconsin, and has borne many responsibilities for which the public is indebted to him. By the resignation of Dr. Stearns in January, 1885. Whitewater Normal School was loft without a president, and Mr. Pray was called upon to act in that capacity until the Close of the year. From 1S86-S8 he had charge of the mathematical department of the Wisconsin Journal or Education, and before and since that time has made contributions to its columns. For three years he acted as a member of the State Board of Examiners, whose duties are to determine by examination the qua t ideal ions of applicants for the state diploma. During the past twenty-five years he has missed but three meetings of the State Teachers’ Association, and was. In 1893, president of that association. The chronology of this period of public service can thus bo briefly told, but It Is not so easy to estimate the effects of the work of these years. As academy professor and high school prinicpal, he came into direct relation with hundreds of young people. Many more hundreds of teachers came to know him as institute conductor, and through these teachers the energizing effects of his influence passed on to thousands of children gathered in the district schools throughout the state. Then came the opportunity for still greater professional usefulness,—an opportunity that has no equal in imi ortance,—that of carrying out his ideals of a training school for teachers, and through that school to multiply many times and to deepen by many degrees the influence already so potent in Wisconsin. The school was established: nnd. while in courses of study and general management it has differed little from other similar schools, it has an individuality, traceable directly to the man at its head, who has selected its faculty and shaped its policy for twelve years. When an attempt is made to analyze Mr. Pray's traits of character and to discover (he secret of his success as a public man, the characteristic that calls for first recognition Is his yenuinent . The public is not slow to recognize nnd approve this quality, and is equally intolerant of its opposite. In this public,” students of all ages are included. It Is an immeasurcable good for a body of young people to come into contact day after day with a man free from any trace of affectation, cant, or hypocrisy; to breath the atmosphere of a school where Sunday manners and morals for visitors or Inspectors is thought to he dishonest, and where the highest possible daily standard of work and conduct is considered ail that is necessary. Such experiences influence character and result in more genuine manhood and womanhood. In this school self-government has always been practiced, but there has been no formal organization. To accomplish desired ends, little has been done besides making com in on-sense appeals to people who are expecting to control themselves. During the first year of the school it was somewhat difficult to impress these ideas of school management upon a body of students used to external control, and expecting it: but afterwards there was always a sufficient contingent of old students to exert a supporting influence and make the practice easily successful. The warm sympathy and support which Mr. Pray has from the alumni and students of all classes is the natural response to the deep interest felt by him in each one of them. We feel sure that hundreds of men and women in our state, who have at some time known him. and doubly sure that all wearers of the purple and gold Join with us in extending to Mr. Pray our best wishes for continued success. MARY D. BRADFORD.

Page 9 text:

To President Pray. Dear Guardian of our student years, Thy name old S. P. X. reveres; Thy sinile illumes our hearts, and clears Our little sky despite our fears. Thou Teacher good and true and kind, All Wisdom’s ways with thee we find; With thee life's close wound coils unwind To form the warp and woof of mind. Thou Master of the teacher’s art, Firm is thy purpose, strong thy heart; From duty thou dids’t ne'er depart To barter in base Mammon’s mart. Thou friend, whose heart is quick to feel, Vet firm to strike for Honor's weal, Deceit and Craft were neath thy heel, Thy life hath blessed us with its seal. Thou father of our Normal Days, Tho Recollection now arrays Herself in Sorrow’s garb, her lays Shall ever sing our heart-felt praise. Thou model of the good and great, Well hast thou served Our Mother State, And now we pray Good Fortune’s gate Is left ajar by kinder Fate. Farewell ! we breathe in whispers low, Farewell, farewell! for we must go To face, the blast; ’tis hard, altho The thought of thee brings strength we know.

Page 11 text:

Remembrances A PERSONAL TRIBUTE. One evening more than twelve years ago, the conductor of a teachers’ institute and the state high school inspector, who hud l een visiting the former’s classes, went out Main Street and walked around upon the foundations of a new normal school that was just coming into being. A goodly building seemed promised, but the two men agreed that the task of creating the school would be far more difficult than that of erecting tin building. Neither then knew that either would be specially interested in the new project. Later, however, they did return and worked together, one as president and tin other as institute conductor, in the foundation of the school; the former always at home, planning, guiding, directing, the other frequently in the field, carrying information about the new school and executing the plans of his chief. Only I, who willingly seconded his activities, can appreciate the wisdom and excellence of Mr. Pray’s designs, the tact and resourcefulness of his nature. It was as difficult a task as ever faced a man. for the new school was not everywhere welcome, its location was openly criticised, and some leaders in neighboring schools were distinctly unfriendly. Through all these manifold difficulties Mr. Pray guided the new school with a skill, gentleness and conservatism that disarmed the criticism of enemies, won the support of strangers and taught the state that a school could he created at Stevens Point; that it could outstrip others in point of attendance and yet not antagonize them. For more than six years I saw the school grow in numbers and take its place among the best of the normals,—a recognized influence in the educational affairs of the state. Since leaving the institution I have watched as well as 1 could from a distance, the continuous development of tin great school, and though its students are now nearly all strangers to ine, yet I f el sure that the spirit of loyalty that characterized the early years is as strong as ever, and that the same devotion to right professional principles still endures. To the man who created the school and directed its growth to tin present time, the state owes a debt it can never pay. Spotless character, unquestionable integrity of purpose even in minute things, unobtrusive helpfulness, undemonstrative but hearty sympathy in every good work,—such were the traits that endeared to us all the man who now leaves the stewardship. The hundreds of students everywhere, tin faculty members, the citizens of Stevens Point, will not forget the strong personality that molded the institution, and new students will feel it for a long time to come. To take up and carry on a work so nobly begun is an honor to any man, and, without a doubt, Mr. Pray’s successor will tind that true students show their appreciation of past teaching by their loyalty to the new. C. II. SYLVESTER.