University of Maine - Prism Yearbook (Orono, ME)

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10 THE PRISM 1908 Seminary, Wisconsin, which position he held for one year. In this position he showed the qualities which have ripened with the years and which explain his success. Dr. O. A. Chap- pell of F.lgin, Illinois, in a most interesting letter to me says that the position was one of unusual difficulty, but Dr. Fellows was master of it from the beginning. His enthusiasm was boundless and he imparted it to us all in play and work alike. The influence of such a per- sonality is beyond compare. I consider myself very fortunate to have been one of his pupils. Another of his former pupils at Eau Claire, now Assistant General Superintendent of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, says that his pupils in the Eau Claire Semi- nary were over-grown Wisconsin forest products which we sometimes called Indians, and if he had gone at us wrong we would have put him out of business in the twinkling of an eye, but he came at us right, and such hold did he get on the hearts of the fellows that unconsciously there was drilled into our retentive and rebellious minds knowledge which helped us in our future life and principles for manhood which have stood by us ever since. President Fellows is one of the strong nails which hold the universe together and make for this country better citizens than any other nation of the globe possesses. A year ' s work in the active pastorate in small Wisconsin towns gave him a touch with certain very important aspects of life, and an experience which has proved of great value to him. Two years he spent as Vice Principal of the Ryan High School in Appleton, Wiscon- sin, and one of his old pupils. Dr. Sanborn, writes me his recollection of President Fellows as a man of very high ideals, and much concerned about the mental and moral welfare of his students. His departure from the school was felt as a personal loss, and all of us have watched his climb to eminence in the educational world with great satisfaction. The next three years he spent as instructor in the Central High School of New Orleans, Louisiana. One of his friends during that period touches upon a very important quality which explains much of President Fellows ' after success. He writes, One of President Fellows ' characteristics which endears him to his friends, as you know, is his generous appreciation of the work of others. This quality was manifest from the first. He was a tried optimist and helpful friend, and whoever portrays his character must dwell with appreciation on his unfail- ing energy, his courageous optimism, and his militant wrath at the shadow or substance of injustice. President Fellows left New Orleans High School in 1 888 to take up his studies in Europe. When he returned, after a brief period in the high school at Aurora, Illinois, he was called to Indiana University. From this time his career is a matter of history, known to everyone. The space assigned for this brief biographical notice is perhaps already overrun, and I can only add one word to the effect that President Fellows has been one of the strongest influences for good in the National Association of State University Presidents. In fact the

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DR. GEORGE EMORY FELLOWS EORGE EMORY FELLOWS, President of the University of Maine, was born at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, June 9, 1858. He attended for a time the Academy of Northwestern University ; graduated later at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1879 ; studied at the University of Munich, 1888-89, and at the University of Berne, I 890, where he took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He was granted the honorary degree of LL.D. by Bowdoin Col- lege, 1902, and that of L.H.D. by Lawrence University in the same year. He married in 1 88 1 , Lucia Russell, of Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin. He taught for ten years in various high schools, among others at Appleton, Wisconsin, New Orleans, Louisiana and Aurora, Illinois. He was Professor of European History at Indiana University from 1891 to 1895 ; Assistant Professor of History in the University of Chicago, 1895-1902; President of the University of Maine since 1 902 ; member of the American Historical Association of the New Orleans Academy of Science and various educational societies ; has been secretary and treasurer of the National Association of State Universities for some years. Aside from many articles in various magazines, he is the author of Outlines of the Sixteenth Century, published in 1895, and of Recent European History, published in 1902. Such is the brief memorandum of the important academic events in the life of President Fellows. Such a sketch, of course, gives no indication of the character of the man, or of the qualities which have made him a successful leader in his day and generation. I have had the pleasure of knowing President Fellows for more than fifteen years, and have watched his work with increasing admiration, and I may add, pride. I was associated with him for a time at the University of Chicago, and had an opportunity to see the manifestation of the qualities which have placed him in his present high position. But after all a man ' s real character is deter- mined before he is thirty years of age, about which time I made his acquaintance, and the testimony of other people who knew him as a boy and young man is even more significant than anything which I might say. He was only twenty-one, according to the account which one of his early friends gives me, when he graduated at Lawrence University. A man sitting in the audience on the com- mencement occasion, who was agent and trustee, urged him to become principal of Eau Claire

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1908 THE PRISM 11 association was on the verge of expiring when he became secretary, and he instilled into it new life. The people of Maine, the Faculties of the University of Maine, and the students of the institution present and prospective, are to be congratulated that the trustees of the university were wise enough to call to its head a man with such broad training and outlook, and the alumni of the university and the citizens of the state can do no wiser thing than uphold his hands and follow his advice as he unfolds and develops his statesman-like projects. ( cfyoU ' President of the University of Illinois.