University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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Photo by Kinsman Studk PRESIDENT LEWIS

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Helena fjeresia oegs;mann LAST summer, while students and faculty of the Massachusetts Agricultural College were on their vacations, far from each other and the associations of the College, the news of the passing of Miss Helena Goessmann united all hearts in their common loss of a valued friend and ardent co-worker. The student-body, in her going, had lost an inspirational teacher and friend; the faculty, a strong, efficient helper. For many weeks we had known of Miss Goessmann ' s struggle and her won- derful courage in the face of continuing ill-health. Her marvelous fortitude in facing the probability of spending years in total blindness, inspired everyone who knew her. During her temporary absence from the college, she had made so much progress in regaining her health that we were all looking forward to having her among us again, at the beginning of the college year. Miss Goessmann has been intimately associated with the college most of her life. Her father was a distinguished and valued member of the first faculty when the doors of the college opened, and served in that capacity for more than thirty years. Miss Goessman graduated from the Amherst High School, and from Sacred Heart College at Providence, Rhode Island, and later she received the degree of Master of Philosophy from Ohio State University, supplementing this training with extensive study and travel in Germany, England and France. Miss Goessmann was devoted to her chosen field of English literature. Her own rare spirit found its natural home in the works of the great minds who wrote for the ages. She knew well that literature could be taught so that it is the most powerful thing in life to help stimulate young men and women to finer thought and better living. Many of her pupils look back upon the hours in her classes with the knowledge that it was in her class room they first learned to love the beautiful and to appreciate the great in literature, and there resolved to seek it in life. Above all else. Miss Goessman believed it was people who counted most. Consequently her life was rich in friendships from every walk of life. She loved people and had a real gift for friendship. In expressing her sense of indebtedness to Miss Goessmann, a former student has written, — She was interested in every one of her pupils and kept before them always a high vision of their own possibilities. The splendid philosophy of her life — a life spent generously and joyously in its very act — was a stimulus to new goals of achievment, of courage, of faith, of social usefulness. To have known her well was a privilege that I shall remember gratefully as long as I live. Her life will go on as she would wish it to, working forever in the widely scattered lives which touched hers, and into which she put so much of strength and inspiration and beauty. EDNA L. SKINNER 17

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bminisitration Cfjanges; A T the close of the last college year, it was announced by the Board of Trustees - ' - that Edward M. Lewis, who had served as Acting President of M. A. C. for two years, had been ofBcially appointed President of the College, with the full powers of that office. This announcement met with general and whole-hearted approval, both on the part of the undergraduate student body and the alumni, for President Lewis has, during his years of service at M. A. C, won the sincere respect and friendship of all with whom he has come in contact. Edward M. Lewis was born in Wales in 1872, and came to this country with his parents eight years afterward. He received his advanced education at AVil- liams College, where he took his A. B. degree in 1896, and his A. M. in 1899. It was there that he achieved fame as a baseball pitcher, which led him to enter professional baseball. His success was immediate, and he was soon recognized as one of the best pitchers in the game. However, he had ambitions for a life of greater service, and in 1901, at the height of his baseball fame, he accepted a position as Instructor in Public Speaking at Columbia University. Later he accepted a similar place at Williams College, and in 1911 became Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor of English at M. A. C. Since 1914 he has been Dean of the College, and the service he has rendered in that capacity cannot be easily reckoned. His fine idealism, his broad tolerance, and his understanding of and sj ' mpathy with the problems of student life have won for him the gratitude of many and the friendship of all. It is altogether fitting that to him should be given the leadership of M. A. C, in the certainty that vmder his guidance it will continue to exemplify the highest ideals of the American college. Another act of the Trustees which has been greeted with widespread appro- bation was the appointment of Professor William L. Machmer to the position of Dean of the College, announcement of which was made at the beginning of the present college year. The year of 1911 also marked the arrival on our campus of Dean Machmer, who had just been granted his A. M. degree from Franklin and Marshall College. Previous to that time he had received an A. B. at the same institution . and had spent several years teaching in the public schools of Pennsylvania. Coming to M. A. C. as Instructor in Mathematics, he became Assistant Professor in 1913 and Associate Professor in 1919. Since 1920 he has been Professor of Mathematics and Assistant Dean, and during the past two years, he has served both as Acting Dean and Acting Registrar. No member of the faculty has the best interests of the College and the student body more at heart than Dean Machmer. By his quiet friendship, his tactful, unassuming helpfulness, and his appreciation of the everyday problems of college life, he has gained the liking and respect of the entire undergraduate body. 19