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

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I9INDEX29 glexanber n er£cm Jladummte ALEXANDER ANDERSON MACKIMMIE was born in Nova Scotia, of Scotch parents, and studied in the public schools of Nova Scotia, until he was sixteen. At this early age he began to teach school, inspired perhaps by the same urge for the dissemination of learning which prompted Duncan Ross, his grandfather, to found the first school in Durham, and which impelled James Ross, a kinsman and the first president of Dalhousie College to strive so hard for the kindling of the fire of knowledge. For six years did Professor Mackimmie teach school, laboring over his books in the same persistent way which has characterized him all his life, — and then an opportunity for foreign travel presented itself to him. The next three years were spent in the South of Europe and so precise was the observation of the student-traveller that European History loses its drabness and takes on a new fulgency when Professor Mackimmie makes the subject live and breath, by his tales of his travels in Northern Africa, or Italy, or Spain. But at the end of three years he returned to the New World, and the fall of 1903 found him at Princeton, and a member of the Sophomore class. Three years later he graduated from Princeton with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude and the reward of the Boudinot fellowship in modern languages for 1907. For the next two years Professor Mackimmie taught at Truro Academy, but in 1908 he came back to the state and town where he was to make his home for many years and began to teach at M. A. C. as instructor in French. In 1909-10 he served as assistant to the Acting Dean and in 1911 he received his appointment as assistant professor of French. Professor Mackimmie, the student, was as yet unsatisfied and in 1914 he received his degree of Master of Arts from Columbia University. A year later he was made associate professor of French, a position which he held until 1919 when he was appointed Professor of French. Even then, however, the quest for learn- ing proved dominant, and in 1922 he studied in Spain. As a result of his labors he received the Diploma de Competencia, Centro de Estudis Historicos, Madrid. It is a most unusual and difficult task for a man who has taught for many years to begin to teach an entirely new subject, and yet Mackimmie showed again his tremendous versatality when, in 1924 he was appointed Professor of Economics, and thus forsook his languages for laws of living. Two years later he was made head of the Division of Humanities here at the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege. This then is the abbreviated history of one of the most popular professors on our campus. A sketchy biography such as this is wholly incompetent and useless, for nothing of the personality of the man is in evidence. One cannot say in a few words that, which would of necessity take pages, if it were to be said well. 10

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DMKni 19 INDEX29 Twelve years ago another Index was dedicated to Professor Mackimmie, and in that Index, Professor Hasbrouek, perhaps the most revered professor that our campus has ever seen, wrote of him, to him all men are brothers, and his sympathy extends from the student who needs his help to the Italian laborer who has learned to watch for the Professor and to expect his ' buon giorno, a welcome echo from the home country. Alike, all who know Professor Mackimmie honor him as the scholar par excellence, as the friend tried and proven. In the twelve years which have elapsed since this tribute was paid to Professor Mackimmie many things have happened which have firmly implanted his name in the annals of pleasant memories for Aggie undergraduates. His classes are not hours of boredom, or dragging irritating lectures. When he takes charge of a class he seems to have the power of interesting the most indolent in the very stuffi- est of rooms. His courses are not courses in Economics but rather, are summaries of the experience of life. One who studies under Professor Mackimmie learns, not merely the subject being taught, but also an appreciation of the great in art and literature and life. As one student said, If you want to go to Europe and are broke and will be for the rest of your life, take a course in history with Mackim- mie. You ' ll know more about Europe at the end of the course than if you want yourself. And this is representative of student opinion on the entire campus. We have dedicated this Index to Professor Mackimmie because we realize his breadth of outlook; his scholarly attainments; his fascinating personality his knowledge of the unusual; his marvelous memory; his depth of character; his optimistic philosophy; but most of all because he is not only a learned scholar; but also an ideal humanitarian and a student of life. 11