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

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te. I9INDEXZ9 3 o coe Mtlfreb Efmtcfjer AT the close of the last college year, it was announced by the Board of Trustees that Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher had been appointed President of the College. We were told that our beloved Prexy Lewis was going to the University of New Hampshire. Who, we asked, is this man to whom our glorious standard has been intrusted? And well we might ask, for great, indeed, must be the man who was to measure up to our fine heritage. The curious soon learned about President Thatcher ' s lineage and earlier career. He was born and bred of sturdy pioneer stock. His grandfather went from Lynn, shortly after the Civil War, to join in the great sweep of emigration westward. While journeying to the land of promise, he unexpectedly met death, so leaving to a young boy, President Thatcher ' s father, the whole responsibility of carrying on in this unknown land. By dint of constant struggle and toil, a farm was built up in Ohio, and on this farm in 1872 President Thatcher was born. His boyhood there was filled with continuous hard work and trial. After a rather pieced together elementary education, he, by means of ambition and sheer will to win, managed to procure enough high school training in Nebraska, to which his family had moved, to enable him to matriculate in the University of Nebraska. He was graduated from there in 1898. At once he embarked upon the course which, after thirty-five years of experience as a student, a faculty member, and administrator, was to lead to the presidency of M. A. C. His actual practical experience coupled with his control in executive positions has peculiarly fitted President Thatcher to understand and help solve the great problems in the sphere of both agriculture and education. He rose steadily from one position to another, finally serving as Dean of the Department of Agriculture of the University of Minnesota and later as Director of the two Agricultural Experiment Stations of New Y„ork. From the splendid work that he was doing in New York, M. A. C. called him to her campus. Then gradually, we learned first-hand about the personality and characteris- tics of our new Prexy. We made his acquaintance in assemblies, in chapels, at social gatherings, and then best of all on October 28, 1927, inauguration day. We have learned to rejoice in his strength as a leader, his scholarly attainments, his poise, his facility of expression through which he imparts his ideas clearly and forcefully. His convincing sincerity, hismoralcourage.andeducationalvisionstand out as the three brilliant lights by which we are to be guided. A man who prefers to meet issues squarely, to state unequivocally his position or convictions, who has the highest ideals of education both as liberal and practical, and who radiates an atmosphere of sympathetic understanding and genial good comrade- ship, is the man who now heads our institution. We feel that as long as men of his calibre are chosen to fill our positions of authority, ever will our standard fly proudly in the sky. 25