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

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iTTTTTmTllllllllllllT I9INDEX29 Br, Cfjarle Cbtoarb Jfflarstfmll FAR. CHARLES EDWARD MARSHALL was born on a farm near Port ■ — ' Clinton, Ottawa County, Ohio, on October 6th, 1866. With this beginning and with a sturdy line of ancestors back of him one might have predicted from the start that strong, reliable, forceful character which he developed. Here he grew to young manhood, working on the farm and attending the local schools until he was about eighteen years of age when he entered the State Normal School at Fredonia, New York, where he graduated in 1889. Following this he was principal of the Academy at Ellicottsville, New York, for two years and then entered the University of Michigan intending to study medicine, but after two years he be- came so much interested in bacteriology that he changed his major to that science. He graduated with the class of 189.5 with the degree of Ph.B. and received his Doctor ' s degree from that University in 1902. It is interesting but not surprising to note Dr. Marshall ' s steady professional advancement from one position to another. He was appointed Assistant in Bacteriology at the University of Michigan in 1893 and in 1899 went to the Michi- gan Experiment Station at East Lansing as Bacteriologist. In 1902 he became Professor of Bacteriology and Hygiene in the Michigan Agricultural College which position he held for ten years when he came to the Massachusetts Agricultural College as Professor of Bacteriology and Director of the Graduate School. Three times Dr. Marshall visited Europe for graduate work. In 1898 he studied at Jorgensen ' s Laboratory in Copenhagen; in 1903 at Pasteur Institute, Paris and at Ostertag ' s Laboratory, Berlin; and in 1913 at Koch Laboratory Berlin. He was among those able lieutenants whom President Kenyon L. Butterfield called to assist him in the work of developing the Massachusetts Agricultural College during the greatest period of growth which this College has ever seen, and as Director of the Graduate School he did a splendid piece of work in organizing, expanding and systematizing that part of the activities of this college. Dr. Marshall was the author of a notable text book in his special field entitled Outlines of Bacteriology and wrote many bulletins and scientific papers. He was also president of the Society of American Bacteriologists in 1914 and a mem- ber of many other scientific organizations. Dr. Marshall ' s friendly interest in all those with whom he came in contact, his high ideals, devotion to duty, and solicitude for everything which concerned the welfare of the community in which he lived endeared him to all. But to fully appreciate his character one must have tramped with him over the hills of New England, or rowed with him on Lake Sunapee, one must have played golf with him or fished with him or have sat with him of an evening in front of an open fire! It was under such circumstances as these that one learned to know a side of his character which comparatively few saw, but which all those who were privileged to see will hold in their memories as one of the choice things of this life. FRED C. SEARS. 27