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

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FRED C. SEARS

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FOREWORD Deep currents of life flow through the lines of Homer ' s Odyssey, ' ' deep longings and struggles. The poem has too broad a sweep to he treated as a mere allegory on college life : its spirit is universal, yet its episodes may have their humble parallels in every life. Odysseus, the central figure, is indeed a demi god, but he is forced to war against hostile gods themselves, and his halting, ill- favored voyage becomes a very real human trial, and an embodi- ment of patient courage. ' ' With staggering sails aslant, his barl{ drives through the storms, her captain defying the elements and the capricious deities. Again, the hero experiences the zest of athletic contests, and enjoys the glad society of the feast in the halls of Alcinous. Then, too, there are days and years of waiting and disappointment, and partings from friends who pass ' ' Oh, far away, over the weltering tide. Calypso and Circe, with love and charms, tempted Odysseus to forego his quest and live in forgetful ease : but always from his soul came the stronger voice, . . .in spite of all, do I long to win my home once morel The wise, full-blooded spirit of Odysseus, its purpose and its freedom from the world ' s slow weight are most significant now, when we review the way we have come this year, and the changes which college life have wrought in us. For Odysseus was able to loo hac without regrets, to face the unl own ahead and cry, Push off and swiite the soundings furrows, for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset and the baths Of all the western stars until I die. It nuxy be that the gulfs will wash us down : It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles whom we new. Tho ' much is tdl{en, much abides, and though We are not now the strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made wea b3) time, and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to see , to find, and not to yield.

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DEDICATION Fred Coleman Sears was horn May 11, 1866, in Lexington, Mass., of a sea faring family. While he was yet quite young, his parents tooX him. to their new home on the plains of Kansas, a territory at that time populated nuxinly by coyotes, jacX rabbits, buffalo, and Indians. Here he spent his boyhood, on the far American frontier, with all its romantic experiences. Soon after graduating from the Kansas State Agricultural College in 1892, he went to ? iova Scotia where for ten years he was engaged in teaching and extension worl{, mainly in pomological lines. This residence of a decade under the British flag also made its deep impression on him.. In 1907, he transferred his activities to Mas- sachusetts, serving here since then as Professor of Pomology at M.S.C. During all of this period he has ept in notably close con tact with the fruit growers of J ew Eng}xind, by whom he is held in High esteem. Several years ago he fell in with Sir Wilfred Grenfell, noted doctor and missionary to Labrador, and for seven successive sum,mers he has gone to Labrador or its neighborhood, assisting in the wor of the Grenfell Mission. Chec ing over this brief chronology, it is easy to see that, begins ning with a sea going background, teaching for ten years in a foreign land, serving as college professor for more than a quarter of a century in T ew England, and joining in a highly eifective missionary enterprise in Labrador, Fred Sears has led an active and varied life. He has been constantly in touch with rugged realities and major enterprises. If he is sometimes impatient with pious generalities, with theoretical palaver, with mere tal , and