University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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A .8 Nnamwp: am. 1' -v 1 l :1 1 p 1; I M L; . 1 u - :xamemvvv -- . IO CORKS AND CURLS VOL.XVIII appointed as head of the school, and James Morris Page as adjunct professor. By successive promotions, based on the value of his services to the University, Page has since then been made associate professor, and full professor, and has served also as Dean of the Academic Department, and as Chairman of the Faculty. From the date of his appointment his work as professor and as executive has been a potent factor in moulding the growth of the University. Page was born in 1864 at Keswick in Albemarle County, one of the line old mansions nestled among the Southwest Mountains. His earliest ancestor in America was Colonel John Page of Bruto-n Parish, who was born in England in 1627, emigrated to Virginia about 1650, and died in Williamsburg in 1692. The fragments of the stone, then placed above his grave, are deposited in the Bruton Church, for the building of which he gave the first subscription. James Morris Page is seventh in descent from this old cavalier by a line adorned with names dear to the memories of all Virginians. On the spindle side too we may trace the blood of famous houses of the. Old DominionaManns and Carters and Byrds and Randolphs and Carys and N elsonse-a noble birthright. He was educated at Randolph-Macon College and there under the stimulus of Bascom Smithey, a brilliant young Virginian mathematician, received his hrst impulse toward scien- tific studies. After his graduation in 1885 he went to Germany for advanced work, was drawn to Leipzig by the fame of Sophus Lie, and devoted himself to the researches on the Transformation of Analytical F unctions, which had placed Lie among the foremost geometers of the world. In 1887, he completed his studies, submitted his dissertation on Primimle Groups of T'raliztsfolrmatioms in Space of F 0217 Dimensions, and received from Leipzig the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He returned to America, hlled with ardour for the prosecution of his work and resolved to await patiently the opening of some. propitious field for his en- ergies. The interim he knew how to fill worthily and wisely. From 1832 down to 1852 an excellent school for boys had been maintained at his home. This he determined to reestablish and from 1887 until 1896 he devoted himself mainly to this task. The Keswick school prospered in his hands and was kept up until his appointment to his present chair. During one. session he was honored with an invitation to deliver a course of lectures upon the special topic of his advanced researches before the Johns Hopkins University. He found leisure also for occa- sional contributions to- mathematical journals. But of necessity his time was spent largely in the work of teaching and administration, so that his appointment to a mathematical chair in this University was not unwelcome, and was promptly accepted. His lirst years in his new position were devoted to teaching and study. The two professors of Mathematics shared between them both the graduate and the

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1905 CORKS AND CURLS 9 James Morris Page, A. M., Ph. D. tLeipzigi HE School of Mathematics in the University Of Virginia, shares with the school of Moral Philosophy an enviable distinction. Of all the schools in Jeffersonis original scheme of instruction these alone remain undismembered and undivided. It has been happy also in the men who have presided over its fortunes. Thomas Hewett Key and Charles Bonnyrcastle, members of Jeffersonis hrst faculty of English professors, conducted the work until I840. The chair was next hlled by another Englishman, the illustrious Sylvester, the greatest geometer who ever came to the shores of America. From Sylvester it passed to a matchless teacher, Edward H. Courtenay. From Courtenay it descended to Bledsoe, and upon Bledsoeis withdrawal in 1866 the Visitors appointed as professor Colonel Charles Scott Venable. It is not too much to say that the school of mathematics under Venableis inspiration grew into a new life. He was a geometer of wide reading and sound learning, a man of noble character and exalted patriotism, a teacher endowed with rare powers of stimulus and guidance, a friend and helper to every student in his classroom. He at once introduced into his curriculum the best of the Cambridge text-books, then and now unequalled as guides to mathematical in- struction. He fostered original work among his pupils, rather than exercises of diligence and memory, establishing a mathematical medal, and freely granting extra credits for the independent solution of original problems. One of the best tests of a teacher's work is found in the men who have so learned to love his science as to devote to it the energies of their lives. Here is such a list from among Yenahleis graduatesea list written down at random and from memoryabut even thus an infallible touchstone, by whichto try his true merit as. a teacher and a' man; Barton, Bohannon, Echols, Gore, Graves, Miller, Randolph, Richards, Schmitt, Taylor, Thornton, Vawter. These and many others went from Venableis classroom to carry on his methods of instruction in our colleges and universities. In 1896, after thirty years of arduous service, Venable resigned his chair. The Visitors were deeply impressed with the importance of conserving the high standard he had set up and maintained, and of fostering original research as the crowning glory of true university work. They resolved therefore to appoint two professors of mathematics in the place of one. William Holding Echols was

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aw 1005 CORKS AND CURLS n w undergraduate work and Page thus had leisure and opportunity for resuming his labors in research. His text-book 0n the application of the methods of the theory of transformations to ordinary differential equations, represents the fruit of these earlier sessions. But the Faculty and Visitors were not slow to- dis- cover that by gift of nature as well as by force of experience Page possessed un- ' usual administrative and executive powers. Gradually more and more Of this work was conhded to him. F irst he was made the Dean of the Academical Department. Then upon Dr. Barringeris resignation of the Chairmanship in 1903, he was selected by the Visitors to act as Chairman of the Faculty. Such honorable and weighty appointments furnish to any man great opportunities for noble and useful work. But they eat up time and energy, until the burdened professor feels that Science begins to look upon him as an apostate and with rebellious affection turns back to his well-beloived tasks. The success, which marked Pageis conduct of the Chairmalfs thce, pro- foundly gratitied his friends and has been a cause of just congratulation t0 the University. It was a difficult period. The Visitors had determined to elect a President, and this appointment was simply for the interim. Unseemly wrangles had embittered feeling and averted the good-will 0f long-enduring friends. Fac- ulty and students alike felt that the year was a year of transition, and that from Pandora's unopened box anything might spring. It needed more than the average of fidelity and courage to attempt the task, more than the average of wisdom and sanity and calmness and good temper to bring it to a successful issue. That amidst such perplexities and troubles the work of the University went peacefully and steadily forward; that her numbers were increased, and her finances were bettered; that her old friends were brought back to their allegiance and enlisted for new labors in her serviceaall this is due first and foremost to Page. When at last the- Visitors discovered the right man for the Presidency, it was still Page who con- ducted the campaign for the opening session ofthe new administration. It was Page, who turned over the University to President Alderman with the largest number of students ever registered upon her rolls. TO-day we extend to him our thanks and our felicitations, joined with the hope that amidst these abundant labors and exacting toils there may have rested always upon his heart the brave motto of his ancestral house, it Spe labor levisfi