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

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. wt N st-v 1918 iaurks aIIDQIIIt15 29 f' ylllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllllIlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 9 CHARLES WILLIAM KENT M. A., Ph. D., LL. D., Litt. D. Poe Professor of English Literature, 1893-1917 2 F.- a E : a F member of the Faculty of this University no less honored than beloved by every student upon its rolls. On October 5, 1917, when he had just filled out four and twenty years of eager and potent service, Charles William Kent was called by the Master into His heavenly and eternal rest. Professor Kent,s first appeal to the students of this University was the appeal of the teacher, addressing itself to the men who thronged his classroom and followed with ever-deepening interest his admirable lectures. To him University study, and the study of English Literature in particular, was a great humanizing and uplifting force, preparing young men for a deeper Vision of life and a fuller share in its noblest activities. His first public discourse before the University was entitled, iiLiterature and Life, and it was his spirit and his inHuence which transformed English Literature at Virginia from a scholastic exercise into a warm and general and Vivid effort to bear some modest part in the living current of American letters, A spirit so cordial and so catholic could not long content itself within the narrow field of the professoriate. His interests soon expanded, until they included almost every aspect of our academic life. Nothing that appealed to the heart or the imagination of the student was foreign to his care and affec- tion. The Poe Memorial Association sprang into active and effectual life under his impulse and the noble bronze of Zolnay which adorns the library was the first fruit of its invention. The Alumni Bulletin counts him among the HT is the sad privilege of CORKS AND CURLS to record the death of a

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28 Qlurks anti Qturlg 1918 CARRIE LOUISE WORRELL ............................................ Chancellor Street Secretary VIRGINIA EMMA MORAN ........................ . ..................... McCormick Road Assistant to the Bursar LEWIS DABNEY CRENSHAW ........................... 8 Rue de Richelieu, Paris, France A lumni Secretary A T A; A H; cI3 A C13; 2 A X; $ B K; P.K.; King of the Hot Feet; IMP; OWL; Raven; Scarab Club; President of Class Offlcers Association; Secretary of the Class of 1908; Member Board of Governors Colonnade Club; Assistant Secretary-Treasurer Medical Alumni Association; Managing Editor Alumni News; Director University of Virginia European Bureau; Member Executive Committee of American University Union in Europe; Adjutant Intercollegiate Intelligence Bureau; Member Organization Committee of Base Hospital No. 4'; Director Corks and Curls, Incorporated.

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v-v-n A A7 30 alotks anti QLurl's 1918 little band among the Faculty who brought about its existence, and his name stands on record as its first editor. The University M agazine, despite its long, and honorable history, fell upon evil days and it was the vigorous effort of Dr. Kent which gave it a new stability and permanence. He bore an active share in the foundation of the Raven Society, and the movement which brought Phi Beta Kappa to the University of Virginia counted him amongst its helpers. His own fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, was the constant object of his wise and affectionate counsel and guidance. The work of the literary societies had no more earnest friend and advocate; and his deep interest in athletics made him a familiar figure in the stadium on Lambeth Field. As life matured and Character ripened, Dr. Kent grew into a deeper recognition of the solemn and beautiful possibilities in the young lives about him. The withdrawal from active service in the University of his friend and colleague, Professor Noah L. Davis, opened to Dr. Kent a new door of access to the minds and hearts of the young men of the University. The Sunday lectures inaugurated by Rev. William H. McGuffey, D. D., the pre- ceptor of Dr. Davis, and continued by Dr. Davis. with rare power and learn- ing, fell to Dr. Kent and by him were filled with enthralling interest. They drew into the circle of his inHuence new classes of students, and swept the speaker onward into new fields of spiritual activity. The religious life of the University became to him more and more a thing of absorbing import and the activities of the Y. M. C. A. assumed a growing value in his affections. Presently this deep interest expanded into a work, first state-wide, then nation- wide. Then the great war came upon us and the young soldiers of America began to gather in the training camps of the National Army. The last labors of Dr. Kent were directed to securing for these camps the exalting and purify ing power of a sincere and universal religious life. He gave to these labors the last ounce of his strength, the last measure of his devotion, and fell like a soldier at the post of duty and in the hour of Victory. pity?! tsuw . . , l t ' A . 4 -. . !