Wabash College - Wabash Yearbook (Crawfordsville, IN)

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Reflections n 150 By President Lewis S. Salter The natural number 150,' is not particularly interesting as numbers go, it is divisible by 2, 3, and 5 - but so is 30. The integer 1729,', on the other hand, has real distinction. As remarked casually by the gifted Indian mathematician Ramanujan: It is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways . But when I place the integer 150 into the context of a span of time measured in years, and paraphrase it as a century and a half , my attention is engaged and held. It is the rare institution in this relatively young nation which has existed for such a span of time, particularly in what we call the private sectorn. I have never seen an estimate of what a physicist would call the half- life of a U.S. corporation or business enter rise but I reckon bid good-by to the Class of 1983. On the evening before their Commencement ceremonies, they will be guests at the annual Alumni Banquet. The guests of honor will be the Fifty-year reunion class, the Class of 1933. When they stood forth as the current senior class, back in 1933, at that Alumni Banquet there were men who had matriculated at Wabash in 1879 and graduated in 1883, Caleb Mills died, at the age of 74, during their sophomore year. When this spring's seniors come back for their fiftieth, it will be in the year 2033. So, in the memories and in the futures of a group of Wabash men gathering for dinner in early May, 150 years will be spanned. At a deeper level is the important role which Wabash men play in the subsequent P , it to be fairly short - perhaps no history of their college. Most longer than thirty years or so. The midwest is dotted with towns and cities which once boasted of a college, but all that remains is a plaque in the town square or a single building fBrookville, Danville and Rochester - towns in Indiana - come immediately to mindj. That Wabash College has not merely survived but is entering its fourth half-century strong in both morale and staying power would seem to confirm the founder's belief in the providence of the Creator and justify their and their successors' sacrificial labors. It is the college as a nexus of personal relationships which often leads me to a reflection. I now teach in a Freshman Tutorial young men whose fathers I can so clearly remember in their freshman year at Wabash. Even at a relatively trivial level it is remarkably easy to span a century and a half in the life of a college. This coming May we will ll students are aware that several members of the Wabash faculty were once undergraduates here. Too much of such in-breeding might harm the college, but some of the most influential leaders of Wabash College during its long history began their contact with the college as entering freshmen. Professor John Lyle Campbell, President Byron K. Trippet, and Dean Paul McKinney come immediately to mind. Most Wabash men, of course, leave and never come back in any relationship to the college save that as alumnus. They spread out all over the world, but, most remarkably, through the medium of personal relationships they can influence what happens back here in Crawfordsville. I came to Wabash, from graduate study in England, in the early 50's to teach physics. The decisive influence was that of a close alumnus CI had never heard of the placej and his obvious affection for the college and for three of his teachers here was most impressive. He is not at all the typical Wabash alumnus - he would not dream of returning for a class reunion, but he loved his college and that was decisive in the moment when I had to make up my mind, with one job offer from a state university and friend and fellgw graduate one from Wabash College. I have Student, He was a Wabash not regretted that choice, and my