Wesleyan College - Veterropt Yearbook (Macon, GA)

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“It is now past midnight and I have been working on the schedule since my last class,but I must call to your attention a matter which seems to me important for the good of Wesleyan. The alumnae of Wesleyan, numbering today six thousand living members, have all stood solidly hack of their Alma Mater in every crisis of her history. The Alumnae Association of Wesleyan College is the oldest in the world, founded in 1859, for the purpose of preserving college friendships and keeping alive an interest in the college. Scattered today in forty-eight states and seventeen foreign countries, the alumnae retain their loyalty to the institution and never fail to come to her aid in every time of need. During the past four years, a time when the college needed scholarship funds for needy students, the Alumnae of Wesleyan have given financial assistance to seventy-five worthy girls. A certain business man of Atlanta, entirely disinterested in Wesleyan, happened to he within hearing distance of a group of Wesleyan Alumnae in a hotel one day. Afterwards he remarked, I have never in all my life seen such unity of feeling, such enthusiastic allegiance to anything as they have for their college. A college that can inspire such loyalty cannot fail.” esleyan s trustees have always been diligent in their work for the college, those of recent years no less than those of the early pioneering days. When it be¬ came apparent in the 1920’s that expansion was necessary if the college should continue, they gave generously of their money and their time to the cause of the new college campus at Rivoli. Judge John S. Candler of Atlanta, in memory ot his father and mother, gave the beautiful library building which is dedicated to the “Mak¬ ing of Christian Womanhood.” I he late Colonel Samuel Tate of Tate, Georgia, gave the marble used in the twelve build¬ ings at Rivoli at the cost of transporting it from the quarry. Others of means contributed gener- ously to the campaign. Throughout they displayed tl.at sacr.fic.al spirit of aiding Wesleyan that has seen her through other dark days. - 12 -

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strained, Wesleyan received her first large gift of money—from a northern capi¬ talist, George I. Seney, of Brooklyn, New ork, gave to Wesleyan the sum ot $125,000 for buildings and endowment. Asked by a fellow citizen why he gave his money to an institution of the South instead of to his own people, he replied: “They are my people; we arc one people. Before his death in 1893 he lost his great wealth, and remarked to a friend: “All that I have left is what I have given to the cause of education.” Not all those who loved W esleyan were wealthy by any means. Dr. W. C. Bass, who was for thirty-five years connected with the college as professor and later as presi¬ dent, gave away so much of his private means in scholar¬ ships to students that he was often hard pressed for money. During Dr. Bass administration at a time when there w r as general financial distress, the entire faculty signed a message to Dr. Bass which stated: “Realizing that the income of the college has been much reduced by causes beyond human control, w e desire to bear our share of the burden by taking such pro rata reduction of our salaries as you may deem just anil necessary.” Judge John S. Candler In a speech delivered one Founders’ Day, the late Dean Leon P. Smith told students about the “Academic Builders of Wesleyan,” the men and women who held high the academic standards through the years. Among these he paid tribute to Professor James C. Hinton, who was the first dean of a wom¬ an’s college in Georgia, and who held this position for twenty-five years. Pro¬ fessor Hinton stood like the rock of Gibraltar against lax standards. It is largely be¬ cause of his wise and painstaking study of trends in college curricula and his fear¬ less insistence on the best for W 7 esleyan that the college has stood among the lead¬ ing institutions of the South. Pro¬ fessor Hinton was a man of mod¬ est means, but his integrity, his sin¬ cerity, and his excellent judgment were invaluable to the college. He gave all that he had to the school that he loved and in which he had so great a faith. Time after time in the files of letters to the presi¬ dent we come across a message from him beginning somewhat in this vein: - 11 .

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There were others, too, who gave gifts of a different kind. Mr. Orville A. Park presented to Wesleyan his library of Georgiana, a valuable collection of ma¬ terial on this state. The late Mr. William % ‘Rok’ Rogers was bound, heart and soul, in two institutions, Wesleyan College and Mulberry Street Methodist Church. Like the men who threw themselves into the fight for Wesleyan in the early years, Mr. “Rok” became the symbol, to all who knew him, of devotion to the college. Although he had little money, his purse was always open when the college was in need. It is said that at one time, when he was invited to a formal dinner, he said: ‘Tm sorry, but I have no dress suit. Wesleyan has my dress suit. ’ For many years the Wesleyan trustees contributed to the college from their own pockets. Last year, four trus¬ tees and an alumna united, in a very serious crisis in the college’s affairs, and pledged their personal securities to the amount of $350,000 in order that Wesleyan might con tinue its work unhampered. Those five, Mr. W. D. Ander¬ son, Mrs. W. I). Anderson, Mr. T. J. Stewart, Mr. James A. Porter, and Mr. Robert J. Taylor, will always be re¬ membered along with the other great names who placed their faith in the “Oldest and Best. Mrs. W. D. Anderson During 1937-38, negotiations have been going on with the Wesleyan bondhold¬ ers in order to reach a settlement. It was a trustee, Mr. R. J. Taylor, who gave his time and thought for almost a year to this matter and effected the final settlement with the Bondholders’ Committee. A fellow trustee said to Mr. Taylor of this settlement: “As I look at it, you are responsible for this transaction. Your devotion to Wesleyan’s interests, your constant thought and work in connection with the problem, your persistence in pursuing the matter when all others were ready to give up, the almost infinite patience you ex¬ hibited in the negotiations—all constitute a remarkable exhibition of human talent and accomplishments. I have never seen anything like it.’’ And thus the tiny scarlet thread spun in 1836 from the faith and convictions of a few has slowly entwined itself into the hearts and lives of all who have dedi¬ cated themselves to the furtherance of Wesleyan. It is within them and others like them who must take up this torch of knowledge that we find so deeply inter¬ woven the Scarlet Thread of Sacrifice.” Robert J. Taylor • 13 -