Westfield State University - Tekoa Yearbook (Westfield, MA)

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DR. CHARLES RUSSELL Our speech has silent places and is slow, Yet there is much to say before we go — It was in the rose and silver dawn of 1925. Against the horizon one figure loomed large, as, with high expectations, we crowded back to these venerable halls of learn- ing, — a figure, large, mysterious, unknown. Our happy New Year greetings were drowned in the universal query, Have you seen him? Have you seen our new prin- cipal? What is he like? We were simply choking with expectation and suspense as we took our places in assembly, the tension increasing every minute until, by the time the faculty arrived, it was so still one could hear the microbes gnash their teeth! And then he came! Dr. Wilson rose and introduced our Christmas Present. And, girls, do you remember how Dr. Wilson ' s eyes twinkled, and have you noticed that he has been smiling ever since? The Senior class president welcomed Dr. Russell on behalf of her class. On the crest of the wave of Senior enthusiasm Grace Soule took the floor and told Dr. Russell about the song in the heart of every Junior, of our wishes for him, of our hopes for ourselves, and pledged our loyalty and good will. Then came that unforgetable moment when Dr. Russell spoke to us for the first time. He believed in the bobbed-hair type of girl! Our enthusiasm knew no bounds. As he went on, his message deepened and we knew that he was indeed a true Christ- mas gift bringing good will to men, promising to be a friend to every one in the school. Where did this, our Christmas present, come from? Well, from Toledo, Ohio. But before that he was born, you know, --he was born in Ithaca, New York, in the shadows of Cornell University, so that with his very first breath he inhaled education and culture. Later he was experimented upon at the Horace Mann School at Teachers College, Columbia University, whence he in due time emerged with a most circuitous knowledge of arithmetical procedure! Thence his pursuit of knowledge and Shakespeare, or, maybe, his father ' s wish took him to Haverford College, Pennsylvania. Later, believing in the stimulating effect of a cold climate, he turned his face northward and arrived at McGill Uni- versity. There it happened, when the hour was ripe, that MacDonald College be- stowed upon him a cap, a gown (at least, the right to buy one), a B. S. A., and — a wife. But of his life and adventures in dormitory, classroom, and outside, this, our present chronicle, may not tell. Mr. Charles Russell became Dr. Charles Russell in 1922, when he received his Ph. D. degree at Columbia. This particular commencement was significant nation- ally because on behalf of the whole country Columbia conferred an honorary degree upon Paderewski. Dr. Russell was Associate Professor of Agricultural Education at Toledo Uni- versity from 1919 to 1922. From 1922 to 1924 he served as Professor and Director of the Division of Elementary Education at Toledo University. He is a member of two educational fraternities, — Phi Delta Kappa, and Kappa Delta Pi. Dr. Russell is the author of several treatises on education: The Improvement of the City Elementary School Teacher in Service, 1922, Manual for Observation and Participation, 1924, and Classroom Tests, 1926. During his brief stay here in the East, he has been in great demand as a lecturer on educational subjects, speaking before clubs, teachers ' associations, conferences, and conventions.

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SteMatiintt In the name of our friendship, which will remain unchanged and unshaken by the changes and separations of coming years, this record of our Normal School life is affectionately dedicated to DR. CHARLES RUSSELL Principal of the Westfield Normal School JLfli. S ISTFIEUD, M %

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On February 18, 1925, the State Department of Education and the School held a reception for Dr. and Mrs. Russell, to introduce them to the City of Westfield and the educators of Massachusetts. Mr. Wright, Deputy Commissioner of Education, represented the State Department. As a part of the formal program of the occasion, Dr. and Mrs. Russell were welcomed by representatives from civic and educational organizations, the alumni of the school, and the undergraduates. In May of 1925 came the Triennial Alumni meeting, when the alumni as an organ- ization had their first opportunity to meet Dr. Russell. By the strength of his courage, the intensity of his loyalty, the largeness of his vision, Dr. Russell has in these few months of comradeship with the Class of 1926 infused in us a new vitality, fired us with new purposes, deepened in us the under- standing of true happiness. He has accomplished this through no formal school- room teaching, of which he has given us but little, but through being with us, living our life, keeping the doors of his heart and home and study always open for our perplexities, our aspirations, and our enthusiasms. The days have not been long enough for all he had to give, nor for our eagerness to take. His activity has been so truly democratic in spirit, his effort to reach as many of us as possible so sincere, that if we have shown the least bit of spirit and initiative, or willingness to cooperate, our effort has always been appreciated and utilized in some form. What his work in the organization of student government has meant to us as individuals as well as a class cannot be adequately expressed by a few brief words. We know that it makes us work as we have never worked before, not because we have to, but because we wish to. Through it our interests and energies have been turned inward, centering around the school ideal. But as we, some years from now, visit in the halls of memory, it may happen to be the small, the seemingly insignificant and trivial which we remember best. The sleighride last winter — do you remember? — the proms and the parties, the Friday song nights, the Christmas carols on Dr. Russell ' s lawn, the fire in the fireplace — and last summer when the Seniors left for the wide, wide world, who of us did not notice the tears in Dr. Russell ' s eyes? Now it happens that off and on, Dr. Russell betakes himself to the heavens, sojourns among the stars, saunters along on the Milky Way! And when he comes back he always brings some Stardust to throw into our eyes- so that our vision is kept clear. We see our school, Dr. Russell, and the Class of 1926 swept along by the in- spirations and ideals of the Past, through struggles of the Present, to a TRIUMPHANT FUTURE