Wheaton College - Nike Yearbook (Norton, MA)

Page 8 text:

VER the tops of Wheaton’s buildings the planes of a world at war are flying. The hum of their motors is constantly in our ears and their shadows are ever skimming across the campus paths. We have looked up and seen the sunlight glinting upon their wings, until gradually we have become used to the sight and sound of them. But we have continued to look up, beyond those flashing wings to other wings, to the wings of Nike, goddess of Victory. We feel her shadow too, falling on the campus, and we hear the rustle of her robes above the roar of the planes. It is this Wheaton we shall remember when we think back to the mighty moments of 1943, a Wheaton changed as the world is changed, and working as the world is working in preparation for an age of battle, while we strive for a final peace and a glorious renaissance. In the pages following we have tried to record this Wheaton, looking up as it works, past the wings of war to the The Editors wings of Nike, who is Victory.

Page 10 text:

N appreciation and gratitude we dedicate Nike for 1943 to Dr. Ernest John Knapton, not only because of his stimulating analyses of current affairs; not only because of his ability to make even the decline and fall of the Roman Empire seem a personal tragedy; not even be- cause he represents the balance of creative imagination and active service on the home front, all of which do make him the man of the hour, but because he can still smile after a week of rationing; because he can come in from an hour’s hoeing in his victory garden and pick up a volume of Fontenelle; because his unmistakable laugh an- nounces his unmistakable enjoyment of life, and because he would probab- ly never admit these things himself. Because of what he is and because of what he represents: Wheaton’s best, we dedicate this book to him.