Williams College - Gulielmensian Yearbook (Williamstown, MA)

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26 NVILLIAMS COLLEGE CLASS BOOK take place in Wlilliams, and it is our very real regret that we cannot as undergraduates take more of a part in them all. But we have had a very fundamental share in the beginnings at least. WVhatever else we may have done, and these accomplishments are recorded elsewhere in this book, one thing stands out above them all-the establishment of a conference system between under- graduates and administrative officers, for the purpose of consul- tation on such questions as may need settlement. As leaders in college activities the members of nineteen nine have tried to do their best, and their success averages up with that of most other senior classes-here an improvement has been instituted, there the former standard has not been quite.reached. Such matters will be forgotten very shortly, but this establishment of more intimate relations with the administration we shall always remem- ber as the most lasting thing we did, even if it was accomplished below the surface, unnoticed by many. We may confidently say that by it we have set an example worth the handing down to the classes who are soon to take our place. This is the legacy we leave as we go away. Not very long ago, there was published a cartoon of a college senior, like any one of us, in academic robes, perched on- the top of a lofty column built of text-books, printed lectures, trots, athletic paraphernalia, playing-cards and many other odds and ends, umnentionable here, but all the same quite essential to the equipment of an up-to-date undergraduate. He sat there, this senior, receiving with proper dignity the plaudits of the Com- mencement crowd gathered at the -base of the column to acclaim him. But, in the midst of all his glory, the whole flimsy structure under him tottered and swayed far out over the edge of a steep precipice oh whose sunnnit it was built. Far below could be distinguished the figures of men engaged in the turmoil and struggle of real life, an ocean so stormy as to swallow up all but the skillful navigator. And the man in cap and gown, with his college education his pilot, and his sheepskin his passport, where in all that troubled sea will he find safe harbor? ERNEST H. Wooo

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WILLIAMS COLLEGE CLASS HOOK 25 SENIOR YEAR President .- Tom. Secrez'a1jf.' VANDECARR Vim 15'esidemf : SXVAIN Y5'ea.mrcr.- Kr,rN1a, ENG1f:r,H,i1m NSTEAD of a mere combination of numbers which sounded queer, and meant nothing but a rallying cry in those early days when we would have cheered frenziedly for any old kennia kai delta that the uppeijclassmen told us to, nineteen nine has now come to mean the end of all things for some of us, the menacing' guillotine of a happy college course. Every member of the class shrinks just a little from that jumping-off place only a short way ahead, for the let-down from the self-arrogated aristocracy of the senior to the humdrum of the breadwinner's life will be the severest kind of a jolt, even to the favored few of us who, upon graduation, slide into the fattest of jobs. But the memory of a successful senior year will go far to break the fall we are all soon to take. lt is not given to every class to make its final year the logical climax of a college course. Often there are hitches in the programme which serve to dull the roseate idealism of the last few months. But though the history of this last year may record some disappointgnents of one sort or another, those disappointments, instead of becoming embittering regrets, have merely served to teach us how to avoid the same blunders next time, and their importance fades away into insignilicance beside the successes which were actually ours. The few months just closing mark a period of decided transi- tion in the history of the college, of which the class of nineteen nine in particular has been keenly aware. Just as the memories of the first three years of our course are inseparably bound up with the warm affection we held for the late Dr. Hopkins, so our last year has been dominated by the personality of the new presi- dent, whose progressive ideals and energy are made manifest in changes which have already taken place in the college. We seniors, who go out from here within a very short time, realize that in the years soon to come all sorts of improvements will

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THE CLASS COLLINS A'rxv.x'1'1-:R At , Atwater, Delta Upsilon, son of Z. Atwater, a physician, XVil- liams 1879, was born at Wfestfield, Massachusetts, on September 10, 1887. He graduated from the XVestiield high school, where he was on the track team. Freshman year he roomed in 26 Jesup, sophomore year in 30 Morgan with Sloane, CJ'-lQOQ, 'unior ear in 2 Berkshire alone and the last half of senior 'ear 3 at the fraternity house. For the first half of senior year he attended the Dartmouth medical school at Hanover, New Hampshire. Atwater has been active in but one branch of undergrauluate activity. Freshman year he tied for first in the running high jump in the interclass track meet and the following year won third place. During the season of junior year he competed against Brown and Amherst in the two varsity dual meets. His natural spring in this event is con- siderable, but nevertheless he has never reached real varsity caliber. a chief diversion he confesses the study of medicine, thus explaining why he went to Dart- mouth. He has' specialized in German while in college. Futizrc 0CClLf7Ul'1'0Il' and f1cz'drcs.s'.' Steel business, Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania.