Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

Page 19 text:

nr wniii iiif hip hie uid hid wi hie ihr. iiii m .in Rear Admiral Ralph Earle, U. S. Navy (Retired) D.Sc., D.Eng., LL.D. President When Rear-Admiral Ralph Earle resigned from the Navy in 1925 to accept the Presidency of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, his reputation as a great adminis¬ trator was already secure. Through all the period of America’s participation in the World War he had served brilliantly as Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy Department, the youngest officer ever appointed to that responsible position. “The daily association and the comradeship in endeavor and hard work has been most grateful to me,” wrote Josephus Daniels, then Secretary of the Navy, “and it must be gratifying to you to know the high estimate placed upon the services of the Bureau of Ordnance under your administration. It is not only true that this high estimate is placed on it by your associates in the Naval service, but by the country at large, for the origination of the Mine Barrage, the making of a type of mine which revolutionized warfare, the conception and execution of the big guns we sent to France, the acquisition of the proving grounds, the completion of the projectile plant and torpedo factory, the foundations for the new armor plant, and a score of other great enterprises begun under your administration and carried out with such honor to the Navy, will constitute one of the finest chapters of Naval achievement in its whole history.” With this proud record behind him, Admiral Earle returned to Worcester, his native city, and to Worcester Tech, within whose walls he had pursued his studies while awaiting his appointment to the United States Naval Academy. It must have been a peculiar gratification to him to come back as President of the Institute, most of whose buildings had been designed by his father, Stephen C. Earle, in his day the most distinguished architect in Central Massachusetts. The father had given material shape to the earliest buildings on the campus; his even more distinguished son was to shape the characters of ambitious youth who within those edifices were preparing themselves for the service of the world in a new and strangely difficult time. How conscientiously and with what conspicuous ability he has performed this task is evidenced by the admiration and loyalty of the whole undergraduate body. Every student turns to him as counselor, guide, and model, and none has ever turned in vain. We are proud of his past achievements in the Navy; we are proud of the added prestige he has brought our Alma Mater; we thrill with pride at his friendly designation of us as his “ship-mates” ; and, as we leave the sheltered college haven to try our fortunes on the uncertain seas of life, we give him back with affectionate pride the message with which, by means of his beloved Naval signal Hags, he has taken leave of our predecessors: “Well done. Good bye. Fare ye well.” Fifteen