Yankton College - Okihe Yearbook (Yankton, SD)

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Alien Zlegunlha Kingahurg, HH. A. 1NsTRucroR AND PROFESSOR IN YANKToN COLLEGE, 1890-1916 However earnest and successful shall be the efforts of those responsible for this issue of the OKIHE to outdo the achievements of their predecessors, l am confident that no other feature of the product of their labors will be more completely in har- mony with the fitness of things and more heartily approved by the judgment of those who are most interested in everything pertaining to the College than the dedication of the book to Professor Alice R. Kingsbury. How strong and unique are her claims to the honor it shall be the purpose of the writer of these words to indicate. From the very Hrst Kingsbury has been a name that has held a place of honor in the annals of the College. The Rev. Lucius Kingsbury, father of Professor Kingsbury, was one of a small group of men who stood side by side with Doctor Joseph Ward in his long continued efforts to bring the institution into existence. It was at Canton that the meeting of the representatives of the few Congregational churches then existing in Dakota was held, at which it was finally decided to establish the College and locate it at Yankton. At that time lVlr. Kingsbury was the minister of the Canton church. He was one of the incorporators of the new institution, as is indicated by the charter of the College. This historical document, bearing the date of August 30, lS8l, begins as follows: TERRITORY OF DAKOTA CERTIFICATE OF CORPORATE ExisTENc1z W!1er'e1zs, Joseph Wa1'd, Lucius Kingsbury, John R. Jackson, and others have filed in this office a certificate or declaration in writing. Furthermore, lVIr. Kingsbury was chosen by the incorporators as a member of the first board of trustees, and held that position for a considerable number of years there- after. As many will remember, the most interesting feature of the laying of the cor- nerstone of the new dormitory was the presence and speaking of lllr. Kingsbury. llfliss Kingsbury, herself, became a student of the College at the opening of the college year 1883-4, which was the second year in the life of the school. After completing the preparatory course of study she began the college course, graduating in 1890, the class consisting of herself alone. She has the distinction of being the first woman to graduate from the College. As Doctor Ward hailed Edward Hinman Pound, who constituted the first graduating class, as the first man in a thousand years, so llfliss Kingsbury might have been saluted as 'fthe first woman in a thousand years.

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Since there was at that time a vacancy in the department of French, Miss Kingsbury, who as a student had done excellent work in that field, was immediately engaged by the trustees as instructor in French, and has ever since been a member of the faculty. Herein is involved another distinction, namely, that she has been identified with the College, as student and teacher, for a longer period than any other person. But it is not merely length of connection and service that makes Professor Kings- bury's record noteworthy and honorable, the quality, too, of the work she has done and the service she has rendered has been highly creditable to her. She held the instructor- ship in French from 1890 until 1899, when she was appointed Professor of French. Two years later her professorship was changed to that of French and German, and such it has remained to the present time. In 1896 the lWaster's degree was conferred upon her by the College. On three different occasions she has sought to increase the efficiency of her work as a modern language teacher by means of travel and study abroad. The college year 1894-5 and a part of the following year she spent in study at Paris, the year 1900-01 in France and Germany, and finally the year 1907-08 was devoted to study partly in the Sorbonne, Paris, and partly in the University of Leipsic, Germany. It is needless to say that these repeated experiences of life and travel and study in the countries whose languages she teaches have added immensely to the effect- iveness of her instruction. ln addition to her deep interest in her work and her thorough preparation for it, Professor Kingsbury's personal characteristics have contributed largely to her success. Her gentle dignity, her quiet firmness, her enthusiastic concern in everything pertain- ing to the life and welfare of the institution as a Whole and of the students in par- ticular have been constantly in evidence throughout the years of her service, as was abundantly testified at the reception held last Commencement in honor of her com- pletion of twenty-five years of Work for the College. Long will the influence of that work abide in lives made more intelligent, more cultured, more kindly, more useful, more happy. VV. J. MC1XfIURTRY.