Alumni Memorial HallAlumni Memorial Hall
A survey of the educational system in the West at the time he came to Michigan may be of interest. As regards the number of students, quality of work, and the eminence of the men upon her Faculties, Michigan stood far in advance of other state institutions. This very pre-eminence, however, threw a greater responsibility upon the new President. Lacking precedents, he had to make them for himself, so that the place of the state university in the educational world today is in great degree the measure of success he had in dealing with the practical problems which confronted him throughout his extraordinarily long term of office. When he came to Michigan there was only one other state university of any size, Wisconsin, although several others had already been established. According to the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1871, none of them except Michigan, and possibly Wisconsin, were in anything like a flourishing condition. While Michigan had, all told, 1,110 students, of whom 483 were in the Literary Department, Wisconsin had only 355, omitting a preparatory department of 131 students. Minnesota had but 167 students with 144 in the preparatory department, while Kansas enrolled 313. No figures were given for Illinois, which was then the Illinois Industrial University, and Nebraska, both of which had been established for several years.
Yet Michigan, although she was well in the lead in point of numbers as well as in the strength of her professional schools, was far from realizing her possibilities. It would, of course, be a rash assertion to say that she has realized them now. But it is safe to say that no state has maintained more truly the type of the well-rounded university, alarge college of liberal arts, with traditions of culture and scholarship which began with its very foundation, surrounded by a ring of effective professional schools.
Two years after he came the present system of revenue from the State was first made operative. This came in the form of an annual proportion of the state taxes, fixed at first at one-twentieth of a mill on every dollar of taxable property; a proportion which continued for twenty years. Since then it has been increased several times until it is now three-eighths of a mill on every dollar; it netted the University in 1909, the last year of his administration, $650,000 instead of the $15,000 of 1873. The total income of the University for that year was $1,290,000 as against $76,702.52 received during his first year.
It was perhaps on the more strictly academic side of the development of the University that Dr. Angell's peculiar genius as an administrative officer was most apparent. When he came, he was forty-two years of age, and in Professor Hinsdale's words, "brought to his new and responsible post extended scholarship, familiar acquaintance with society and the world, administrative experience, a persuasive eloquence, and a cultivated personality." This urbanity and extraordinary ability as a speaker won for him from the first a place in the hearts and in the imaginations of the people of the State. But the most vital administrative task which faced him was to make Michigan a true university as distinguished from a college. He had to correlate and concentrate the various departments, and make them complete by making a place for effective graduate work. Certain revolutionary measures, such as the admission of women, the first tentative steps toward free election of studies, the introduction of a scientific course, had been instituted by hisimmediate predecessors; it became his duty to make them a success.
Almost contemporaneous with Dr. Angell's inauguration as President was the introduction of the seminar system of teaching, in effect a further application of the foreign methods; not only should the teacher be an investigator and searcher after truth, but the student as well; and more important still, the student should be taught how to carry on original investigation himself by means of seminar classes where student and teacher worked together on original problems.
With all these innovations under way, Dr. Angell found many other opportunities for the introduction of new ideas in education—some of them as startling and as revolutionary as certain of the earlier experiments. These included a modification of that traditional course of classical studies, which can be traced back directly to the Middle Ages. The establishment of the Latin and Scientific Course, which dropped the requirement of Greek, was the first step; this was carried further in 1877 by the establishment of an English course in which no classics were required. The scientific course also underwent further modifications during this year (1877-78), which was characterized by many changes regarded then as radical, though they do not strike one so nowadays. A still more revolutionary step was taken by throwing open more than half the courses to free election, permitting some students to shorten their time in college, and enabling others to enrich their course with other than the prescribed studies, heretofore compulsory and admitting of almost no variation.
All these changes resulted in an immediate increase in attendance, almost 20 percent the first year they went intoforce. As a direct result of Dr. Angell's recommendation the first chair in the Science and the Art of Teaching in any American university was established in 1880, coming as a necessary corollary to the intimate relation maintained and encouraged by the University between itself and the high schools of the State. In 1891 this department was empowered to grant certificates permitting any student possessing one to teach in any high school in the State.
The Graduate School practically came into being during his administration, as there was really nothing worthy of the name of graduate work before, in spite of the heroic efforts of President Tappan. It was established as part of the Literary Department. When he first became President both the Law and Medical Schools consisted of two courses of lectures of six months' duration, with no severe examination required for admittance. At present they require three and four years of nine months each, as well as two years of work in the Literary College.
President Angell's administration, however, was by no means all smooth sailing. The question of finances, for one thing, was always with him, particularly during his first years, when deficits were regularly reported and as regularly taken care of by special appropriations of the Legislature. The situation became particularly acute in 1879 and as a result the scale of salaries for the President and the Faculty was reduced materially, in the President's case from $4,500 to $3,750. The increase in the value of money following the panic of 1873 was given as an excuse for this action.
Questions of student discipline also disturbed these early years. The eternal rivalry between the Freshmen and Sophomore classes, with its attendant rushes and hazing episodes, was growing stronger every year, until in the fall of 1873 the report that thirty freshmen had been "pumped," a more or less self-explanatory term, stirred up enemies of the University throughout the State. In April, 1874, three freshmen and three sophomores were suspended for hazing. This aroused the student body. The two classes concerned met at once and some eighty-four students signed statements that they were equally guilty. The Faculty, after giving these students a week of grace to withdraw their names, finally suspended eighty-one of the signers.
Two problems which arose in connection with the Medical School also proved most embarrassing. Throughout the history of the University there has been a disposition on the part of some members of the medical profession to advocate the removal of the school to Detroit. This question first arose in 1858 and was definitely settled at that time in favor of a united University. The matter came to the fore once more in 1888 when it was proposed to move only the clinical instruction to Detroit. Dr. Angell took a vigorous stand in opposition and by a careful and well-reasoned statement of the case convinced the Regents of the inexpediency and impracticability of such a measure. Though echoes of this project are even now heard occasionally, Dr. Angell's masterly and diplomatic course at this time assured, apparently once for all, the integrity of the University in Ann Arbor. Two members of the Medical Faculty, however, were so committed to the program for removal that they continued the agitation until their resignations were requested by the Regents the following year.
A further difficulty arose over the establishment of a Department of Homeopathy, which had long been the subject of agitation. The Regents postponed action from year toyear and refused to appoint two Professors of Homeopathy in the Department of Medicine as directed by an act of the Legislature. In this course they were sustained by the Courts. But in 1875 the Legislature authorized the establishment of a Homeopathic Medical College and made a permanent appropriation of $6,000 for its support. The Board then gave in and proceeded to organize the College, to the great concern of the members of the regular Medical Faculty, many of whom were threatened with professional ostracism, since they were expected to give several preliminary courses to the students in the new college. The venerable Dr. Sager, who was then Emeritus Professor, even thought it necessary to resign all connection with the University. Though for a few years the position of the medical men was difficult, the situation eventually adjusted itself as the new Department grew.
The most trying period of Dr. Angell's long administration, however, were the years from 1875 to 1879, when a comparatively trifling discrepancy in the books of the Chemical Laboratory developed into a struggle which almost disrupted the University. The story of the trouble, which is generally known as the Douglas-Rose controversy, is too long to be told here. In its beginning it was a bit of carelessness on the part of Dr. Douglas, the director of the Chemical Laboratory, in checking over the accounts of his assistant Dr. Rose. The latter was charged with petty defalcations over a long period of years, involving eventually a total of $5,000. Dr. Douglas was an Episcopalian, Dr. Rose a Methodist, and the friends and fellow churchmen of the two men rallied to their support. The Board of Regents became sharply divided. Political influence was used and the State Legislature became involved through aninvestigating committee which, after a long session, reported in favor of Dr. Rose, who had in the meantime been dismissed from the University. Dr. Douglas was then likewise dismissed.
The University finally brought suit against the two men for the recovery of the laboratory deficit, which resulted in fixing Dr. Rose's liability at $4,624.40, eventually covered by a one-half interest in the Beal-Steere Ethnological Collection, offered by Mr. Rice A. Beal and Mr. Joseph B. Steere, '68, afterward Professor of Zoölogy. Dr. Douglas was charged with the balance of about $1,000, which, however, was practically covered by sums which had been advanced by him for University and laboratory expenses. Eventually Dr. Rose was reinstated as a result of continued agitation, though his connection with the University was not for long; while Dr. Douglas, by a decision of the Supreme Court, to which the case was carried, was completely exonerated; a number of the initials on the disputed vouchers were pronounced forgeries, and some $2,000 and heavy costs were returned to him by the University. This was officially the end of perhaps the greatest period of disturbance in the University's history, a struggle which was in every way a loss, in prestige and internal unity even more than financially. That the growth and development of the institution continued almost unabated through these years proves the fundamental strength and momentum attained by the University in less than forty years.
But neither the successful handling of such administrative problems as are suggested in the preceding paragraphs, or even the improvement in the equipment and personnel of the University, represent rightly the real work of President Angell. His greatest influence lay in his dealings with thestudents, and through them, upon the educational ideals of the West. And it is precisely this influence, quietly acquired and characteristically wielded, that represents what is perhaps his greatest claim upon the consideration of the future. No one who had the privilege of hearing him speak failed to respond to the quiet persuasiveness of his presence and the charm of his personality. There are some persons in whom is inherent a certain magnetic mastery over numbers. He had this to an extraordinary degree. Merely by rising he could bring absolute stillness upon a cheering throng of students or alumni, and with a few words, quiet but distinct, he could rouse to a remarkable pitch that sentiment known as college spirit. His whole figure was expressive of a benign goodness, illuminated most humanly by the worldly wisdom of an old diplomat. His ability to deal with those who came to him on various errands was remarkable. This is amusingly illustrated by the experience of one man who went to him to present his claims for an increase in salary. His memories of the interview were most delightful but exceedingly hazy as to the matter in question. His only distinct impression was that the interview ended with himself on the door-mat earnestly discussing Ticknor's "History of Spanish Literature" with his host, who had shown him to the door.
During the latter years of his life Dr. Angell published a book of reminiscences which was most favorably received and widely noticed. One well-known journal, however, remarked that it was rather "naïve," a criticism which greatly delighted the man who had met the diplomats of China and Turkey on their own ground and defeated them.
James Burrill Angell, LL.D. (1829-1916)James Burrill Angell, LL.D. (1829-1916)President of the University, 1871-1909(From a copyright photograph by A.G. Gowdy)
Many honors came to Dr. Angell in the course of his long life, as was inevitable. His scholarship was universallyrecognized. He received the degree of LL.D. from Brown University in 1868, Columbia University in 1887, Rutgers College in 1896, Princeton University in 1896, Yale University in 1901, Johns Hopkins University in 1902, the University of Wisconsin in 1904, Harvard University in 1905, and the University of Michigan in 1912. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston, and the American Historical Association, of which he was president in 1893. Dr. Angell was a charter member of the American Academy at Rome. For many years he was also Regent of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. He was always a leader in the Congregational Church and presided at the International Congregational Council which met in Boston in September, 1899. This body was composed of delegates from all parts of the world and represented the scholastic and ecclesiastical organization of the church in the persons of its most distinguished members.
All through his career, Dr. Angell gave evidence of certain characteristics which had definite effects upon his policy as President. Professor Charles H. Cooley, '87, has characterized the especial qualities which made for his success as "his faith and his adaptability." Dr. Angell always believed in the tendency of the right to prevail, and was willing to wait with a "masterly inactivity," avoiding too much injudicious assistance. He was always able to maintain a broad and comprehensive view, the attitude of the administrator, and was faithful in his belief in the Higher Power which guides the destiny of men—and universities. His diplomatic genius, the combination of teacher and man of the world, enabled him to keep in close and sympathetictouch, not only with the student life about him, but also with the difficult problems of an ever-growing Faculty. He always showed himself surprisingly shrewd, yet withal charitable, in his judgments of men and their character, a qualification which enabled him to follow alaissez-fairepolicy until the proper time. Often his penetration and insight, in analyses of current problems and questions, which might be supposed not to interest so particularly a man of his years, surprised his young associates and gave evidence of the wonderful vitality, the spirit of youth, which lived within him.
Ann Arbor was long accustomed to his familiar figure on his invariable morning constitutional, walking with an elastic, springy step and a ruddy freshness in his complexion which almost belied his gray hairs and his well-known age. He passed few blocks without a word to some one, for a simple, kindly interest in those about him was one of his chief characteristics. It was his essential democracy which kept him for so many years in personal relations with his students, an interest which never flagged until the last, and which was shown by the close track which he always kept of the alumni of the University. For the alumni, he always bore that simplest and most beloved of academic titles, "Prexy." No gentler tribute has ever been paid than the words of his former pupil, Professor Charles M. Gayley, '78, now of the University of California, in the Commemoration Ode, read at the Quarter Centennial of Dr. Angell's Presidency:
"For he recks of praises nothing, counts them fair nor fit:He, who bears his honors lightly,And whose age renews its zest—"
"For he recks of praises nothing, counts them fair nor fit:He, who bears his honors lightly,And whose age renews its zest—"
To James Burrill Angell must be given a pre-eminent place among those who have made advanced learning for the young people of the land a matter of course. More than any other one person he helped to give to this country one of her proudest distinctions, the highest percentage in the world of college men and women.
President Angell's long administration of thirty-eight years came to an end October 1, 1909, when he resigned what had become a heavy burden to become President-Emeritus. Even now we cannot properly estimate how distinguished that service was. He was then eighty years old and had given the University the best that was in him. The death of his wife, Sarah Caswell Angell, in 1903, was a blow from which he never recovered. She was the daughter of President Alexis Caswell of Brown University, and her sympathetic co-operation and especial interest in the women of the University was no small factor in his success.
For seven years after his resignation he lived in the home on the Campus he had so long occupied, loved and honored alike by students, Faculty, and alumni; and watched with interest and appreciation the development of the University under the new leader. Here he died on April 4, 1916. No tribute to a great leader was ever more fitting than the long double file of students that lined the whole way to Forest Hill on the day he was laid to rest under the simple monument which marks his grave.
No effort was made immediately to find a successor. Dean Harry Burns Hutchins of the Law School, who had once before served as Acting President during Dr. Angell's absence in Turkey, was asked to act again in that capacity. This he did so successfully that on June 28, 1910, he was unanimously elected to the Presidency. He accepted, butupon the condition, expressed in his letter of acceptance, that he serve but five years. The new President assumed his duties when the tide of the University's progress was at the ebb. It is no disparagement of his predecessor to say that for some years the affairs of the University had been allowed to take their course with little aggressive action; his period for vigorous measures had passed. There was much therefore that needed to be set in order in the academic establishment and to this the new executive set himself immediately.
President Hutchins is the first graduate of the University to become its President, for he received his degree in 1871 at the same time Dr. Angell delivered his inaugural address. He was born at Lisbon, New Hampshire, April 8, 1847, and came to Michigan in 1867, the year he entered the University. After his graduation he was for one year Superintendent of the Schools of Owosso, Michigan, after which he returned to the University as instructor in history and rhetoric, becoming Assistant Professor in 1873, a position he held for three years. In the meantime, however, he had been preparing himself for the practice of the law and in 1876 resigned his academic duties to enter active practice in Mt. Clemens. He was recalled to the University in 1884 as Jay Professor of Law, a position which he held so ably that when the trustees of Cornell University were looking for a man to organize a law department four years later their choice fell upon him. This work he undertook and completed with great success, remaining Dean of the Cornell Law School for seven years. In 1895 he was once more recalled to his alma mater as Dean of the Department of Law, a position he resigned to become the fourth President of the University.
For this task he was peculiarly fitted, not only through his previous executive experience and his intimate knowledge of the University, but also by those qualifications which had made him so long a leader in the Faculties of the University. An unusually dignified presence and somewhat judicial manner only conceal a rare simplicity, directness, and kindliness revealed to every one with whom he comes into personal contact. He has the rare qualification of a real and sincere interest in the affairs of those with whom he is dealing, and the kindly sympathy, invariably shown toward every one with whom the wide range of his duties brings him into contact, inspires universal respect and affection, even from those who have on occasion disagreed with his policies. Moreover, he is always ready to listen with open mind on any subject, willing to be convinced, and what is more to act quickly upon conviction. Emphatic in stating and enforcing his conclusions once they are reached, he is always careful of others' opinions.
It is not yet the time nor have we the perspective to view adequately President Hutchins' administration. It has been a period in Michigan's history as distinct in most respects as those of his predecessors. While he followed the academic traditions established in former administrations he devoted himself particularly to the unification and co-ordination of the University as a whole, to the establishment of the necessary financial support on a firmer and more adequate basis, and to the cultivation of more intimate relations with the alumni. Though his influence in the academic life of the University has perhaps never been so personal and compelling as that of his predecessors, largely because the rapidly increasing numbers of students and Faculties alike make the close relationship of an earlier eraimpossible, the University has not only marched in the ways long established, but has grown and expanded under his sympathetic guidance and with the momentum of her past, until she has come at last to fill in, in great part, the slender lines of the sketch made by President Tappan and the early fathers. This is no small achievement.
The policy first inaugurated in President Angell's time of requiring a combined course in the Literary College and the Medical School for all medical students was extended during President Hutchins' time to the Law School and the Homeopathic Medical School, while the course in the College of Pharmacy was increased to three years and in the College of Dentistry to four years, with an ever-increasing emphasis on the desirability of preliminary work in the Literary College. These measures, though warmly advocated by the respective Faculties, did not come without opposition. The tendency of the time was unmistakable, however, and the University has been strengthened accordingly. Other significant actions taken during President Hutchins' administration were the establishment of many special courses leading to degrees such as Public Health, Aeronautical Engineering, and Municipal Administration, and special curricula in Sanitary, Automobile, and Highway Engineering, Fine Arts, and Business Administration. The special summer courses in Library Methods were introduced just before he took office, and have become an important part of the summer curriculum. It is also not amiss to note that the first three women to hold Professorships in the University were appointed in 1918.
It was also during President Hutchins' administration that the present effective University Health Service came into being. This resulted from a series of recommendations madeby a committee of students which were presented to the Regents in November, 1912. These were immediately approved and by October, 1913, three University physicians, including one woman, undertook the systematic care of the health of the student body. At present the staff includes four doctors, besides two nurses and assistants, who give their whole time to this important work. The Service is maintained in its own building, a remodeled dwelling house at the rear of Hill Auditorium, where a free dispensary is open five hours daily. Prescriptions are filled at the Health Service Pharmacy in the Chemistry Building, while provision for the care of seriously sick students is made at the University Hospitals ordinarily at no expense to the student. The cost of the maintenance of this service is supported by a small charge included in the annual fees.
Not the least of the many effective measures taken during President Hutchins' administration was the establishment of the Graduate School as a separate department of the University. For many years it had been maintained as a part of the Literary College, or Department, as it was then, and was administered by a committee appointed from the Literary Faculty. This anomalous position of the graduate work in the University eventually gave rise to suggestions for a change from many different sources, particularly from the Research Club, an organization of many of the leading men in all the Faculties, which came to the attention of the President when he took up his new duties. He at once recognized the desirability of enlarging the scope of advanced study and it was with his active co-operation and hearty support that the new School was created with Professor K.E. Guthe as its first Dean.
The growing cordiality between the University and theother educational institutions of the State is a significant development of late years. This is evidenced by the establishment with several of them of combined courses, which enable their students to pursue a portion of their preliminary work in the smaller school. This spirit of co-operation has also been most effectively advanced through the creation by the University of a series of State College Fellowships with a stipend of $300 each, to be held each year by especially chosen graduates from each of ten colleges in Michigan.
The establishment of extension courses, with the aim of bringing the University into a closer relationship with the people of the State, has also come as the result of the recognition by President Hutchins of the real need of such co-operation. Starting at first from a desk in his own office, from which members of the Faculty were sent to deliver lectures before various bodies about the State, the work speedily grew into a Department under the charge of Professor W. D. Henderson, '04, as Director. At the present time several special courses in literature, history, philosophy, and economics, corresponding exactly to similar courses given in the University are offered in various cities of the State, as well as three hundred lectures by different members of the Faculty. In addition the University has undertaken the training of teachers of industrial subjects under the Congressional provision known as the Smith-Hughes Bill, which provides for the training of teachers in agriculture, industrial subjects, and home economics. For its share in this work the University receives annually, partly from the Government and partly from the State, the sum of $24,000. This work is carried on, not only at the University, where it is under the charge of Professor George E. Meyers, Ottawa College, '96, but in Detroit and Grand Rapids as well asother extension centers, under charge of special Professors of Industrial Education.
Likewise the cordial relations between the University and the high schools of the State have developed consistently as is sufficiently shown by the appropriation of $300,000 made by the 1919 Legislature for the establishment of a demonstration school for the training of students who are preparing themselves as high school teachers.
The University under President Hutchins was thus particularly happy in its relations with the people of the State. This is especially true of their representatives in the Legislature. From time to time he laid before them the needs of the University so effectively that we now have, largely as the result of his efforts, the series of buildings erected recently, including the Natural Science Laboratory, the heating plant, and the new Library, probably the best arranged and most convenient in its appointments in the country, as well as the projected University Hospital, to cost eventually $2,000,000, and the Demonstration School. In addition he secured from the Legislature in 1919 an appropriation of $350,000 to cover the deficit due to the extraordinary war-time expenditures, when the cost of everything was doubled and the income from fees materially lessened, and even more important, an additional $350,000 for two years to cover an increase in Faculty salaries. This item was later superseded by an increase in the valuation of the property in the State, made by the State Board of Equalization, which added over $600,000 to the annual income of the University. Thus was the University saved from what easily might have been a disastrous situation arising from the threatened loss of many members of the Faculty. No event of recent years is of more fundamentalimportance than this material aid which came to the institution at so critical a period.
No less important and encouraging in their promise for the future have been the gifts of the graduates which have resulted in no little measure from President Hutchins' efforts to stimulate the interest and support of the alumni. The former students of the University have been bound to their alma mater as never before; they have been brought to see that it is their responsibility and privilege to aid the University in many ways impossible to the taxpayer. The Hill Auditorium, the Martha Cook Building, the Newberry and Betsy Barbour Halls of Residence for women and the Michigan Union, to which over 14,000 alumni have contributed over a million dollars,—a record perhaps unparalleled in any university,—to say nothing of scores of other benefactions, are examples of this new spirit on the part of the alumni which President Hutchins has done so much to foster. The continued increase in enrolment from 5,343 in 1909 to 7,517 in 1916-17, with a total of 9,401 in 1919-20, is also an evidence of the effectiveness with which the University has continued to perform its mission, though this continued influx of students brings with it responsibilities and difficulties which have taxed the physical resources, and the ability of the Faculties. Happily the increase in income granted in 1919 is an augury of a better era, if the growth for the next few years is not too overwhelming.
Harry Burns Hutchins, LL.D.Harry Burns Hutchins, LL.D.President of the University, 1909-1920(From a copyright photograph by J.F. Rentschler)
President Hutchins desired to resign the Presidency in 1914, at the end of the term fixed by him in his letter of acceptance, but the Regents were unanimous in their desire to have him remain in office. He again asked to be relieved of the duties of the office in 1916, but once more action waspostponed and it was not until March 12, 1919, that his resignation was finally accepted with the regret of the Regents, who expressed "their sincere appreciation of his wise, efficient, and devoted services in behalf of the University." This was to take effect June 30, 1919. The Board thereupon took immediate steps to secure a successor to President Hutchins, but were at first unsuccessful, and once more prevailed upon him to remain in office. This he consented to do reluctantly and only because of his interest in the institution he had served so long and faithfully, postponing yet another year his well-earned rest.
Several noteworthy celebrations have served to emphasize the University's progress. Two of them marked her semi-centennial and her seventy-fifth anniversaries, comparatively brief periods, perhaps, when contrasted with Harvard's celebration of her two hundred and fiftieth year, shortly before Michigan signalized her fiftieth, but symbolizing nevertheless an extraordinary and impressive transformation; the progress of a little backwoods college into one of the greatest of modern Universities. This was the inspiration that underlay these two occasions, made peculiarly significant through the congratulations and messages of good will borne by distinguished ambassadors from other institutions, and through elaborate memorials sent by the Faculties of European Universities, to whom the University's accomplishment was a greater marvel than it was to those more familiar with the conditions which had brought it into existence.
The fifth of June is the natal day of the University and therefore both celebrations were most appropriately held during the Commencement Week of the anniversary years, 1887 and 1912. A Commemoration Oration, in which President Angell surveyed with wise sympathy and a just pride the University's record was the special feature of the first celebration. Somewhat more ambitious was the seventy-fifth anniversary which took place twenty-five years later. Owing to the fact that Hill Auditorium was still unfinished, and the old University Hall was by no means large enough to shelter all who desired to attend, a special tent was erected near the Gymnasium for the Commemoration Exercises. The Hon. Lawrence Maxwell, '74, of Cincinnati delivered the principal address, a review of the University's history. The special guests and numerous representatives from other universities were tendered a reception and dinner in the University Library, at which President Andrew D. White, of Cornell, held the place of honor upon the program as a representative of the University's earlier days. The whole celebration was in no small part a tribute to the two elder statesmen, Dr. Angell and Dr. White, who had played so great a part in the drama of American education which the occasion symbolized.
Dr. Angell's own share in the history of the University was also marked by the celebration on June 24, 1896, of his twenty-fifth year of service as President. As was inevitable the exercises were a series of personal tributes to Dr. Angell, in which the congratulations and felicitations of Regents, Faculties, and teachers of the State were fittingly expressed. A particularly graceful tribute was the "Commemoration Ode" by Charles M. Gayley, '78, of the University of California.
Of an entirely different character was the great "National Dinner," designed to celebrate the University's services to the Nation, held in the ballroom of the Hotel Astor in New York, February 4, 1911. This was one of the greatestalumni dinners ever held by any university, as there were nearly eight hundred alumni present, including a large delegation from the University, and from Detroit and Chicago, Mr. Justice William L. Day; '70, of the United States Supreme Court, and some twenty-eight members of both houses of Congress. Earl D. Babst, '93, the general chairman of the committee in charge, acted as toastmaster of this gathering, the spectacular character of which was emphasized, not only in the speeches, songs, and college yells, but also by a huge painting of the University Campus filling a good part of the wall above the speaker's table.
On December 29, 1919, it was announced that Marion LeRoy Burton, President of the University of Minnesota, was to become the fifth President of the University on July 1, 1920. This announcement was a great surprise, as his name was only one of many which had been discussed as a possibility by those interested, but the decision was most favorably received by the University body and the alumni. The new President is a young man, but his record of accomplishment has great promise for the future. He was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, August 30, 1874, and was therefore forty-five years old at the time of his election. His earlier education was received in the schools of Minneapolis and at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where he was graduated with the degree of A.B. in 1900. After some years spent in teaching he eventually entered the Yale Graduate School, where he received his doctorate in 1907.
Two years later he was elected President of Smith College, but spent a year in travel abroad before taking up his duties at Northampton. He remained at Smith until 1917, when he succeeded Dr. George E. Vincent as President of the University of Minnesota, the position he resigned toaccept the Presidency of Michigan. He comes to his new task as did his predecessors, Dr. Tappan and Dr. Angell, with a vision for the future of the University. He believes, as they did, that in the State University lies the future of education in this country, and Michigan, with her strategic position between the East and the West, the prestige of her years, the wide distribution of her students, and the proved loyalty of her great body of alumni, offered him a field which he could not well refuse. He has before him the prospect of many years of service, for he is only three years older than was Dr. Angell when he first came to Michigan.
Dr. Burton was officially inaugurated President of the University on October 14, 1920. His formal acceptance of his office was made the occasion of a significant and stimulating educational conference, which lasted for three days. Some two hundred representatives of the leading American Universities and educational bodies listened to the discussion of vital academic and administrative problems of the modern state university during the five sessions, which covered the general topics; "Educational Readjustments," "Administrative Problems," and "Constructive Measures." The inauguration banquet was held at the Michigan Union on the evening of October 15, 1920. President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, President E.A. Birge of the University of Wisconsin, President Harry A. Garfield of Williams College, and the Hon. Thomas E. Johnson, Superintendent of Public Instruction, were the speakers on that occasion.
Marion LeRoy Burton, LL.D.Marion LeRoy Burton, LL.D.President of the University of Michigan, 1920-
As the University grew, the first Faculty of two members gradually increased, though for years the roster was far from impressive. What this first Faculty lacked in numbers, however, it made up in character and ability. One has only to read the whole-hearted and loving tributes of early graduates to discern the powerful personalities which inspired them. It is true that for the most part they were scholars of an older school, content to hand on the classical learning of the contemporary college course, rather than original investigators. But how well they performed this task! They inspired a real enthusiasm and love of knowledge for its own sake in those they taught, and furnished them, as well, an ideal for right living—all for five hundred dollars a year. We of a later generation cannot honor them too much.
About these men, strongly individualized in the minds of their students, have clustered stories which have become almost classic. Sharply contrasted in particular characteristics, they have lived as vivid personalities for future college generations in the memories of those students, "who studied syllogisms under the noble Whedon, who polished Greek roots for the elegant Agnew, who bungled metaphysics to the despair of the learned Ten Brook, who murdered chemistry under the careful Douglas whose experiments never failed, and who calculated eclipses of the moon from the desk of Williams, the paternal." This characterization by a member of the class of '49 is paralleled in a more caustic estimate of a somewhat later Faculty by a member of the class of '65 who speaks of "Boise the precise, Frieze the effusive, Williams the plausible, and White the thinker."
Always first in any reminiscences of the early days was Professor George Palmer Williams, the first real member of the Faculty, always known to his students as "Punky," possibly, as Professor D'Ooge suggested, because of the "dryness of his wit." Freshmen were even known to address him as "Professor Punky," only to be pardoned with a never to be forgotten kindliness when they discovered their awful mistake. Professor Williams was a graduate of Vermont (1825) and came to the University from the Pontiac branch to take the Professorship of Natural Philosophy. He was especially loved, not only for his fatherly kindness and genuine sympathy that won the confidence of his students, but also because "the college student pays unstinted admiration to a witty teacher, for no teacher ever had more ready wit and such genuine humor." The Rev. Theodoric R. Palmer of the class of '47, who for ten years was Michigan's oldest graduate, told how Professor Williams on discovering a goose occupying his chair remarked: "I see you have a competent teacher," and wished the class "Good Morning," leaving them to discover the point of their joke.
Professor Williams' strong religious spirit did not prevent an apt employment of examples from the Scriptures on occasion, as his rebuke to an overgrown and too active freshman showed: "Sir, you remind me of Jeshurun; the Bible says 'Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.'" But in the class room he was traditionally lenient. One student who found himself unable to fit his carefully prepared notes and the examination questions together, finally handed them both in and was passed, but only because it was the "wrong year"; "I condition one every other year and if I conditioned you I would have to have you again next year."
Professor Williams served the University long and faithfully, and only resigned his active work in 1875. In 1876 the alumni established a Williams Professorship Fund which eventually amounted to nearly $30,000. This eased his last years until his death in 1881 at the age of 79 years. Although the fund was subsequently greatly lessened by very careless administration, it now amounts to something over the original sum and is administered by the Regents in the form of a retiring allowance, the holder being nominated by the Alumni Association.
The Rev. Joseph Whiting, Yale, '23, under whose charge was the classical training of the six youngsters of that first class, was a man of different type. A fine scholar, he made Greek and Latin "glow with life and beauty," and by his distinguished bearing formed a happy complement to the "jovial and rotund" Williams. His death while he was serving his term as the annual President just before the first class was graduated, was recognized as a great loss by the students, as well as by the Regents, who acknowledged "his urbanity and gentleness of manners," and "his knowledge of character and other properties which especially fitted him to act the part of a governor and counselor of youth."
Professor Douglass Houghton died during the same year, 1845. The services of these two men, as well as those of Charles Fox, Professor of Agriculture, and Dr. Samuel Denton of the first Medical Faculty, are commemorated by the little weather-beaten monument with the broken shaft, which has doubtless aroused the idle curiosity of thousandsof students, who have never taken the trouble, however, to decipher the Latin inscriptions which set forth the life records of these early professors.
In 1842 Dr. Abram Sager, a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1831), who later became the first Dean of the Medical Faculty, came to the University as Professor of Zoölogy and Botany. He was then about thirty-two years of age and had for some time been connected with the State Geological Survey as botanist and zoölogist. His contributions to the University while in that position formed the foundation of the present zoölogical collection. One of his students speaks of him as "of exceedingly sensitive mind and heart and of very high and pure morality." A Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, the Rev. Edward Thomson, Pennsylvania, '29, was appointed in 1843, but served only one year. He was succeeded by the Rev. Andrew Ten Brook, Madison University, '39, who took a vigorous part in the University's life until his resignation in 1851, not to return until 1864 as Librarian—and historian of the University's early days. Professor Ten Brook was of the Baptist persuasion, exceedingly well read, particularly in the literature of his chair. Ordinarily in his classes he was master of the situation, "so long as he had Dugald Stewart's Metaphysics before him," but when discussion became free in his classes and "scholastics were let loose" one of his thought students they "got a little the better of him." That he was a shrewd and honest observer with remarkably little personal prejudice—even in memories of trying times, is shown by his book on "American State Universities" which offers much that is fascinating to those interested in the first days of the University.