Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-01-13
PRESIDENT OF
POMONA RESIGNS
DR.. GEORGE A. GATES LEAVES
INSTITUTION
Trustees Accept Resignation with
Regret-School Has Advanced
Rapidly Under His
Direction

DR.. George A. Gates, president of
Pomona college, and one of~the fore
most educators in the west, yester-
day rendered his resignation to the
board of trustees, and it was accepted
with regret.
Ill health, symptoms of which have
been frequent of late, compelled Presi-
dent Gates to quit his connection with
the college which began seven years
ago. President Gates will rest until
he completely RECEIVERS his health. His
future plans have not yet been an
nounced. In his letter of resignation
President Gates says:
To my fellow members of the board of
trustees of Pomona college:
Colleagues: For reasons that seem adequate
to me and which hope will seem equally so
to you 1 ask you to accept my resignation
of the office of president of Pomona college
and of this board.
When seven years ago I accepted your invi-
tation to this work you who were then mem
bers will recall that I said to you very frankly
that if you were looking for one whose chief
work should be the raising of money you were
making mistake; for while several hundred
thousand dollars came to GrinneH during the
thirteen years I there, had had expert
ence enough to know that 1 have no special
fitness for that work. So that if ever the time
should come when that work should definitely
wise
for you to invite some other man. That time
seems to have come.
There few colleges, if any, more prosper
in a more satisfactory condition than
ours-except in one respect, and that a vital
one: we have not money enough to carry on
our work.
One year ago we set out on a campaign to
raise $250, 000 Later G. B. Sumner was APP
pointed chairman of the committee to prose-
cute the work. In less than three months he
completely broke down nervously. That nearly
fatal illness was doubtless occasioned, if not
caused, by the strain of that work. He is now
seeking recovery by a complete rest in the
Hawaiian Islands.
This left the responsibility on me: indeed
it was definitely placed there by the action of
the board. With such loyalty 1 COM
mand l have been endeavoring to meet this
responsibility. Many lines of work are already
laid out which promise some degree of sue
cess-in time. But the tenseness of our stu
alton is impatient of time.
Graphing with Finances
We have reached today stage in which the
chief work required Of me, not only for the
next few months but for an indeterminate
time to come. must needs be the graphing
with this financial situation. The raising of
$250,000 will be but the prelude to a fresh eff
fort for further needed expansion, so that
even should the present campaign be crowned
with success, I should find myself at the be-
ginning of a new and still heavier responsi-
bility, outside the field of my chosen work
Under the conditions l find myself compelled
TO abide by my consistent declaration in the
matter, and request that you relieve me of an
impossible task, finding for it one who may
undertake it with better chances of success.
You will naturally inquire why should take
such action at this time, rather than at the
conclusion Of a college year, or at the ex-
piration of some fixed term Of notice It is
because paramount considerations of health
leave no room for any other course Rath-
er than lay down my office at this serious
emergency, and thus seem in cowardIy fashion
to run away from hard task (something 1
have never done), 1 have tried to hold myself
to do this work 1 have, however made the
discovery that my physical strength is not
equal to it. To continue this attempt would
mean | feel sure, to run open-eyed into ex-
IRENE danger of nervous wreck. There is no
virtue in deliberate suicide. Such course is