Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-06-21
AT BOWDOIN
Continued from Page One)

tnction of style; every report and
every essay is focus Of stimulating
thoughts. And consequently for the
inscription on this tablet the word
"great" was chosen advisedly and
chosen with care. When the final
history of Bowdoin is written, / ven-
lure to prophecy that his name will
shine with clear effulgcnce when
manv others will he dimmed.
And the College owes him a debt
that grows greater as the years go
by. He was the ideal College presi-
dent, the one by whom all others Will
he measured and found wanting. A
great teacher. he inspired in the most
stless undergraduate n desire for
knowledge. A great writer, he made
to liberal theology and to modern
Christianity contributions Of lasting
value Where is the writer today
who is interpreting the Church as he
Interpreted it? A great executive he
found the college brick and left it
marble. In thought and policy he
was not conservative nor radical. but
liberal, He was courageous and he
ftood his ground like the man he
was
Prof. Charles T. Burnett
"Bowdoin is today doing n thing
Unusual in its history. Not by gift
II loyal sors but with her own official
finger she is writing an honored
name upon the walls of this build
ing, William Dewitt Hyde Hall
this name will hcnceforth have
meaning for each latest matriculate
Of the college who goes into resi-
dence within its comfortable con-
fines. But not the meaning it has
for most of us gathered here today.
Six years have nearly gone since that
day, Just after Commencement or
1911, when the grevious news spread
so quickly that THE President" had
died. And now to BowdOin students
that face. so familiar to most of us.
is Of a stranger. Tablets may recite
deeds and honors: they do not evoke
presence. The leaves of these
campus ems may whisper together
Of the noble men who once walked
beneath them: but. despite the poet,
the undergraduate car can never
really catch their meaning. Great
men are vital spirits to their con-
temporaries; for postcrty the rich
volume of life is destroyed all but
the index. SO, too, rapidly, as we
VINO knew him, pass on, William De-
Witt Hyde is ceasing to be the man
and is becoming merely a historical
figure. How can the freshman or
1850 make out what manner Of man
he was? He may seek out the Alex
ander portrait in the line of the presi-
dents in our Walker Gallery. He
may. more fortunately. chance on one
OF the Hollyer photographs. or some
other that has caught vital char
acterization. Strolling about this
campus to fix in mind the observable
changes since that day in 'So when
Young Hyde faced his first audience
IN yonder Chapel, he may picture the
place over which that departing au-
dience spread.-the vacant spaces
now filled with imposing structures.
no building to the south or to the
west; on the eastern side no gym
hasum no infirmary; over in the
pines no Whittier Field and no Hub
bard grandstand.
In the Library he will find the terse
record of events that transformed the
Uid Bowdoin into the new, in those
tnlfty-two years of his presidency,
ne longest in the history Of the col
lege, the remarkable development in
educational policy from which we are
az Fronting today. his skillful choice
VI associates to carry it out; the
muiupication of endowment; the
,uotung of the campus with new
buildings; the transformation Of in
Mrnal administration. Not his doing
.one, all this. to be sure; he could
shllst the experiences, the resources.
s sne faith Of other men,-of a Bow
num- iu too, in earnest cooperation with
,, some of us have seen him at
my desk. You know, perhaps.
NOV muw carefully he guarded those
mmeeious morning hours Of reflective
ppUught. For years, after coming to
towaoin. the afternoon was devoted
administrative duties. but the
M oinlng was the time for insight,
az e Knew it mattered whether one.
ts;. !" De leader of men, could main
e VII vision whcfbor opo'c <houCht q