Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1925-06-19
ANSWERED LIKE A vIRGINIAN

DIR. Edwin A. Alderman continues
at his post as president of the Uni
versity of Virginia; he will so con-
tinue as long as he has strength for
the task" 1t is not that Virginia
believes DR.. Alderman would relin-
quish the presidency of its university
for any other educational field, but
it is none the less gratifying to know
in concrete fashion that opportuni-
ties for brilliant and perhaps more
highly paid endeavor elsewhere do
not shake. his determination to re-
main in the service of the state of his
adoption. Renewed assurance of
this determination is Enthusiastically
given in his declination of the chan
Icellorship of the University of Geor-
gia, one of the great schools of the
South. The board of trustees of the
Athens institution had combed the
field of the nations outstanding edu-
J Gators and its choice fell upon Dr.
: Alderman. When that offer was ten
: dered to him by the Governor of
Georgia, and the chief justice of its
Supreme Court, he promptly wired
} this reply:
II am deeply sensible of the i'm
portance and opportunity of the great
, Office rendered me by the trustees of
} the University of Georgia, but my
! duty, my loyalty and my devotion to
the University of Virginia make it
impossible for me to quit its service
so long as have strength for the
| task"
} That is the spirit-duty, loyalty
and devotion-in which DR.. Alder
man always has met his work for the
; university of Thomas Jefferson, and
: that, added to a mind of unusual
, brilliance and highly developed ex-
2 ecutive capacity, has made his ad,
: ministration of this capstone of Vir.
: ginia's whole educational system
hOSobAO IA TIC annals VI
: schools. Often his strength has not
D measured up to the spirit, but the
5 physical sacrifices he has made serve
only to add more luster to his devo
ton.
J, DR.. Alderman-and this may moi
3 be recalled by the younger genera
: tion-is the first and only presiden
:, of the University of Virginia, for il
e was not until 1904 that the board o.
e visitors departed from the form Of
: government laid down by Mr.. Jeffer
e son and elected an executive head
Mr.. Jefferson carried his ideals of de
r mocracy into the university with the
e result that for seventy years there
] was no president, the objection t
/ that form of government being, as
S John S. Patton says in his history
e of the university, that it would sub
Y tract from the independence of the
professor by subjecting him, to some
t extent, to the will of the executive
that the professor would necessarily
descend from the high estate award
ed him by the founder which made
him in dignity senator who did moi
have to regard the rescripts of any
emperor or president" But by 1904
with the growth and development OF
the university, the conviction became
unacceptable that its best interests de
manded an administrative depart
ment, and DR.. Alderman was called
to the task. How wise was this de
: cision of the board, and how fortu
/, nate its choice of president, no Vir
ginian needs to be told.
Before coming to Virginia, DR.. AL
> derman had distinguished himself IL
:. education, having served as president
: of the University of North Caroline
and of Tulane. With Walter Hine!
: Page, later ambassador to the Cour
: of st. James, he had pioneered the
educational field in North Carolina
and the names of these men Away.
will be inseparably linked together
in the history of the renaissance O.
education in the South.
1t is little wonder, then, that Vir
ginia would be loath to lose DR.. Al
derman from it's service; little won
der that it is gratified by his promp
!, rejection of the Georgia offer. Their,
: is but one higher post of duty t.
which Virginia would gladly relin
quish DR.. Alderman, and that is on,
+. with which his name has been fire.
quently connected in the last year
the presidency of the United States
, Richmond Times-Dispatch.