The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-07-28
PROF. GROVER
IS HERE AGAIN
Ohio Visitor Completing
IS Years AT Oberlin
College, Ohio
By SADIE S. PATTON

/
erick Orville Grover into the
mountains of Western North Car
DINA on his annual vacation.
When Prof. Grover returns to
Oberlin College, in Ohio, on the
.'irst Of September. he will then
orinP to q close thirty-five years
If service as head of the Depart
nent of Botany at that institu-
ion and will become its Profess
or Emeritus.
Prof. Grover was born in Bar
gor, Maine, and received his aca-
lemic training at st. Johnsbury
Academy, along with his sister,
Eulalie Grover, who is the well
Known author of the "Sunbonnet
Baby Books, and his brother, Ed
win OSgood Grover, now Professor
If Books at Rollins College, Winter
Park, Fla. After finishing at st.
Johnsbury, he spent four years
1t Dartsmouth College. Prof.
Grover laughingly said -four years
If teaching in military schools of
Missouri and Illinois so thoroughly
,vercame his handicap of timidity
rs to leave him thoroughly prepar-
ed to take up his life's work He
then went to Harvard, where he
did graduate work until 1898,
when he accepted the work as Pro-
feSsOr Of Botany at Oberlin.
Prof. Grover does not feel that
IN giving up work as an active
teacher that he is in any way re-
lmquishing any responsibility, or
becoming any lesser force in the
school life at Oberlin. To use his
own words, nothing he has ever
done has been work to HINT
has all been great joy, and he
is looking forward to his position
as Professor Emeritus only as the
opportunity for an even greater
service to the college he loves so
dearly. Talking with Prof. Grover
on any subject invariably brings
| him back to some reference to the
college, its policies. and the stand
it has always taken on matters Of
vital Importance to the entire ma
ton.
In June, 1888, Oberlin celebrat-
! ed the Tooth anniversary of its
establishment. 1t began its career
as the first cO-educational college
in the United States, and is main
tanned on this same basis up to
the present time. 1t was the first
institution to open its doors not
only to both sexes, but also to all
races. During the troubled years
preceding the civil war, Oberlin
was strongly ADVOCATING the Abo-
.ition movement, and early there
after its educational facilities
were made available to the Ne
groeS. 1t also disregards all relig-
ious barriers Today its Theologi-
al Seminary is one of three non
UNCONVENTIONAL theological schools
in the country. and among its sew
enty five students this depart
ment Of the colleges has represent
tativeS of nine different religious
SectS.
Oberlin College has more than
twelve hundred students in its De-
partment of Arts and Science, be-
tween three and four hundred in
the Conservatory, of Music. and
around seventy-five in the Theo-
logical Seminary, with nearly a
hundred in Prof. Growers Depart
ment of Botany. While no fra
ternal organizations are allowed
in the school Prof. Grover feels
that the liberal views Of its teach
ers and the freedom allowed it's
students has much to do with the
fact that even under present day
conditions, there is very little
atheism, radical, or communistic
movement existing.
The prohibition movement in
a large part had its incep-
ton at Oberlin, and yet Prof.
Grover himself feels that the
situation now prevailing has be-
come intOlerable, and he favors
the early repeal of the 18th
Amendment with a return of liq-
uOr control to the state govern
mentS. A life long Republican, he
Is most enthusiastic about the
present leadership of the United
States. He says frankly that while
he regards many of Mr.. Roose-
yelt's policies as experimental, he
Is also sure that the time had an
rived when these changes were
necessary, since Congress had fail
ed to provide measures to remedy
the situation. 1t is his belief that
too many of our laws and toe
much of our efforts for many years
past have looked to the develop,
ment of individual welfare and in,
dividual liberties,-in fact, al,
most licenses, and that the time
has arrived when our only remedy
lies in lettering conditions for the
masses of our people.
During his stay in Western
North Carolina, Prof. Grover has
not been doing work along profes
sional lines, but he regards thi.
section as being a particularly rich
field for the botanists and other!
interested in Nature research
work. To the favored few, one Of
tho raro,t ,N,,;,,;lanrae N ffncIoJ l.,
his stay here has been the after
Moons when he and other boaanist
at the camp near Fruitland have
brought together their specimen
of flora, their books, sketches ant
magnifying GLASSES, to spend ;
few hours identifying, classifying
and explaining the strangers which
their trained eyes have discovered
in the fields and woods of III,