Evening star., 1939-05-28
Alumni Find
Numerous
Changes
List of Famous Men
Educated There
Is Imposing
By Lily Lykes Shepard.


Sons of Georgetown University,
with long cherished nostalgia for
sight of the old Hilltop beside the
Potomac and the crusted cannons
on the campus are returning today
from distant places to join their
venerable alma mater in celebrat-
ing the fulfillment of century and
half of progress. Many proud
parent among them will linger on
into next week to see new crop
OF graduates, the seniors of 1889,
take their places in the ranks of
GeorgetoWn's alumni.
Marked by appropriate academic
pomp and round of activities, the
sequicentennial homecoming ends
properly with a huge reunion ban
Quet Saturday night under the in
spring leadership of that prince of
toastmasters, Frank j. Hogan,
IL. B., '02, national alumni president
There will be reminiscing visits, also,
to the alumni gallery" to identify
faces of a half century ago. But
even more important will be those
first hand clasps and back thump-
1ngs that will greet all classmates
and former teachers when they meet
again on the porch of historic North
Hall, hallowed in memories since
1871.
To those who have not returned
to the Hilltop in many a year the
college campus has taken on a new
appearance Gone is the football
field to the right of the college gates.
A fountain and Handicapped lawn has
taken it's place. Handsome new stone
buildings stand now on the sites of
the old bleechers.
North Hall Renovated.
Even old North Hall has been
renovated inside, but wise guardians,
regretting the demolition of the first
building erected by the founder,
John Carroll, saw carefully that no
architectural line was changed.
Around the hall still clings, however,
the memories and the atmosphere of
bygone years. From its pillared
porch George Washington first ad-
dressed the student body. In turn
there followed historic visits by La
faNette, Charles Dickens and in 1921
Marshall Foch of France was re-
iceived there More recently Car
dinal Pacelli, destined soon to be-
come the supreme pontiff of the
Catholic Church, paused to admire
its classic lines and read the in
scription on the outer wall.
Fifty years ago the fathers Of
many of today's alumni returned to
celebrate another milestone of prog
ress-the centennial of 1889. Presi-
dent Grover Cleveland and James
Cardinal Gibbons were the orators
BY then Georgetown had schools OF
medicine and law The massive
Healy Building, rightly named after
the Rev. Patrick F. Healy, S. j., was
in use and it's chimes still strike the
quarter hour.
The wounds of the Civil War had
healed. Students from the South
were returning, though in mucn
smaller numbers After the war
Georgetown adopted the Union blue
and the Confederate gray as its
school colors, gesture to reunited
student body One of its sons, James
Ryder Randall, made history bv
writing Maryland, My Maryland
Another Southern boy, Edward
Douglas White, had left the college
In 1851 to fight for the Confederacy
In defense of his native Louisiana.
Noted Alumni.
Several years after the centennial
White had fought his way to the
Senate and in 1894 President Cleve-
land appointed him to the United
States Supreme Court. He was made
Chief Justice in 1910 by President
William Howard Taft, who in turn
succeeded him when White died in
1921, regretted by all Georgetown
men.
Within a few years of the Civil
War there was to be graduated in
1872 a candidate for A. B. degree
who was to become one of the most
influential factors in the subsequent
upbuilding of the law school and the
university. He was Maryland STU
dent, George E. Hamilton, who two
years later took his. Ill. B. degree.
He has been receiving honorary de-
: grees ever since. Years ago he was
named on the Board of Regents.
For 54 years Mr.. Hamilton has