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 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
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 CORLISS Fil^RANDOLPH 
 
Copyright, 1922 
 By CORLISS F. RANDOLPH 
 
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 BOOTHE COLWELL DAVIS 
 
 By Corliss F. Randolph 
 
 [This address was delivered at the Commencement of Alfred 
 University in June, 1920, in commemoration of the completion 
 of twenty-five years of continuous service of Doctor Davis as 
 President of the University. The address was concluded with 
 conferring upon President Davis the degree of Doctor of Sacred 
 Theology J. 
 
 In his famous reply to Robert Y. Hayne, in the United 
 States Senate, in January, 1830, Daniel Webster began his 
 address with a remark to the effect that, under certain con- 
 ditions, it was wise for a ship to stop and take its bearings 
 before proceeding further; and, from ancient times, the com- 
 pletion of this period or that of accomplishment has been 
 celebrated with due ceremony and rejoicing. 
 
 Perhaps it was with something of both these thoughts in 
 mind that the trustees of the University have deemed it wise, 
 in the midst of all the other important activities that mark 
 this Commencement, not to overlook the fact that at this time 
 Doctor Davis completes the twenty-fifth year of his service 
 to the Institution as its president; and, I assure you, I esteem 
 it no minor honor that I have been selected to represent the 
 Trustees on this occasion. The candid truth compels me to 
 say, however, that, while the selection of myself may have 
 been mathematically logical, it was by the process of elimina- 
 tion that such selection was made. It was upon this wise 
 that it so happened ; namely, that it has been my good fortune 
 personally to be acquainted with President Davis longer than 
 has any other trustee, or than has any member of the faculty. 
 
 Bom of a common ancestry, we both hail from that 
 geological freak of the world known as the Hills of West 
 Virginia. The blood and other relationships of our respective 
 families naturally made us visitors in each other's homes, and 
 gave us ties of common interest. His father was my pastor 
 for many years, and that, too, accentuated the other relation- 
 ships that we sustained. While in those days we were never 
 schoolmates, the fact remains that our early education was 
 obtained in a common atmosphere — an atmosphere created 
 largely by a graduate of Alfred University, Preston F. Ran- 
 dolph, by name — who, near the close of the Civil War re- 
 turned from Alfred to his home near Salem, West Virginia, 
 
2 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 to preach and teach the gospel of education. Encouraged by 
 his friends, of whom President Davis' father was one of the 
 foremost, he established a series of what, for want of a more 
 fitting name, may be called impromptu teacher-training 
 schools, long before West Virginia had established normal 
 schools for the training of teachers. Prom these impromptu 
 schools went out as able and as skillful a body of teachers as 
 West Virginia ever boasted. Many of the methods and prac- 
 tices taught within the three decades now of the immediate 
 past, as those of the most modern and most progressive, were 
 in active use in north-central West Virginia a full score of 
 years earlier, and all were introduced by this apostle of educa- 
 tion trained and inspired by President Kenyon and his as- 
 sociates of the earlier Alfred. This leaven, by the way, so 
 permeated and so reacted upon these communities as, for 
 nearly twenty years, at one time, to send back to Alfred from 
 West Virginia a stream of students that steadily increased in 
 volume until the establishment of a college in their midst as 
 their own stemmed the tide. President Davis, as did I, began 
 his teaching in the district schools near home. He supple- 
 mented his professional preparation for teaching by study 
 for a time in one of the state normal schools. 
 
 With his inheritance of Welsh and of Norman-English 
 blood, and brought up in such an environment as I have cited, 
 he came to Alfred at the opening of the academic year of 
 1885-86, whither I had preceded him by a year. 
 
 In those days, a large number of students were nearly, 
 if not quite, wholly dependent upon their own resources for 
 funds with which to pay their expenses through college; and 
 many came to Alfred without sufficient money for that pur- 
 pose, but with the hope of earning something, at least, while 
 pursuing their studies. To that class of students we both 
 belonged, and much time that we should have been glad to 
 spend in athletics and in the social life of the college was spent 
 in frequent sessions of our respective committees on ways and 
 means and in executing the plans determined upon in that 
 way. 
 
 Circumstances so decreed that I graduated in 1888 and 
 entered the teaching profession. He remained to graduate in 
 1890, and then entered the Divinity School of Yale University, 
 where he was graduated in 1893, and at once entered upon the 
 pastorate of the First Alfred Seventh Day Baptist Church, 
 pursuant to a call previously extended. 
 
PRESIDENT DAVIS 3 
 
 Among others of the faculty when President Davis first 
 came to Alfred were President Allen, who, though giving evi- 
 dence of the physical weakness that was to terminate his life 
 in a few short years, was still in full possession of his intel- 
 lectual powers; Ethan P. Larkin, whose active meteoric career 
 was to end suddenly two years later; Mrs. Ida F. Kenyon, whose 
 quick nervous temperament gave her a marked personality — 
 a personality possessed of a high degree of culture and en- 
 dowed with qualities for friendship that endeared her to 
 all who came really to know her; Henry C. Coon, whose benig- 
 nant manner and readiness for service exerted an influence 
 as quiet and as powerful as the softly falling dew; Edward M. 
 Tomlinson, one of the finest examples of ripe, exact scholar- 
 ship and liberal culture that has ever graced Alfred's faculty; 
 Alpheus B. Kenyon, who is too well known to you all for me 
 more than to mention his name here, further than to say that 
 he was then just reaching the full maturity of his powers as a 
 teacher and adviser of youth, and was already quietly known 
 as the balance wheel (the governor, if you understand me 
 aright) of the mechanism of the faculty, and as a sane adviser 
 to leading members of the Board of Trustees; George Scott, 
 of a volatile, magnetic, Latin temperament, and one of the 
 most inexorable drill masters in the mechanics of language 
 that Alfred's faculty has ever possessed. Of such person- 
 alities were the men and women to whom was committed the 
 task of subduing and training the motley, and not infrequently 
 rough and uncouth, crowds of students that came trooping to 
 Alfred in those days from all quarters of the country — from 
 the Atlantic sea-board to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, 
 from the Canadian Border to the Gulf of Mexico, and from 
 even beyond the seas; but in real worth of character I opine 
 that they would compare very favorably with Alfred's students 
 at any other period of her career. Among them were to be 
 found such men as Herbert G. Whipple, Charles C. Chipman, 
 William C. Hubbard, Edwin H. Lewis, Frederic P. Schoon- 
 maker, Charles P. Rogers, and a host of others whose names 
 are well and favorably known to you all. 
 
 This, by the way, was no melting pot, but a chemist's 
 retort, under which the fires were made hotter and hotter 
 until whatever gold even the lowest grade of ore possessed 
 was separated, and the dross eliminated. All specimens that 
 fused at too low a temperature to withstand this process were 
 quietly but mercifully removed. 
 
4 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 At the hands of such teachers and among such fellow- 
 students, President Davis developed the qualities that have 
 distinguished him throughout his entire professional career. 
 After two years' church work, he was called to the office of 
 president of the University. 
 
 A tremendous problem, or series of problems rather, 
 faced him. President Allen had dropped in the harness in 
 September, 1892, just at a time when a mighty unrest was 
 gathering its momentum for an upheaval of the educational 
 world, and particularly so in this country. More than twenty 
 years before, President Eliot of Harvard began the reorganiza- 
 tion of that college in accord with certain definite principles 
 of educational philosophy that have distinguished him for a 
 generation since — a movement that was to revolutionize 
 American education. With the purpose of that movement, 
 President Allen deeply sympathized; and, unless I am sadly 
 misinformed, he served upon a committee with President Eliot 
 when the general tenets that were to guide the movement 
 throughout the country for the change were decided upon. 
 The transition at Alfred, however, was not to come in Allen's 
 day. But the propaganda for such a change fostered a spirit 
 of unrest. Chicago University had been reorganized and re- 
 opened with a whoop and a blare of trumpets wholly new to 
 the educational world, and upon a scale hitherto totally un- 
 known in modern times. Its president was the P. T. Barnum 
 of the academic world, and his university the "greatest show 
 on earth," to quote a well-known phrase. Leland Stanford 
 University, just founded; and the University of California, 
 but recently reorganized, both shared with Chicago the 
 distinction of being under the guardianship of fabulous wealth. 
 Columbia, under the leadership of Seth Low, was quietly en- 
 tering upon its own era of expansion which was to continue 
 until it had surpassed all its competitors. All the small col- 
 leges, with their associate alumni, accepted these events as 
 a definite challenge to a desperate struggle for existence, and 
 many were the programmes of procedure presented by each 
 clamoring multitude of alumni; and each college had almost as 
 many programmes as there were clamoring voices that sought 
 its ear; with the result that there was widespread internal 
 disruption everywhere, as well as external dissatisfaction on 
 every hand. 
 
 Upon his accession to office, at least three serious prob- 
 lems immediately faced Alfred's new president; namely, a 
 
PRESIDENT DAVIS 5 
 
 reorganization of the faculty; assuaging the feverish unresr 
 and feeling of uncertainty among the alumni; and the im 
 perative need of additional funds for current expenses and for 
 expansion. All of these problems involved numerous intri 
 cacies of complication, and the entire situation was one which 
 might well have caused the stoutest heart to quail. 
 
 The president was wise enough to take counsel of cer- 
 tain leading spirits among the alumni as to suitable plans 
 for meeting these problems; with especial reference to secur- 
 ing the enthusiastic, united support of the alumni for the sup- 
 port of the new administration; and the problem of future 
 growth; with the result that small, informal meetings of the 
 alumni were held in various places to meet the president, who 
 talked over with them the needs of the University, told them 
 his need of their cordial, sympathetic, moral support, and 
 solicited suggestions as to the best plan of procedure. In due 
 time these conferences began to bear fruit. 
 
 About this time there developed a feeling, which gradually 
 grew into a belief, that Prof. William A. Rogers might be 
 induced to return to Alfred. After a term of thirteen years' 
 successful teaching at Alfred he had left to go to Harvard 
 Observatory, where he had made an international reputation 
 as an astronomer. He had then gone to Colby University in 
 Maine, where he made an international reputation anew, this 
 time as a micrometrist. It was believed not only possible 
 but somewhat probable that professor Rogers might feel like 
 returning to Alfred to spend the remaining years of his teach- 
 ing career where it was begun, some forty years before. Pur- 
 suant to this, the president conferred with certain of the 
 alumni and trustees, notably Dr. Daniel Lewis, and received 
 encouragement to such an extent that he visited Professor 
 Rogers at Colby, and came back with the written promise of 
 the latter to return to Alfred upon the fulfillment of stipula- 
 tions which he named, stipulations which involved at least a 
 partial solution of the problem of additional funds for ex- 
 pansion. This news met with an enthusiastic reception on 
 the part of the alumni, particularly those who had been stu- 
 dents of Professor Rogers when he had been an instructor 
 here. The trustees accepted the conditions of the offer with- 
 out delay, and at once plans were formed for meeting them. 
 Professor Rogers attended the following Commencement, when 
 was laid the cornerstone of the Babcock Hall of Physics, a build- 
 ing which was to be equipped for his use. But already the 
 
6 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 tentacles of disease had laid hold of him, and before the time 
 arrived for him really to enter upon his duties here, he had 
 passed away. While his death was an irreparable loss to 
 Alfred, the movement started to meet the conditions of his 
 return was by no means a failure. Indeed, it may fairly be 
 said that it proved to be Alfred's salvation at a very critical 
 period of her history. It had solidified the alumni and be- 
 gotten a common definite purpose of action among them. 
 Furthermore, it showed conclusively the ability of Alfred's 
 friends really to accomplish something, at least, in the direc- 
 tion of her most obvious needs; and all that was required to 
 cause that ability to function was a very concrete motive. 
 
 Attention was now turned to certain natural resources of 
 Alfred and vicinity as a basis for further expansion. For 
 many years it had been known that deposits of clay and 
 shale here were of unusual value, and business enterprise had 
 sought to develop them, with a certain measure of success. 
 Now there was conceived a plan to induce the State of New 
 York to establish a school of ceramics at Alfred, as an in- 
 tegral part of the University. This plan was cordially en- 
 dorsed by influential alumni and trustees — ^particularly John 
 J. Merrill, Melville Dewey, and Daniel Lewis — and a bill was 
 introduced into the state legislature to carry it into effect. 
 Legislative action met violent opposition from certain sources, 
 especially from one of the leading daily papers of New York 
 City; but the opposition was overcome, the bill became a law, 
 and, as a result, Alfred now has the best equipped and the 
 most widely and favorably known school of ceramics in this 
 country. 
 
 In further development of the plan to utilize local re- 
 sources in expanding the University, the President again 
 interested certain of the alumni and trustees, who, under the 
 leadership of the late Hon. Peter B. MacLennan, gave their 
 cordial support to an effort which resulted in the establish- 
 ment of a State School of Agriculture here. 
 
 In the meantime, the needs of the University Library 
 had outgrown its quarters in Kenyon Memorial Hall, and appli- 
 cation was made to Andrew Carnegie for funds with which to 
 erect a new library building. The application was granted on 
 terms acceptable to the Trustees, and the building was erectea. 
 
 Of certain other achievements, by way of improvement and 
 expansion of the physical equipment of the Universtiy — the 
 acquisition of the Steinheim, of Kanakadea Hall, of Burdick 
 
PRESIDENT DAVIS 7 
 
 Hall, of the installation of a central heating plant, of the for- 
 mation of a plan by which the grounds are systematically 
 developed and beautified, and of numerous other details — I 
 shall not take the time to speak now. Suffice It to say that 
 twenty-five years ago, the trustees reported to the Regents of 
 the State University that the net value of Alfred's resources 
 was $281,000 in round numbers. At the present time, the 
 treasurer reports that they exceed a million dollars. 
 
 The reorganization of the faculty resulted first in the 
 physical separation of the academy from the college, and 
 ultimately of the total elimination of the former. Modern 
 conditions made this possible if not imperative. Very few 
 students now come to Alfred who are not ready for college, 
 and satisfactory arrangements are made for that few to be 
 taken care of in the public high school of the village of Alfred. 
 
 The Theological Seminary has been set apart as an indi- 
 vidual factor, though an integral department, of the Univer- 
 sity, with its own separate faculty and dean. This was at- 
 tended by a substantial increase in the endowment and by 
 the provision of other sources of revenue for its mainten- 
 ance. 
 
 The college is administered directly through a college 
 dean, and, for the more satisfactory solution of certain prob- 
 lems that present-day school administration demand shall be 
 met in that manner, a dean is provided for the women. 
 
 Of such attainment is the man who, as president, has ad- 
 ministered the affairs of Alfred University for the past twenty- 
 five years, and of such manner have been his achievements 
 throughout that, trying and not insignificant period. 
 
 President Davis: In behalf of Alfred University and all 
 its friends — of the Alumni, of the many anxious friends who 
 are unavoidably absent today, but who after all are present in 
 spirit, and particularly in behalf of the Trustees of the Uni- 
 versity — , I extend to you the congratulations and felicitations 
 of us all upon the auspicious completion of twenty-five years 
 of your service as president of this University. I extend to 
 you congratulations and felicitations upon all the achieve- 
 ments that mark your career. Yours has been a magnificent 
 work — a work which, much as it has meant to the material 
 prosperity of our beloved Alma Mater, to a far greater degree 
 and in a far larger sense has meant social service, a humani 
 tarian service, bounded only by the furthermost reaches of 
 the circles of influence of all this quarter-century's associ- 
 
8 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 ate alumni, many of whom have scattered to the four corners 
 of the earth. 
 
 In token of their appreciation of these achievements, and 
 of your service in behalf of the University, and by the special 
 authority vested in me by the Trustees for this occasion, 1 
 admit you,. Boothe Colwell Davis, to the degree of Doctor of 
 Sacred Theology in this University, the rights and privileges 
 pertaining thereto, in token of which I hand you this diploma. 
 
ALPHEUS BURDICK KENYON 
 
 By Corliss F. Randolph 
 
 [This address was delivered before the annual meeting of 
 the Alumni Association of Alfred University at Commencement 
 time, in June, 1920, upon the occasion of the retirement of Pro- 
 fessor Kenyon, after forty-six years continuous service in the 
 University]. 
 
 On an occasion such as this, one is forcibly reminded of 
 the Wise Man's proverb to the effect that "Words fitly spoken 
 are like apples of gold in pictures of silver." But silver is 
 scarce, gold much more so, and words for use on the present 
 occasion which are both fitting and adequate are indeed very 
 scarce. 
 
 After a close acquaintance and intimate friendship of 
 thirty-six years with Professor Kenyon, I esteem it a dis- 
 tinguished honor to be asked to speak upon this occasion. 
 Wholly apart from the question of the wisdom of the Alumni 
 Association's choice of its present speaker, it is entirely fitting 
 that an old pupil and a personal friend of long standing should 
 perform this function He should bring to his task a certain 
 attitude of mind, a certain warm sympathetic appreciation of 
 his subject, that one without the experience of that personal 
 relationship could not bring. But even with that experience, 
 and fully conscious of the honor conferred upon me and no 
 less so of the opportunity offered, I am equally conscious of 
 my inability to find words in which to say the things that 
 I should like to say, in terms suitable for the occasion. 
 
 This is not the time to present a biographical sketch of our 
 subject, nor is any offered; but it is altogether appropriate 
 that certain phases of this unique career, along with their 
 attendant facts, should be brought to your attention. 
 
 If I read the printed record aright, it is a little more than 
 fifty years ago that, from the granite-paved state of Rhode 
 Island, Alpheus Burdick Kenyon matriculated at Alfred Uni- 
 versity. He came in good company; for with him were Dr. 
 Henry M. Maxson, now superintendent of schools in the City 
 of Plainfield, N. J., and the late Gov. George H. Utter cf 
 Rhode Island, both from Westerly, R. I. 
 
10 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 At that time, besides President Allen, the faculty included 
 Ethan P. Larkin, possessed of a remarkably rich, vivid, active 
 imagination; Mary E. Brown, now Mrs. Edward M. Tomlinson, 
 of this village; Charlotte E. Dowse, afterwards Mrs. John R. 
 Groves; William A. Rogers, already attracting national atten- 
 tion as an astronomer; Edward M. Tomlinson, one of the most 
 ideally equipped professors of Greek of his day in this coun- 
 try; Albert Whitford, a mathematician with precision of 
 scholarship and of character, alike; and others. Albert 
 Whitford continued to occupy the chair of mathematics until 
 1872, when he resigned to engage in similar work in Milton 
 College, at Milton, Wis., and was succeeded by John R. 
 Groves; who, in his turn, gave way, in 1874, to Professor Ken- 
 yon, then just graduated from College at Alfred, who has oc- 
 cupied that professorship continuously until the present time. 
 
 Although it was a period of unrest, the faculty, as you 
 have observed, under which Professor Kenyon took his college 
 course, comprised some notable characters of no mean aca- 
 demic attainments. 
 
 Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson remarked that in the 
 Cambridge of his youth it was expected that any member of 
 the Harvard faculty could answer any question within the 
 range of human knowledge; whereas in these days of special- 
 ization some man may answer the question, but it may take a 
 week's investigation to find the man. Alfred's faculty, at 
 the time of which we are speaking, was not composed of men 
 as versatile as those of Colonel Higginson's Harvard; but, 
 in all fairness, it may be said that several of Alfred's men were 
 versatile in no small degree. President Allen, for example, 
 on occasion at least, taught practically all, if not actually all, 
 of the subjects of the curriculum, including those of the School 
 of Theology; he was also a member of the New York State bar. 
 William A. Rogers came to Alfred with the expectation of 
 teaching French, but was assigned to the department of Mathe- 
 matics; when the chair of Industrial Mechanics was estab- 
 lished, he was made its first occupant; he also built and equip- 
 ped the astronomical observatory, and began publishing the 
 results of his observations of the heavens, which were of such 
 a character that when there was assigned to Harvard Observa- 
 tory a sixth portion of the German survey of the northern 
 heavens, she employed Professor Rogers to undertake that 
 work. When it was finished and the report published, it 
 proved more comprehensive and more complete than any of 
 
PROFESSOR KENYON 11 
 
 the other five, all of which were made by European institu- 
 tions. Edward M. Tomlinson, while he did not essay teaching 
 outside the classics, was a veritable walking encyclopaedia of 
 general knowledge, read German easily, and was possessed of 
 rare literary accomplishments. Ethan P. Larkin, with his 
 per-fervid imagination, burst like a meteor upon any subject 
 that might happen to appeal to his fancy. Albert Whitford 
 taught Latin with the same degree of exactness and thorough 
 ness with which he taught mathematics. 
 
 Besides Henry M. Maxson and George H. Utter, already 
 named, there were to be found among the student body of 
 that time men like Daniel Lewis, Isaac B. Brown, James 
 McHale, Horace B. Packer, Melville Dewey, Willis I. Lewis, 
 Alfred A. Titsworth, and others. 
 
 Under the tutelage of such a faculty and amid such a 
 student body there was every incentive for any serious minded 
 student to develop all the manly qualities he possessed, and 
 to ripen into a mature, exacting scholarship; and I am sure 
 that Professor Kenyon will pardon me when I say that so 
 profoundly did he impress his preceptors with his ability as 
 a mathematician that he was urged to forego the classical 
 course upon which he had set his heart, and confine himself to 
 the scientific course that he might the better and the more 
 speedily serve his alma mater by taking her chair of mathe- 
 matics. On this occasion, as on many others of his life, he 
 yielded his personal preference, and then completed his under- 
 graduate course as soon as possible, and assumed the chair of 
 mathematics immediately upon his graduation. 
 
 Besides the chair of Mathematics, he has also occupied 
 that of Industrial Mechanics at different periods, never re- 
 linquishing the former, however. In 1886, he became a trustee 
 of the University, and retained that office for a term of some 
 seven years, during one year of which he served the trustees 
 as their recording secretary. Nearly thirty years ago, he 
 became registrar of the University, an office which he re- 
 tained until 1915. In 1908, he was made dean of the college, 
 and has continued in the exercise of that function until the 
 present time. For the greater part of a year immediately fol- 
 lowing the death of President Allen, Professor Kenyon served 
 as acting president of the University. In the midst of his 
 manifold professional duties, he took the time to spend part of 
 a year in graduate study at Cornell University in 1887, upon a 
 quasi leave of absence; continuing however to direct his 
 
12 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 elass-room work at Alfred throughout this entire period. For 
 many years he has been a director of the University Library, 
 and likewise president of the University Corporation. For 
 some decades he has been vice president of the Alfred Uni- 
 versity Alumni Association; indeed, so far as the present 
 speaker's knowledge extends, in recent years there has been 
 no other alumnus, with the exception of Dr. Daniel Lewis, 
 who has been so actively and so intimately connected with 
 that association from its organization in 1886 down to the 
 present time, as Professor Kenyon. For a long term of years, 
 he was treasurer of the Seventh Day Baptist Education So- 
 ciety, a corporation whose assets consist almost wholly of 
 endowment funds of this University. He is still a director of 
 that body. 
 
 Of his non-academic activities, it may not now be perti- 
 nent to speak; but his training as a mathematician has made 
 him so conspicuous a figure in the Building Loan Association 
 movement of this country — a movement with which he be- 
 came identified in the days of its earlier history — that it seems 
 fitting at least to make mention of it here. At an annual 
 meeting of the national body of Building Loan Associations 
 held in my own city, that of Newark, N. J., two years ago, it 
 was a source of pleasure and pride, both, to me to find that 
 Professor Kenyon was so well and so favorably known among 
 its leaders as an expert in their business, and no less favorably 
 known as a college professor. 
 
 Such is a very meagre and a very incomplete outline of 
 the academic career of Alpheus Burdick Kenyon, Professor 
 of Mathematics, Professor of Industrial Mechanics, Trustee, 
 Acting President, Registrar, and College Dean, all of Alfred 
 University. 
 
 Professor Kenyon: I say "Professor" advisedly; for, of all 
 the numerous titles that you have held in the long years of 
 your residence here, that to me is most familiar, as I am 
 sure it is to all the great body of your former students and 
 your army of other friends. 
 
 Professor Kenyon: I say, on behalf of the alumni of our 
 Alma Mater; or, rather, of the entire student body from the 
 time that you yourself matriculated as a student of Alfred 
 University down to the present hour, I bring you, first of all, 
 our affectionate greetings. They come from hearts that 
 recognize — very imperfectly, we know; but, nevertheless, to 
 
PROFESSOR KENYON 13 
 
 some measure, at least — something of what you have done for 
 us. By your severe scholarship, you have taught us logical 
 thinking. By your uprightness of character, you have taught 
 us every-day justice and honesty to all men. By your clean 
 living, you have taught us a morality not found in any formal 
 code. By your abstinence from self-indulgence, you have 
 taught us temperance unknown to the oratory of the forum. 
 By your kindliness of heart and your charity for our faults. 
 you have taught us more of the Golden Rule than have 
 eloquent sermons and learned treatises. As our joys have 
 been your joys, as our grief has been your grief, as our prob- 
 lems have been your problems, as our disappointments and 
 failures have been your disappointments and failures, so have 
 we learned something of our inter-dependence upon one an- 
 other, something of the ties that bind all hearts and lives to- 
 gether, something of the common brotherhood of man. 
 
 I bring you the congratulations of the thousands of these 
 friends of yours — from those of three score and ten down 
 to the youth of today, all, congratulations upon all the varied 
 achievements of your magnificent career, a career that is a 
 goodly heritage. Though it has not brought you abundant 
 stores of material value, it has brought you riches — riches 
 not to be estimated in denominations of silver and gold. 
 Service such as yours can be adequately rewarded only by 
 our Heavenly Father. 
 
 Were we to consult our own selfish feelings only, we 
 should hope that you would continue your service here in- 
 definitely. But we do rejoice that it is possible for you to 
 stop under such favorable auspices for your personal comfort 
 as now exist. We rejoice in the vigor of your body and mind 
 that enable you so confidently to look forward to many 
 happy years free from the exacting responsibilities of a voca- 
 tion, when you will be wholly at liberty to experience to the 
 full the joys of avocation 
 
 Your place in the history of Alfred University is de- 
 termined — fixed for all time. Moreover, in certain respects It 
 is unique, especially so in length of term of service. Even the 
 length of President Allen's long term of devoted self-sacrifice 
 fell short of your achievement. You link the past with the 
 present. You link a period that was little more than the 
 middle of the nineteenth century, when many of us who are 
 now grey-heads were little more than prattling infants; that 
 
14 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 period, I say, you link with this tense, throbbing, all-but-mid- 
 way mark of the first half of the twentieth century. In you 
 more than in any other living person is embodied all that 
 wealth of inspiring tradition of this University, the sort of 
 wealth which every true college man and every true college 
 woman recognizes as the most valuable asset of any educa- 
 tional institution, an asset that cannot be measured by untold 
 millions; and it is our hope, as the years of your retirement 
 upon your "Sabine farm" are to be spent almost under the 
 very eaves of the Old Chapel we all love so well, that the 
 wealth of tradition, the common inheritance of us all, will 
 not only be perpetuated indefinitely in you, but that it will 
 grow richer and will breathe a more delicate, a more subtle 
 and precious perfume as the years go by. 
 
 It is with a sense of very real joy that we learn that you 
 retire as a professor emeritus of the University, and that at 
 its annual meeting yesterday the University corporation again 
 made you a member of its Board of Trustees. This action re- 
 news an old, cherished relation with the University, even 
 though the oldest and the more intimate ties are severed. 
 
 I need not say that it is with the keenest regret that we 
 are conscious that the old-time relations are sundered. It 
 wrenches our very heartstrings to see you go. But you have 
 earned your retirement — earned it many-fold; it is but your 
 just due, and we all rejoice that you can have it under such 
 favorable conditions as now appear. As you go to enjoy 
 what Cicero so fittingly terms your oUum cum dignitate, you 
 will be followed by our affectionate regards and our fervent 
 prayers for the fulfillment of all the hopes with which you 
 have looked forward to this day. 
 
 In yourself we recognize the embodiment of all that 
 Kipling meant when he sang of his own college days: 
 
 "There we met with famous men 
 
 Set in office o'er us; 
 And they beat us on with rods — 
 Faithfully with many rods — 
 Daily beat us on with rods, 
 For the love they bore us! 
 
 "And we all praise famous men — 
 
 Ancients of the College; 
 For they taught us common sense — 
 Tried to teach us common sense — 
 Truth and God's own Common Sense, 
 
 Which Is more than knowledge! 
 
PROFESSOR KENYON 15 
 
 "This we learned from famous men, 
 Knowing not its uses, 
 When they showed in daily work, 
 Man must finish off his work — 
 Right or wrong his daily work — 
 And without excuses. 
 
 "This we learned from famous men, 
 
 Knowing not we learned it, 
 Only, as the years went by — 
 Lonely, as the years went by — 
 Far from help as years went by. 
 
 Plainer we discerned it. 
 
 "Wherefore praise we famous men 
 
 From whose bays we borrow — 
 They that put aside today — 
 All the joys of their today — 
 And with toil of their today 
 
 Bought for us tomorrow! 
 
 "Bless and praise we famous men — 
 
 For their work continueth. 
 For their work continueth, 
 Broad and deep continueth. 
 
 Great beyond their knowing." 
 
 Guide of youth for almost half a century; Philosopher, ex- 
 emplifying in yourself, in their simplest terms, what is best 
 and truest in all worth-while philosophies of life; Friend to 
 thousands, with loving memory; as your mantle of sacred 
 service falls upon the shoulders of your successor, of your 
 successors, may a double portion of your spirit go with it. 
 
 Professor Kenyon: Close your eyes for a moment, and 
 with me gaze upon this throng as it files past you — two score 
 and six years in length — all with shining faces, each laying 
 upon your altar a sacrifice of affectionate regard; and, as we 
 depart, hear us as with one mighty tumultuous voice we 
 joyfully shout "Hail, Professor Kenyon, but not farewell, only 
 au revoir." 
 
 And now if you will be good enough to conceive that of 
 all these merry, parting guests of yours, I have lingered till 
 I am the last to go, the one charged with leaving with you 
 some tangible evidence of our hasty call, pray accept this as 
 such evidence — a token,* by no means a measure, of our love 
 
 * This token consisted of $850 in gold. 
 
16 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESSES 
 
 and affection for you; and, if by any chance you find that in 
 any way it contributes to your comfort and enjoyment of life, 
 be assured that it will add to our joys to feel that we have 
 added something to your joys, and that we shall be repaid, 
 more than doubly so, for this fleeting visit. May Heaven's 
 richest blessings rest upon you. 
 
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