The Dickinson Alumnus
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
THE DICKINSON ALUMNUS APRIL 1963 THE DICKINSON ALUMNUS APRIL 1963 VOLUME 40 NUMBER 3 IN THIS ISSUE EDITOR 1 Dickinson College-100 Years Ago Thomas H. Young, Jr. '53 4 Changes In The Administrative Lineup ASSOCIATE EDITOR Roger H. Steck '26 6 Shakespeare and Schirra 8 Around The Campus HONORARY EDITORS Dean Hoffman '02 12 Alumni Club Activities Gilbert Malcolm '15 14 Alumni Authors ALUMNI PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE Whitfield J. Bell, Jr. '35, Chairman 15 Letters To The Editor Rolland Adams '27 Robertson C. Cameron '28 William B. Harlan '50 16 Revised Alumni Association Constitution Carl A. High '51 Harry E. Hinebauch '34 Anne Hollister '54 18 Election Time David L. McGahey '60 John L. Mcintyre '35 Lois Mecum Page '61 23 Personal Mention The Dickinson A lum nus is published quarterly in October, January, April and July. Entered as ON THE COVER second class matter May 23. 1923, We return to the traditional cover picture-from a non-traditional angle-to at the post office at Carlisle, Pennsyl• announce the designation of Old West as a national historic shrine. It was vania, under the Act of Congress of dedicated by the U. S. Department of Interior at ceremonies held at the March 3, J 879. College on April 25. Dickinson College - 100 Years Ago ROBERT L. MORRIS April, 1963 The College Has Changed-Have the Students? ETTERS FROM the Waitman T. Willey Collec• all the damages. Beside the faculty have arranged L tion at West Virginia University Library reveal various ways by which they make a little extra. that although Dickinson College has changed a great They procure all the books and stationary (sic) deal in the past century students are changeless in which the students use, and by extending the credit many respects. system to those who have no patrons, and obliging William P. Willey, son of one of West Virginia's first those who have patrons to buy of them, they get Senators-Waitman T. Willey, was a student at Dick• near all the students to buy of them, and they lay inson during the early years of the Civil War. Some of on the price. They also charge 1.50 (sic) per year the student's letters home have been preserved among for the use of the library, and I believe there is not the Senator's papers at West Virginia University Li• a half doz books taken out in a month, by the brary. The letters, written during William P. Willey's students. Junior and Senior years, give interesting glimpses of Later in his letter, April of 1860, Willey com• life at Dickinson College a century ago and demon• plained about the charge for the library. "I have not strate that students are the same in every generation. been in yet," he wrote, "but I see he had included it One subject is common to all of Willey's letters to in my account." his father-money. In every letter extant he eventually gets around to the subject dearest--or at least nearest ERHAPS WILLEY'S references to the infrequent -to the heart of any college student. In one letter he P use of the library gives us some clue to the sub• begins: "I have not much to write you, but as I have ject discussed with almost the same frequency as to write to some one this week. I thought perhaps money-and that was how difficult it was to be a stu• you would like to hear something about my pecuniary dent at Dickinson. affairs, as you wished me to tell you a short time He wrote his father preparing him for a bad report: before I would need any money." On that occasion I amdoing as well in college as ever, and I think he needed $30. better than ever, at least I study more, but as I In one of the last letters William Willey wrote to told you before leaving home, you need not expect his father from Dickinson, he discussed his plans upon as good reports, for it keeps a Junior in Dickinson graduation. It was a fourteen page letter, and on page College working day and night to be even passed in one was a postscript to Senator Willey to be sure to his studies. It is now a great question among the read pages twelve through fourteen if he did not have members of our class whether one half will be ad• time to read the whole letter. On page twelve, the vanced at the end of the year. boy revealed his desire to study law but said that he And then he wrote explaining why the report was was willing to teach school for awhile if his father not better: could not support him as a law student. He said he did My last report did not pay me for a months hard not want to settle in his hometown, Morgantown, West study. I expected to get at least one 4 mark. Virginia, which he referred to as "repugnant." On But I have come to the conclusion, that it next to page fourteen of that letter? You guessed it! He asked the hardest thing in this world. A person has to for money. keep his mind as bright as a ~ew cen~ at all time, In another letter he had listed his expenses as: for if he is called up to the chair to recite, especially 37.50 for tuition upon a memory lesson, and feels a little dull, he is 3.00 modern language fee sure to forget the points in the lesson, and then 1.00 library fee ask the prof. to give you a start and he will tell 2.50 for use of recitation rooms you to start to your seat. This answer I have often 2.00 janitorial services thought from what I have seen to be very deleteri• 5.17 room rent ous to the nervous system, though I have not yet re• He explained that he realized the expenses were ceived it, yet I can judge of its effects from those greater than expected but that: that have. It is a continual tug from week to week. The principle they go on here, is, that each stu• We have no day of rest to look forward to, one dent pays for all he gets, or that all combined pay day's work is about as hard as another, and we can the expenses of the college. The students rent the only distinguish the days of the week by this little college, pay the teachers their salaries, and repair change in the studies. Sometimes I think I would 2 The Dickinson Alumnus Robert L. Morris is an associate professor of Russian His• tory at Indiana State College, Indiana, Pa. He was a magna cum laude graduate of Lycoming College in 1955 and re• ceived a master's degree in 1960 from Columbia University. It was while working on his Ph.D. dissertation that Professor Morris came across the information about William P. Willey which provided the background for this story. The Dickinson Alumnus is indeed indebted to Professor Morris and his wife, whom Morris confesses found the Willey letters and prevailed upon her husband to do the article which you have just read. about as soon be in a penitentiary, but then I know students more or less, when they have duties to per• that there must something result from all this labor, form in the Lit Societies, but you must remember as a reward for my labor I expect to come out a that one mark does not signify absence for one day, schollar (sic) and am certain that I will if my life but one absence from one recitation. and health are spared. As for my reports, I know This did not explain the unexcused absence from that they are all by which you have to judge of my prayers however. The report of his grades, also found progress, and for this reason I try to make them as in his father's correspondence, reveal that William P. creditable as I can, but I cannot always have them Willey had six unexcused absences from prayers as well good, even when I do my utmost towards it, for I as one from class. Nevertheless, evidently Willey was a assure you it is an exceedingly hard thing to merit good student. He had a 4 (exemplary) in habits and a good one, beside running the risk of not getting deportment and another 4 in ethics from Professor Col• it when it is merited, but while I stand as well as lins-probably the same Collins who was then Presi• any in my class I am content, and only while this dent of Dickinson. Willey's grade report for the year is so. ending in June, 1860, also carried J's in philosophy, Frequently the professors were to blame .. for poor mathematics, and natural science with a 31/2 in ancient reports--especially the mathematics instructor who language. introduced a new study ( Olmstead's mechanics) and expected his students to remember a great deal of NL Y ONE of the letters in the collection has any minutiae. Everyone had just about given up, but not 0 comment on the political situation and the Civil William P. Willey! He wrote his father that he was War. From that letter-March 17, 1862-it is clear convinced it was "Sink or swim, survive or perish." that William P. Willey was sympathetic toward the South.