Thursday, June 20, 1918
CLOSING EXERCISES OF KEENE NORMAL SCHOOL
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Large Class Receives Its Diplomas In City Hall
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Governor Keyes, Who Was Expected To Be Present, Unable To Come,
But Military Escort Acts: - Address by Dr. Willard Scott.
The commencement exercises of the normal school in Keene were held on Wednesday evening in city hall. The friends of the pupils and citizens turned out in large numbers, the hall being well filled. The speaker of the evening, Dr. Willard Scott of Brookline, Mass., proved to be versatile and entertaining, adding a broad touch of inspiration and patriotism to an address filled with stories and amusing or patriotic narratives. The Normal Glee club sang several numbers. Gov. Keyes, who was expected here to present the diplomas, telegraphed late in the afternoon that he could not leave Concord, and Col. P. F. Babbidge responded to the draft and performed that duty. The invocation was by Dr. Leitch and the benediction by Rev. D. P. Gaines
Company K, New Hampshire state guard, turned out with about 40 men to escort the seniors, instructors and under class members from the normal school to city hall, and the procession was an unusual one, with its sixty odd seniors in black caps and gowns, preceded by the faculty and teachers, some thirty in number, and followed by the large class of juniors in white. On the stage at city hall were seated His Honor Mayor Eames, Wallace E. Mason, director of the school, Dr. Willard Scott, the speaker of the evening, Frank A. Whitcomb, president of the board of education of Keene, Col. P. F. Babbidge, 1st regiment N. H. state guard, and Rev. F. A. Leitch, Mr. Gaines not being able to come in until later. The program was as follows:
Prayer Rev. Fred A. Leitch
Music, “Invocation to St. Cecilia” V. Harris
Address, “Playing the Game” Dr. Willard Scott
Music, (a) “What Can Lambkins Do?” Coleridge-Taylor
(b) “Sweet of the Year” Mary Turner Salter
Presentation of diplomas Col. Paul F. Babbidge
Music, “Hail, Fairest Land” George Chittenden Tarner
Benediction Rev. DS. P. Gaines
Dr. Scott, who is a minister, a tall man and a good deal of a humorist, was introduced by Principal Mason with the assurance that he would have something to say that would be worth hearing and that if the audience appeared in a receptive and agreeable state of mind, he might entertain them for some time. The doctor certainly made good as suggested in his introduction. Being a tall man, as before stated, he began by remarking, “I am here at length” and then told a story about the very kind cow a man had for sale. When asked if she would give much milk, he said he did not know about that, but he knew she was a very kind cow and would freely give all she had.
Passing to conditions of today, Dr. Scott asked the graduates to remember that this war would be over by and by, and would figure in history merely as an episode. But, on the other hand, it was bound to change conditions a lot. The scholars graduating today from our schools and colleges are entering the world under vastly different conditions from those which obtained in his youth. The way in which we operate our ideals today is very different from what it was then. The speaker then operated his ideals in what he called the true academic way and became a minister. He told an amusing story of the minister of his boyhood, who did much the same thing, and preached from a very high pulpit, entirely over the heads of his congregation. He was either 2000 years behind, or 200 years ahead of the times – it did not matter which – for he was truly “a holy man of God” and it was through reaching up from a near-by pew to get in touch with those lofty ideals that the speaker grew so tall, he presumed. Today they have cut the pulpit down and the ministers often have to stand outside of it to preach. In fact while he used to be concealed and protected below his shoulders, a bow-legged man can’t be ordained today. The minister must get down and get in touch with his people. And the people while apparently hearing less religion are, in the speaker’s opinion, vastly more religious in their purposes and ideals.
Conditions surrounding and governing teachers are also vastly different from what they were not so long ago. You have to know other things than those printed in the books and you have to know how to come over and hand them to your pupils. The vocational idea has come in its manifold forms. Old standards don’t go. People have found out that the salutorian and valedictorian amount to something – but not so much – and that pupils make marks in the world who get none to speak of in school. The boy who said, when reprimanded by his father for standing at the foot of his class, that “they taught just the same thing at both ends,” had a vision. perhaps, of the practical kind, such as goes now.
A man like the revered Dr. Hopkins of Williams would be no good for a college president today. It requires an administrator, a builder and an organizer. And so with the teachers. All are on a definite task to get out and do something. The parish house is more important than the pulpit; the teacher must be one who can enter into the service of the community. The biggest word is “economics” and he who does not relate his ideals to that may get left. Feeble candles blow out, but those which get where there is a full supply of oxygen glow with a living flame. And the ideals of this nation today are greater and grander than ever before and are flaming forth in a magnificence that startles the world. We are in the decade that makes great souls. Witness the thousands of men in our training camps and on the battle front and remember we must clean up our towns and cities to be on a par with them, morally, when they come home – the first army the world has ever known that works with a stupendous moral power. It is not a question of right or wrong ethically, “but does it make you fit or unfit?” We must all learn what will put us into condition for the task of life before us. The graduates of this school are going to teach something besides grammar. They are to be models to teach the ways to live – to connect themselves with the go of the world.
The thing the graduates of this school must do is “to play the game.” It is our business to understand where we are. Defaulting an immediate opportunity is the great sin of life. It is by faith in and devotion to the task before us that one gains the opportunity of life and “plays the game” day by day, with God’s help. The world of contention is the finest world. The soul that braves the storm and remains firm and true will win the final test of life, as other great souls have done. The speaker closed with a touching illustration of his ideal by picturing a becalmed yacht in the harbor, with some miles to go, while not a breath of wind filled the mainsail. But when the skipper, having faith, hoisted his topsail to the higher current above, his sail filled and bore the boat quickly and proudly to its harbor.
Director Mason read a telegram from Gov. Keyes expressing much regret that he could not be present, and a return telegram expressing the regrets of the Keene assembly was sent to the governor. Mr. Mason also explained how some of the Union district teachers in Keene, who were continued in their work when the normal school took over the local schools five years ago, had completed normal training courses and were to secure their diplomas. Graduates in a special course and a junior high course are also getting diplomas. Mr. Mason thought an equivalent of the post-graduate course would soon be required in the regular normal work to cover three or four years. Some pupils, because of sickness, or for the reason that they have taken schools, recently, owing to the inadequate supply of teachers, will be awarded their diplomas later. In the list of graduates below those designated with a star belong to the latter group.
The graduates:
* Antoinette Auger
Helen Louise Bachelder
Esther Desper Balch
* E. Meda Bemis
Elsie Betz
Laura Bradley
Bertha Lillian Bryant
Gertrude Irene Buffington
Hazel Bernice Butler
Amy Tryphena Butterfield
Mildred Louise Capron
Josephine Frances Carey
* Mary Gladys Carney
* Marjorie Lucille Collins
Irene Anna Connor
(catalog has “Genevieve” as middle name)
Elsie Mildred Cronk
Leona Hannah Day
Dorothy Derby
Catherine Agnes Doran
Anastasia M. Drennan (catalog has “Anna” as first name)
Esther Crain Dyer
Dorothy Florence Emery
Blanche S. Fairbank
* Mary Magdalene Farley
Celia Finkelstein
Grace Emily Fitzgerald
Margaret Theresa Fitzgerald
Hortense Mary Forbes
Hazel E. Gould
Hazel Mildred Hannaford
* Clara Bernadene Hanson
Mary Harris
* Grace C. Henderson
* Alice M. Kennedy
Lillian Frances Keyes
Marian E. LaMere
Imogene L. Lawrence
Margaret C. McGuiness
* Mary E. McQuesten
Caroline Elizabeth Marston
* Doris Hazel Miller
* Miriam Olive Morrill
Gertrude Olive Morrison
Rachel Olive Perley
Helen Pinkham
Hazel Olive Place
* Doris Louise Potter
* Harriet Mae Powers
Helen Areannah Rand
Mary Louise Riddle
Hazel Rebecca Sandlun
Goldie Mae Somers
Bertha Edith Stearns
* Lucetta Stickney
Maude Emma Stone
Frances Katherine Thornton
Frances Adelaide Towle
Agnes Ellen Weston (catalog has “Helen” as middle name)
Agnes Mildred Wheeler
Olive Ellen Whipple
Mary Choate White
Harriet Wightman
Ruth Braley Wightman
Claire Leona Zimmerman
Junior High Course
Evelyn Falvey ‘17
Vera Butler ‘17
Lena Henry ‘16
Post Graduate Course
Elinor Johnson ’17 Music
Sadie M. Safford ’17 Domestic Arts
Elinor Elliott ’17 Drawing
Marion French 17 Drawing Mas. Nor. Art.
Special Course
Ethel Gertrude Murphy
Harriet Butler
Doris March Story
Doris M. Whipple
Teachers’ Course
Harriet Evleth
Mabel M. Fisher
S. Annie Strong