Gbe

Htlanta Uiniversit^

bulletinPublished Bimonthly by Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.

Series II AUGUST, 1927 No. 70

President Emeritus Edward T. Ware

Entered as second class matter, October 25, 1910, at the post-office at Atlanta. Ga.,under the Act of July 16, 1894. Acceptance for mailing: at special rate of postage

provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3rd, 1918

Price, 25c. a Year Single Copies, 10c.

J

<*T KNOW the Lord has laid his hand on

1 me.” Whatever your ambition may bein the world, I hope that you may have asense of having a divine commission Thereis no worthy occupation which may not beto you a means for the service of God. Ihope each one of you may be able to feeland to say as you go forth into the world,‘T know the Lord has laid his hand on me.

I have my commission from above.”—From address of President Ware to graduates,

1916.

Gbe Btlanta XUntverslty BulletinSeries II AUGUST, 1927 No. 70

Sketch of President Emeritus Ware

Edward Twichell Ware was the son of the first presidentof Atlanta University, Edmund Asa Ware, and Mrs. JaneTwichell Ware. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, March 24,1874. His boyhood days were spent in Atlanta and his ele¬mentary and part of his high school education was obtainedhere. Two years after the death of his father, which was in1886, and by reason of the ill health of his mother, who diedin 1889, he became a member of the family of his uncle, Dr.Joseph H. Twichell, of Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Twichellwas one of the leading pastors in Hartford and long a trus¬tee of Yale University, and in his home Mr. Ware grew tomanhood.

After he graduated from the Hartford high school, he en¬tered Yale, where he was one of the well known and influen¬tial members of the class of 1897. He then entered UnionTheological Seminary in New York, from which institutionhe graduated in 1901. During his Seminary course he spenthis summers in the service of Atlanta University, directing a

quartet which toured New York and New England each yearin the interest of that institution. While educated for the

ministry, to which he was ordained in 1901, he had all thetime the distinct purpose of serving Atlanta University, ofwhich his father had been first President and of which hisfather’s classmate, Horace Bumstead, was the second Presi¬dent. He therefore became Chaplain of that institution in1901, serving in part in Atlanta and in part as a representativeof this work to friends in the North. In 1907, at the resigna¬tion of Dr. Bumstead, he was unanimously elected Presidentof the institution and served actively until 1919, when he wasstricken with tuberculosis and obliged to leave his work.

Prospects for a recovery were so bright for a considerabletime that he did not resign his official connection with the in-

2 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

stitution until 1922, at which time he was made PresidentEmeritus and a member of the Board of Trustees. Duringhis illness he spent a part of the time in a sanitarium in NewYork, a part in his summer home at Ogunquit, Maine, a partin his home in Montclair, N. J. From there he went to asanitarium in Denver, Colorado, in 1925, then in 1926 rejoinedhis family in their new home in Claremont, California. Itwas the hope of the family that his life might be spared andhis health sufficiently comfortable to make not only a happyhome for themselves, but also a home whose beneficent influ¬ence would be a help to those students of Pomona Collegewith whom they might come in contact. This hope seemedrealized for a time, but in May he was stricken seriously anddied unexpectedly May 19, 1927.

Mr. Ware married Miss Alice Holdship of Pittsburg, Pa.,June 30, 1905. She survives him with two sons, the older ofwhom, Alexander, was last year a sophomore in Pomona Col¬lege and the younger, Henry, a student in the Webb School,Claremont.

Mr. Ware was a man of fine presence, cultivated mannerand refined sensibilties. His ideals were high, and he had aneffective way of presenting them. His baccalaureate sermons

invariably showed the noble qualities of his mind. Mrs. Ware,whose education had been at Smith College and in some meas¬ure abroad, shared with him in his ideals and ambitions.Theirs was a home in which both were a unit in promotingwhat was the best, and this unity of purpose and ideals wasobvious wherever they lived.

Mr. Ware while in Atlanta was also deeply interested in theLeonard Street Orphanage and was President of its Board ofTrustees. He was an active and influential member of theInterracial Committee, in which connection he was able to seewith justice and fairness the different sides of the variousproblems presented. He was a member of the Unity Club inAtlanta and of the Yale Club in New York.

In other parts of this issue are found tributes to Mr. Ware.The service on Baccalaureate Sunday gave a special opportu-

THE BULLETIN 3

nity for remembering him, and a brief statement was madeby President Adams and a longer tribute, which appears inthis issue, by Professor Towns.

Tribute to President Emeritus Ware

By Professor George A. Towns, read on Baccalaureate Sunday, May 29, 1927

In October, 1885, I became acquainted with a frail littleboy, eleven years old, who had mild and deep blue eyes un¬der long dark lashes, and a heavy shock of dark brown hair.We met and spoke unceremoniously and before many hourswe were tossing ball together on the playground. The nextweek I had an invitation to go down the hill to play. Thatwas the beginning of my acquaintance with the lad Ed Ware.

I was one class above him, but my having to remain outof school a year, threw us together in the second year of thepreparatory school. His mother, at that time, had declinedin health to such a degree that she could not mount the stairs.So her son and I would cross our wrists for her seat and havethe privilege daily of carrying her up the stairs of South Hall,after she had sat on the balcony in the sun.

There were not enough small boys of our size boarding inthe school to form a third baseball team, but we formed a teamall the same. Ed Ware and I were members of it. He was

a gentle lad who strove to excel in work as well as play. Ina baseball game, I can see him now almost pulled down as heswung the heavy baseball bat. His running to the bases waswith so much earnestness that it made one almost ashamedto throw him out at first. His buoyant spirit made him wishalways to do his part, and that without sympathy or helpfrom others.

He was generous in every fibre. He let our team use hisbaseball; and when we burst the cover, he let us still play onuntil we batted the cover off completely, and then we battedthe ball of thread.

While wrestling once upon the hay down in the barn, Ithrew him by my tripping. His pride was wounded; he feltthe tripping was unfair, and though he held no grudge, he

4 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

never forgot that fall. About seven years later and after hewas out of college, he challenged me for a French wrestle,which was all unknown to me, by locking legs upon a lawnin a New Hampshire mountain village. Before I knew any¬

thing, I was whirling in a summersault; whereupon, I ex¬claimed, “Oh, is that it?” He laughed so gleefully at histriumph, I seem to hear it now.

In class also, he had a keen sense of humor and he enjoyed agood laugh. He was so tender hearted and sympathetic thata scolding for the class was always taken to himself and hecould hardly keep the tears back, even though the scolding wasnot aimed at him. He was pure and sweet in mind and body.

In our third preparatory year, his mother’s health necessi¬tated that she leave Atlanta to live with her brother in Hart¬ford, Connecticut; so that my young friend then entered theHartford high school. I received toward the end of the yeara postal card with as much glee as it had been sent, tellingme of his winning the prize for walking in the high schooltrack contest.

While he was preparing for college, he spent his vacationson the Downs farm in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, for thesake of building himself up physically. I visited him theretwo or three times. Some of his work there was quite com¬mon and laborious, but he never complained. After he be¬came our president, he told me of the heartaches he had on

that farm, but, he said, he did not regret one bit of those ex¬

periences. On these visits to the farm he would take me tohis rustic room and communicate to me his dreams. We re¬

called with pleasure our companions and our days together inAtlanta. But there was never a word of rebellion againstthe hard work he was then doing.

At Yale he grew tall and handsome, somewhat more filledout and somewhat more vigorous. He went in for footballalthough he had little hope of making the team. His publicspirit made him do his part for the sake of influencing otherstudents to come out so as to give Yale the strongest possibleteam.

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He was as highly esteemed in New Haven as he was inAtlanta. His uncle, Rev. Joseph Twichell, was one of themost widely known and most popular Yale men in the country.His cousins were also prominent in Yale affairs, but he, by hisown sheer worth was singled out for some of Yale’s mostcherished honors. He was so democratic that I have heard itsaid he knew every man in college during his day, and cer¬tainly every one in his large class.

I met him again during the vacation following his gradua¬tion from Yale. Then he had fully dedicated himself to thiswork. He had planned to attend Union Theological Seminaryfrom which he was afterwards graduated. He was an ardentlover of nature and of outdoor life, and he told me at thattime how he lay upon one of the beautiful sunny hillsides,covered with fir trees, somewhere in New England, and howthe beauty of the scene so impressed him that it made himwish to pray; and there alone he prayed simply because hefelt like doing so—a natural longing of his pure soul.

I wish all this I have said to illustrate how the boy, EdWare, was father to the man, President Edward TwichellWare. The same simple sweetness and purity of life, thesame generous impulses, the same sympathy and broadmind¬edness, the same earnestness and courage and idealism man¬ifested itself throughout his whole life.

First of all, Mr. Ware was a man of broad sympathies. Atthe beginning of his administration, he was the first Northernwhite man to help form the Inter-church Cooperation Move¬ment in Atlanta, out of which grew the movement for betterinter-racial relations which has spread all over the UnitedStates. Some had fears that he was deserting us. We are

jealous, you know, of our friends, and we sometimes fearthat their affection for us will be alienated when they showmuch interest across the color line. Mr. Ware was too muchof a Samaritan for such narrow sympathies. He felt a gen¬uine interest in all for the good of all. His loyalty was not anarrow loyalty; it went out far beyond his immediate circleand his immediate responsibilities.

6 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

It showed itself also in the sympathetic work for the Leon¬ard Street Orphanage of which he was a trustee. Miss Chad¬wick so much valued his generous sympathy and help that hewas held on the board of trustees long after his health haddeclined. He never let pass a chance to help the orphanage.

He was always ready to cooperate with other colleges andinstitutions. I recall that once there was an effort made tostimulate rural schools by organizing corn clubs throughoutthe state. I was a member of the committee and I often won¬

dered why a busy president, oppressed with the grind of get¬ting funds for his own work, did not delegate this task tosome of his workers so as to free himself. But that was nothis idea of showing interest in a movement and sympathy forit. At heavy cost to his strength he went to meeting aftermeeting and discussed with greatest patience what should bedone to encourage the country lads to do their best. His bigheart so thoroughly and so sympathetically allied itself withthe colored people that he naturally and easily said “our peo¬ple” when he spoke to them. And there was none of theempty shamming in it for effect. His one desire—his longing— was for unity, for harmony. The most frequent idea ex¬pressed in his prayers was for unity—for ‘ ‘oneness with Thee’ ’—in which he comprehended the fellowship of all races as chil¬dren of God. How often he prayed, using these words of Lin¬coln’s: “That we here highly resolve to follow the lead of thoseearly workers who here paid the last full measure of devotion;that we here dedicate ourselves to their unfinished work.”

But genuine sympathy, or the lack of it, is sometimes mosteasily seen when one has complete power to work one’s willover another. This incident will reveal the heart of Mr. Ware.Once he went on a deer-hunting trip in the Adirondack moun¬tains. After a long journey and hours of stalking, he had afine chance to shoot a deer browsing on the edge of a pond.The creature stopped, looked toward him with wide eyes—and he told me he could not bring himself to take its life.

Next I would mention his humor. This came to him fromboth sides of his family. He enjoyed a laugh. It was no

THE BULLETIN 7

gentle snicker or quiet chuckle; when he was amused his soulcame bursting out of his wjde opened mouth, and his eyesscintillated so that a listener caught his humor even thoughhe may not have fully appreciated the point of the joke. Heand I were coming home one dark rainy night through anunpaved and unlighted street near our campus. I jumped toavoid what seemed a puddle of muddy water, but I landed inthe middle of the pool and fell flat on my face. I knew hewas sorry for me, but he laughed almost to suffocation.

Just one year ago, I went to see him in Denver, Colorado.I did not let him know I was coming. He was just on thepoint of going out to play golf. His face lit up and his eyesshone with an almost heavenly light. He looked somewhatthinper than when I last saw him in New Jersey, and heseemed surprisingly cheerful and active. He was expectinga visit within a few days from his wife. He took Dr. PaulSpratlin ’81 and me into his sleeping porch where we sat downand talked. He showed me the typewriter which the gradu¬ates had given him. His heart was literally bubbling overwith joy at the news of what we graduates were undertakingto do for the University. He made helpful suggestions aboutour drive, and his whole thought was about Atlanta Univer¬sity. I tried to divert him by speaking of the wonderful viewover the beautiful meadow of green alfalfa and the distantmountains. Even then he caught me up and asked about Mr.Huth and our herd; and he wondered if Mr. Huth knew aboutthose Colorado methods of farming. It was impossible to gethim far away from his loving thoughts of us and of this place.

Lastly I would tell of Mr. Ware’s idealism. He used theword frequently. In his sermons and addresses, he liked toquote Browning’s “Rabbi Ben Ezra”:

“Poor vaunt of life indeed,Were Man but formed to feed

On joy, to solely seek and find and feast:Such feasting ended, thenAs sure an end to men.

8 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

“Rejoice we are alliedTo That which doth provide.

And not partake, effect and not receive!A spark disturbs our clod;Nearer we hold of God

Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe.

“Then, welcome each rebuffThat turns earth’s smoothness rough,

Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!Be our joys three-parts pain!Strive, and hold cheap the strain:

Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!’’

And that was his life, his religion. He had many a strain,many a rebuff, many a pang, but he did not grudge the throe.I know myself of some of the rebuffs he suffered, not for him¬self, but for you and me, my brothers. He was a handsomeyoung man, with winsome ways, and beckoned by fortune,but he forsook ease, in a wealthy parish with light duties andmuch social preferment. For him the white gleam of hisidealism surpassed the gleam of gold.

In that, the world would not call him practical, and in real¬ity that was true. I fear he was not a good business man; Ithink he would not have liked to be called practical, as theworld understands the term. He was, rather, a poet. Inheart, in passion, in breadth of sympathy, in devotion to whatought to be, in good will to all men, in tenderness, in goodhumor, in everything except the trick of finding meters toexpress the feelings of his noble soul, he was a poet. Thethrobbing of his big and generous heart beat down the frailframework of his body which was always inadequate to househis spirit.

I say of him as another of our graduates, Dr. Wm. H. Crog-man, said of the first President Ware: ‘Whether you realizeit or not, God gave us for twenty years a character resplend¬ent with virtues and graces, to move in and out among us,that we might see how men are made.”

THE BULLETIN 9

The Earthly End

Mr. Ware unexpectedly became worse at his home inClaremont, California, the middle of May. Upon learningthis fact two of his New England sisters, Mrs. Kate WareSmith and Mrs. Gertrude Ware Bunce, began their journeyto his home on Thursday, May the nineteenth. That samenight at about eight o’clock, just after the physician had leftthe home with words of encouragement, he was taken with aviolent hemorrhage and passed into the other life, withoutsuffering.

The sisters reached Claremont on Monday. The funeralservices were held on the afternoon of that day. AtlantaUniversity was represented by flowers: lilies of the valley,easter lilies and roses. The services were simple, includingthe reading of two short poems, a violin solo, a spiritual, thescripture and prayer. As the clergyman dropped the hand¬ful of dust upon the casket he read these words:

“Here in my curving hand I cupThe Quiet Dust, I lift it up.Here is the mother of all thought.Of this the shining Heavens are wrought,The laughing lips, the feet that rove,The face, the body, that you love:Mere dust, no more, yet nothing less,And this has suffered consciousness,Passion and terror, this againShall suffer passion, death and pain,For as all flesh must die, so all,Now dust, shall live. ’Tis natural:Yet hardly do I understand—Here in the hollow of my handA bit of God himself I keep.‘Between two vigils fallen asleep’.”

“He had the strength of the mountains,And the serenity of the evening.

In Beauty may we walk,All day long may we walk,

Through the returning seasons may we walk.It is finished in Beauty,

In the house of the evening light,On the trail of the evening light,

It is finished in Beauty.”

10 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

Edward Twichell Ware

[The Atlanta Independent, May 26]

Mr. Ware was the son of Edmund Asa Ware, president andfounder of Atlanta University. In after years Mr. Warewas president of Atlanta University as was his distinguishedfather. He was educated at Atlanta University, Yale andthe Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He wasa distinguished scholar and liberal educator, devoted sincerelyto the Christian education of the masses.

He was a wonderful man in personality, inheriting fromhis father distinctive traits of leadership. Like Booker T.Washington and all Christian educators, his heart went outto the man farthest down. He fought many years to over¬come the dreaded white plague, which finally bested him inClaremont, California, May 19, 1927. Mr. Ware only livedwith a hope of carrying out the work of his illustrious father,and in spite of fatal afflictions he never lost hope or interestin Atlanta University.

We were classmates in the high school in the late 80’s andwe had an opportunity to know the dead educator in his boy¬hood, and to watch him grow to manhood. He loved his joband put the most in the man into his everyday task. Yes, hewas a wonderful character and will be missed as a contributorto the world’s thought and advancement of Christian educa¬tion. The Independent mourns his death and sympathizeswith the family and the causes for which he lived and died.He was a friend to mankind, and in his death mankind haslost a friend and big brother.

[The Congregationalist, June 2]

Edward Twichell Ware, for many years a prominent andbeloved Southern educator, died on May 19, in Claremont,California, where his two sons are students in Pomona College.His father, Edmund Asa Ware, was the founder and firstpresident of Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga. EdwardTwichell Ware was born in Atlanta, March 24, 1874. Hegraduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1901, and

THE BULLETIN 11

from 1907 to 1922 was president of Atlanta University, be¬coming thereafter president emeritus. In his later years hesuffered from tuberculosis, and he went to Claremont, Califor¬nia, where his health seemed to improve. He retained to thelast the vigorous and highly developed faculties of his mind.

He rendered highly valuable service to a growing universitywhich today, because of his untiring efforts, has an increas¬ingly important part in molding the new South. He was be¬loved for his skill in conducting the affairs of the university,for his Christian personality, and for his understanding of,and active interest in, the problems of the South and all itspeople. He was endowed with a rare, sweet spirit, and wasalways gracious and kindly. His outstanding ability andsaintly character were devoted throughout his life to the ed¬ucation and advancement of the colored people. He retainedto the end his keen interest in Atlanta University and foundmany ways in which to continue in its service. His life hasmade a beautiful and indelible impression upon the gratefulSouth.

[The Survey, July 15]

At the time of his death on May 19, Edward Twichell Warewas president emeritus of Atlanta University, having resignedthe active presidency on account of tuberculosis which at¬tacked him eight years ago. He was born and brought upin Atlanta, surrounded by the New England teachers of theUniversity and by its Negro students and teachers. In hishome he watched his parents live their lives of service andChristian faith. After graduating from Yale and from UnionTheological Seminary, he traveled in the North as financialsecretary for the University. His heart was in his work. Hebelieved in it. He felt then as indeed he did until the day ofhis death, that here was a chance to put Christianity to thetest, to make of "brotherhood” something more than a word.He believed that every soul, regardless of race, color, creed,should have a chance to train and use what power lay withinhim. Atlanta University was chartered "for the liberal and

12 ATLANTA UNIVERSITY

Christian education of youth.” Its aim was to prepare lead¬ers. Over 80 per cent of its graduates have been teachers.

After his marriage in 1905 and after a short term as chap¬lain, Mr. Ware succeeded Horace Bumstead as the third pres¬ident of Atlanta. Trusted utterly by his Negro friends, henever ceased to try to win some of the southern white leadersto a deeper understanding of the Negro situation. He believedthat the leaders of both races should work together and learnof each other. He pleaded for tolerance and an interest thatincluded not only family, school, race, but the welfare ofmankind. He warned against partisanship and urged coop¬eration wherever that might be brought about without thelowering of standards. He had the courage that “listenedto another’s personality” and he had a faith that never ad¬mitted defeat for any struggling soul. In his search forhealth in various sanitaria, he touched many lives. Youngpeople especially felt his strength and serenity and pioneerspirit and became aware of new ways of transforming defeatinto victory.

“The passing of Mr. Ware saddens me. So noble and so true.“Mrs. Florence J. Hunt, Fort Valley.”

“Savannah Atlanta University Club learns with sorrow of death ofPresident Emeritus Ware. Eextends his family heartfelt sympathy.

“Savannah Atlanta University Club.”

“It (his interest in this work) is a challenge to his friends to keep uptheir efforts for the work to which he so surely gave his life.”

Extract from letter of a friend.

EDMUND ASA WARE

First President of Atlanta University, 1867-1885

HPHE spirit of service is the spirit of sym-1 pathy for all who are in need, and the

spirit of willingness to sacrifice for them.The highest evidence of this spirit is self¬giving love. The test always comes withthe dawning consciousness of power, forwith power comes the temptation to greedand selfishness and the spirit of arroganceand haughtiness. But the servant welcomespower as the opportunity for larger service.

—From baccalaureate sermon of President Warein 1911.

LWAYS before mankind, like a guiding1 * star, has shone the ideal of freedom.Too often it has been tinged with selfish¬ness, freedom to do as one pleases regardlessof consequences to others. The time hascome for the spread of a social consciousnesswhich recognizes that each man’s freedomis wrapped up in the opportunity and free¬dom of every other. I see a vision of strongyoung men and women attaining this more

perfect freedom in the service of their fel¬lows in the South.

—From baccalaureate sermon of President Warein 191U.