HONORARY PALLBEARERS James P. Brawle!Y M. L. King Roland Smith William A. Fountain, Jr. Forrester B. Washington Joseph J. Dennis M. M. Dowdell B. H. Townsley FUNERAL RITES for SAMUEL HOWARD ARCHER SUNDAY, JA!NUARY 19, 1941 TWO O'CLOCK P. M. SALE HALL MOREHOUSE COLLEGE SAl\tUEL HOWARD ARCHER 1870- 1941 ORDER OF SERVICE Prelude .......................... ' ......... . Nearer my God to Thee .... .................. Hymn No. 10 Scripture Reading ....... .. ...... .. .. .. Dr. L. 0. Lewis Prayer ..... .... ........ .. .. ...... Dr. D. D. Crawford Deep River . .. Morehouse College Quartet Brief Addresses Obituary .......... .. .. .... .. .... .. Rev. vV. H. Borders Pres. Benjamin E. Ma!ys Dr. C. D. Hubert Pres. R. E. Clement Pres. J. B. Watson This is m\y Father's World . .. .... Hymn No.51 Eulogy .... .......... .................... Dr. E. R. CaTter Peace, Perfect Peace . . Morehouse College Qual'tet Benediction .. .... ................ Dr. D. D. Crawford Committing of the Body .. ... Rev. C. N. Ellis (At the Cemetery) rhe Audience is requested to remain s.eated after the benediction until the procession has passed out. BULLETIN OF MOREHOUSE COLLEGE _jforehouse Gflumnus VoLUME 10 FEBRUARY, 1941 JuMBER 15 I MEMORIAM SAMUEL HOWARD ARCHER 1870-1941 Entered as second-class matter June 11 , 1937, at the post office at Atlanta, Georgia, under the Act of August 24, 1912 MOREHOUSE ALUMNUS IN MEMORIAM PRESIDENT EMERITUS SAMUEL HOWARD ARCHER December 23, 1870-January 15, 1941 On January 19, 1941, around 3:30 in the afternoon the body of President Emeritus Samuel Howard Archer was carried from Sale Hall Chapel by two Morehouse students, two members of the Alumni Association, and two members of the Morehouse faculty. In attendance at his funeral were persons who represented a cross-section of the humanity Dr. Archer loved and served so effectively. Gathered for the last time with him were the members of his family to whom he had devoted unbounded affection and love and with whom he had found great joy. Many Morehouse graduates were present for President Archer's valedictory appearance in chapel. Poignant memories surged through their minds as they thought of the way their lives had been fashioned by their contacts with President Archer. We were made more aware of our responsibility to help perpetuate the fine ideals which were so inextricably a part of the philosophy and life of Mr. Archer as we listened to several brief talks by those who had been privileged to know and work with him. In addition to those who made talks the following persons helped with the services: Drs. D. D. Crawford, and L. 0. Lewis; Reverends C. N. Ellis and W. H. Borders. A second fire at Roger Williams University in ashville, Tennessee, was one of the direct causes involved in Morehouse College obtaining the services of Dr. Archer. This was in 1905, three years after he graduated from Colgate University and one year before Dr. John Hope, his friend and colleague for over thirty years, became president of Morehouse College. Mr. Archer, who was born in Petersburg, Virginia on December 23, 1870, prepared for college at Wayland Academy in Washington, D. C., where for two years before graduation he was a student-teacher. At Colgate University, from which school he received his A.B. in 1902, he was active in student and intercollegiate activities. For three years he played guard on the varsity eleven. As a varsity debater he was characterized as being able and forceful. The Colgate faculty chose Mr. Archer as one of the six commencement speakers in recognition of his speaking ability and standing as a student. After his retirement as president of Morehouse Dr. Archer gained much contentment by sitting in his living room in a comfortable chair, which was given him by the Morehouse faculty and staff, and looking at the coveted "C" which had been awarded him as a result of his contribution to the Colgate varsity eleven. It seems that from this point Mr. Archer, in his thinking, would re-create scenes which enabled him to re-live many fruitful experiences as a worker at Morehouse College. He saw himself as professor of mathematics; as football coach from 1905 to 1909, and again from 1912 to 1915. He rejoiced in the achievements of many of his former players and perhaps wondered what had become of the player whom he pulled out of a game because as coach he could not enjoy a crooked victory. He found much comfort in being able to talk with those who had been his students and colleagues. He would talk with various ones about their experiences when they knew him as teacher, coach, 2 MOREHOUSE ALUMNUS acting president, purchasing agent, director of the Morehouse Summer School, dean a n d president. Mr. Archer talked about these positions not in terms of what they had brought to him but because of the great op portunity which they had offered him to help the college and to build men and friendships. Before finishing these talks he would almost invariably talk about the future of the college. He never sought recognition for his services, yet recognition came: Morehouse awarded him the honorary degree of master of arts in 1923. In 1932 his Alma Mater awarded him the doctor of divinity degree. In 1938 an award came from the TwentySeven Club of Atlanta in honor of his outstanding contribution as a citizen. Under Mr. Archer's administration, which began in 1931, Morehouse received A rating from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and completed its endowment campaign for $600,000.00. Mr. Archer is survived by his wife, Mrs. Anna Courtney Archer, a sister, Mrs. Rosa Harrison, who has lived with the family for several years, and three sons, who are graduates of Morehouse College. They are Samuel Howard, Jr. (M.B.A., New York University) , an instructor at Booker T. Washington High School and an assistant coach at Morehouse; Nelson Thomas (M.A., Columbia) a teacher at Prairie View College in Texas, now on leave for study at the University of Iowa; and Leonard Courtney (University of Toronto) teacher at Georgia ormal and Industrial College, Albany, Georgia. Excerpts from Brief Addresses Delivered at Dr. Archer's Funeral DR. MAYS: " . . . For more than 1900 years Christian theology has insisted that the cardinal sin of mankind is selfishness, - meaning that man makes himself the center of all that he thinks and all that he does; wherever he begins he ends in himseJ. But if the cardinal sin of mankind is selfishness, then the converse must be true: the cardinal virtue is unselfishness. And I stand before you today in the presence of my God, expressing the conviction that Samuel Howard Archer was as free of selfishness as any man I have ever known. "Most of us love the limelight; most of us scramble for position, for prestige, for power; most of us insist that we get credit for all we do, from the dotting of the 'i' to the crossing of the 't'.' And some of us want credit or position or prestige or power when it has not been earned. It was never thus with this man. He was perfectly willing to be a friend, to be a teacher, to be a dean, to be a president without seeking the limelight, without seeking prestige. Perfectly willing to live and do his work unhonored and unsung. It must have been men like Samuel Howard Archer of whom Emerson spoke when he said, 'See how the mass of men worry themselves into nameless graves when here and there a great, unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.' This man forgot himself into immortality...." DR. HUBERT : ''. . . The deceased belonged to all of us. How universal was his thinking, how constant his activities. He was not simply interested in us here at Morehouse College, but his interest and his service were as broad as humanity. And those who knew him best and perhaps loved him most will, for a long time, feel a deep sense of loss. 3 MOREHOUSE ALUMNUS "He could sum up hundreds of years in one word. It was his peculiar gift as a teacher. We shall remember him, we who were students of his, for his insistence on hard work. He demanded it, but with fatherly gentleness, so that he made us crave for the hard work which he assigned to us to do. "We remember him also for his power with men. ever have I seen him make an effort to have power over people. And so a life like this can never end with death. ''We remember his Christian life, his love, his genuine love for Jesus Christ, his loyalty to his church, his loyalty to and love for his family. And he made these narrow ways of life so attractive that we all would like to walk them. "Now his life is grafted on the infinite and will be fruitful as no earthly life can be. Rather than wail and weep here, we give him a hearty cheer as he enters eternal life." DR. CLEME T: " ... I well remember when a friend of Dr. Archer's, who had lived closely with him in Atlanta, said to me one day: 'There is a man whom the students love.' It is told on the campus at Morehouse that even though a boy has been called into the office and expelled, this boy leaves Dr. Archer's office with a feeling of relief knowing that he has been in the presence of a great man and a friend. I met him first in 1922 on this same campus. I sat one morning with him in this same room, and from that October day to this he has been an inspiration and a joy to me. "We think of the great and illus- trious men and women who have made this Morehouse campus a Mecca and a ew Jerusalem, and we call the names of White and Robert, Graves and Hope and Morehouse, Sale and Brawley. Yet each one who knows Samuel Howard Archer knows that this name will stand as high and as illustrious as any of these oth- ers...." DR. WATSO : ". . . It took me a long time to learn that greatness always finally is expressed in sim- plicity. One of the teachers who taught me that lesson was Mr. Archer. "I saw him first forty-one years ago at Colgate. I was a freshman and he was a junior, and his simple life and friendship made me feel at home. He is an easy man to know and easy to be at ease with. "Dr. Dillard stated some years ago in one of his pamphlets, 'the great- est sin in the world is pretense.' I never saw a man with so little pre- tense. . . . DR. CARTER: " ... Samuel Howard Archer was a gentleman. Not after the order of clothes, haberdashery, but from the real meaning of 'gentle- man': that he wanted nothing out of life more than he put into it. That is what a gentleman is.... "He was a teacher of mathematics before he came here and he was a teacher of mathematics here. . . . Whenever you think about it he was teaching principles when he was teaching mathematics.... ". . . He was loyal to his church. It was not the thing for a man with his education to do: to go to church. He went to church when the boys had to take him up in their arms and put him up the steps. I shall lose a lot. I have lost a lot, but I shall treasure what I have gained from him." ~~ ~;. :;. "When I think of Mr. Archer, the first trait or quality that comes into my mind is his vigor of spirit. He was a whole person who put all of himself behind what he was saying and doing. His vitality and enthusiasm shone out in his words and in his actions. The next quality that comes to my mind is his straightforwardness and honesty. He spoke out 4 MOREHOUSE ALUMNUS of honest convictions. He inspired in the boys whom he coached in football or baseball that liking for good sportsmanship which made them contemptuous of victories not won through fair play. Then, I think of curbed freedom, but one which would allow for a more wise and free growth. Mr. Swing also observed that although our own democracy left much to be desired, it was better so because "there can be no worse Mr. Archer's friendliness. It always government than a final government," did me good to talk with him. He and a democracy is only worth hav- had a way of using homely expres- ing when there is much to be done sions that just seemed to hit the nail for its perfection. on the head. There was color and flavor in his comments and in his figures of speech. He was what I call a real person, one without sham or hypocrisy. He had shrewdness and keenness of mind and a great way of getting on with people. He was my friend and I shall miss him." FLORE CE M. READ. This statement was prepared by President Read who could not get back from California in time to attend Mr. Archer's funeral. * "... He was a man who possessed a living and vigorous moral integrity of the most inspiring kind. For this I owe him the most precious debt which one man can owe to another. I shall be grateful to him as long as I live. I have named one of my sons after him and I shall continue to teach my students to know and revere Honors Day Dr. Nathaniel P. Tillman, Chairman of the English Department at Morehouse College, was the speaker at the first semester's observance of Honors Day at Morehouse College on ovember 20. In his plea to the students to acquire scholarly attitudes, Dr. Tillman stated that "Although making good grades does not necessarily mean the making of a great career, in looking over the list of those who have gone out from this institution, I find comparatively few who stayed on the job, in the list of the fallen." Forty-three students were on the honor roll for the first semester of 1940-41, which was based on credits earned the second semester of 1939-40. Five of these students maintained an A average which is the highest that is attainable. him as I do. . . ." Excerpt from a Christmas Carol Concert telegram sent by President Mordecai This annual event which again at- W. Johnson of Howard University. tracted a number of graduates of the three institutions as well as a great Third John Hope Lecture many people in and around Atlanta, Raymond Gram Swing, world-re- was presented on December 13 and nowned radio commentator and news correspondent, delivered, under the auspices of Atlanta University, the third in a series of lectures honoring the memory of the late President John Hope. Mr. Swing, who selected as the 14 in Sisters Chapel on the Spelman campus. Professor Kemper Harreld, Mrs. Naomah Williams Maise, and Mr. Willis Laurence James worked together in presenting what was perhaps the most brilliant concert in subject of his address "The Choice of Freedom," is a quiet and forceful speaker. He discussed very earnest!y what he defined as the Nazi counter-revolution, and admonished the the series. The Atlanta-MorehouseSpelman Chorus, including 85 welltrained voices, the Morehouse Glee Club, and the Spelman Glee Club, participated in the program of Christ- audience not to choose a stagnant, mas carols. 5 COLLEGE NEWS AND ACTIVITIES OPE II G CHAPEL SERVICE, SEPTEMBER 18, 1940 President Benjamin E. Mays, Speaker I want to welcome you to More- I am very happy to greet you as house College. Particularly, do I the Sixth President of Morehouse want to welcome the new students College, walking in the footsteps of who are coming here for the first distinguished predecessors-Robert, time. You know as well as I do that Graves, Sale, Hope, Archer, and C. Morehouse College is one of the out- D. Hubert, who, for the past three standing institutions in the United years, served acceptably as the Act- States. When you come to More- ing President of Morehouse College. house, you are coming to an institu- It was exactly nineteen years ago this tion that has achieved greatness pri- month when I first walked on this marily because of what its graduates campus, and, as strange as it may have accomplished since the founding seem, I spent my first night on these of the College in 1867. When I wel- grounds in the President's residence, come you here, I am welcoming you the residence that I now occupy. to a great institution, an institution Much water has rolled under the with great traditions. If Morehouse bridge during these nineteen years. College stands in any danger, it is Never did I dream or realize that the danger that threatens all out- nineteen years in the future I would standing institutions and all success- be returning here in this capacity. I ful individuals. We may come to feel remember as vividly as if it were yes- that our past achievements are so terday, in the summer of 1921, when great that we can move along on past Mr. Hope was introduced to me by reputation. Nothing could be more Davi d Tittle in the Divinity School damaging or demoralizing. If More- Library of the University of Chicago. house College is to continue to be Doctor Hope said to me, "I under- great, it must continue to produce stand that you can teach mathe- outstanding personalities. We wel- matics." It never dawned upon me come you, therefore, to an institution that I could teach mathematics. True, whose achievements have called forth I had taken four years of college the respect and the admiration of the mathematics at Bates College in Lew- thinkers of America. It is our task iston, Maine. I had gone through to continue and increase this high College Algebra, Trigonometry, Cal- regard which they hold for us. culus, Differential Equations, etc., We welcome you here because in but it never occurred to me that I coming to Morehouse College you would be in a position to teach mathe- are more fortunate than the students matics. I hesitated and told Dr. Hope who attend many other institutions. that I had had only four years of You are not only exposed to the out- mathematics. He then told me that standing teachers of Morehouse Col- he wanted me to come to Morehouse lege, but to those of Spelman College to teach higher mathematics. I came and Atlanta University. You are ex- and taught the first Calculus offered posed also to many things that are at Morehouse. I had some able stu- offered by the Atlanta University dents in that first Calculus class. School of Social Work. Our lives Professor Dansby, C. L. Maxey, and will be enriched by closer contact Edward Hope were in that class. The with Morris Brown College and Clark class was composed of eight men and College. they were all above the average in 6 COLLEGE NEWS AND ACTIVITIES mathematical ability. In those days you would have a good class in higher mathematics one year and the next year you would hardly have a class. But I had one lone star the next year in the person of Dr. Huggins. He was so promising that I was willing to give the course for him alone. Another promising student was Dr. Nabrit, whom I taught College Algebra. I remember Dean Brazeal, a fourth-year academy student, who was showing great promise as a debater. He went out for the team in the fourth-year of the Academy. He did not quite make the team that year. He later made the team and went through as one of the able Morehouse debaters. I came to Morehouse in 1921 for the express purpose of staying one year. I stayed three. There is another interesting thing about my coming to Morehouse. I graduated from Bates College the 25th of June, 1920, and got married one month later. I do not recommend this to you. When Mr. Hope came and asked me to come to Morehouse College, I told him I wanted to study three years without interruption. He said, "You think it over and write me in about ten days." He was offering me $1,200 for eight months' work - $150 a month. The more I thought of that $150, the more I found myself being drawn to Morehouse College. I soon realized that I didn't have money enough to study at the University of Chicago for the next two years. I realized, too, more than ever, that I was a married man. I told him I would come. I had to walk the streets of Chicago for two days to get someone to lend me money to come to Morehouse. A friend said to me, "Write Mr. Hope and tell him to send you your railroad fare." I replied by saying, "I would prefer to walk to Atlanta than to embarrass Mr. Hope and myself by borrowing railroad fare." I finally found a man to go on a note for me at the bank. I borrowed the money and returned the amount out of my first check. Though not a Morehouse graduate, I am marked as a Morehouse man all over the country. Somehow I have the mark of a Morehouse person. Just the other day, Mr. ewbold, of orth Carolina, wrote me a letter of congratulation. He told me how fine it was to be honored by being called back to the presidency of my Alma Mater. Since the Board of Trustees did not see fit to call a President from among Morehouse men, they came as near to doing that as they could without actually doing so. As I stand here talking to you this morning, I do it with considerable fear and trembling. When I realize what must be done for Morehouse College, the need of at least $1,000,000 more in endowment, the urgent physical needs such as homes for teachers, a new dormitory, chapel, academic building, and gymnasium; need of increase in staff and raise in salaries, and the pressing need of scholarships for worthy students, I stand before you with fear and trembling. I stand here with fear and trembling because I know what a great responsibility it is to try to direct the thinking and to develop the character of young people. It is serious enough when times are normal, but it is far more serious in times like these when the entire world seems to be going to pieces, when Iying is a virtue, when the murder of women and children is right, and when hypocrisy is considered the normal procedure. It is serious business to train young people in normal times, but in times like these it is enough to make one shudder. I shudder because the responsibilities of a college president are very great. I can choose what I say to you, what I do to you, and for you, but I can 7 COLLEGE NEWS AND ACTIVITIES never choose the consequences of what I say or the consequences of what I do. I am talking to you this morning and the moment the words leave my lips they are beyond my control. I can only hope that what I say and do will be constructive. What do I promise you? I make you no fantastic promises. I learned a long time ago that the less you promise, the less you have to take back. I do not even guarantee you that I am going to succeed in this office. My success here depends not only upon myself, but upon factors beyond my control. It depends upon the confidence, moral support, and good will that I am able to evoke from the public, both local and national. What I do here will largely determine the good will, the cooperation, the financial and moral support that we will be able to get from friends and graduates of Morehouse College. But more than that, what we do here will be determined in a large measure by the attitude of the members of the Board of Trusteestheir attitude toward me and the college. It will depend upon the kind of moral support, good will, and confidence that I am able to get from the affiliated institutions. It will also depend upon the support and loyalty of the Morehouse faculty. In the final analysis, it will depend upon the kind of cooperation I am able to get from you, the students. So I make you no fantastic promises as to what we will be able to do in this office. I am no miracle man. I am no magician. I am no trickster. I have no unusual, peculiar genius or power by which this job is to be done. I am