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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1954)
Page. 2 THE BATTALION Tuesday, July 1',. 1954 The Battalion Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions “Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman” The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechan ical College of Texas, is published by students four times a week, during the regular school year. During the summer terms, and examination and vacation periods. The Battalion is published twice a week. Days oi publications are Tuesday through Friday for the regular school year, and Tuesday and Thursday during examination and vacation periods and the summer terms. Subscription rates $9.00 per year or $ .76 per month. Advertising rates furnished on request. Entered as second-class matter at Post Office at College Station, Texas under the Act of Con-' gress of March 3, 1870. Member of The Associated Press Represented nationally by National Advertising Services, Inc., at New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Fran cisco. News contributions may be made by telephone (4-5444 or 4-7604) or at the editorial office room, 202 Goodwin Hall. Classified ads may be placed by telephone (4-5324) or at the Student Activities Office, Room 209 Goodwin Hall. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republi cation of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved. Harri Baker. Editor, Advertising Manager Kerstin Ekfelt Society Editor Larry Lightfoot ... Circulation Manager Tennis Being Taught As Summer Program The A&M summer tennis pro gram is rolling again this summer. There are 67 students signed up for the class, said William M. Dowell, instructor. The classes start at sever! a.m. and last until nine a.m. five days a week. There is a two-dollar fee for the six weeks that the classes last. Dowell said there will prob ably be another six weeks’ class following the one now in session. The ages of the students range from eight to seventeen years, but there is no age limit for taking the classes. The big thing that most of the students are looking forward to is the junior Olympics, which is to be held in Houston on August 2, 3, and 4. There will be a qualifying Dr. Mayo Tributes Continue The sudden death of Thomas F. Mayo ended a distinguished career as a citizen, scholar, author, lec turer, and teacher. His last spoken thoughts were characteristic. He was concerned about his class work, notices to his kinspeople, and the trouble he was giving the kind friend who was with him at the end. Some facts of Dr. Mayo’s life that only old-timers remember: for some years he taught a popular survey course in world history, was active in campus dramatic work, founded the Junto Club, and all this while was a first-rate teacher of English and a librarian whose good work is still felt. During the eight years in which he headed the Department of Eng lish, he toiled unceasingily to maintain standards and make the work of the department effective. He was relieved of administrative duties at his own request to give his full time to teaching. His teaching was never better than during the last two years. Dr. Mayo brought to his class work the manners and spirit of a gentleman, a sense of humor, a vast and intimate knowledge of literature and history, a rare gift of fitting and beautiful speech, a lively interest in his subject mat ter, and a genuine concern about the welfare of his students. He was never too busy to welcome them to his office, and did some of his best teaching in friendly conversations with them. He gave thousands of students the key to great books, and encouraged good reading and sharp, critical think ing. He was a good librarian because he loved and knew books. Dr. Mayo was a good tennis player until tennis became unsafe. After that his buddies were walk ing, music (at first hand or by way of phonograph records), good company, and pleasant conversa tion. He was a sociable and warmhearted man who loved good company and made himself good company; and he kept his friend ships in good repair. Incidentally, he had a fund of good stories (of which he was not the hero) and told them well. And he did not drag his stories in by the ears; they fitted their econtext. He had thousands of friends— whom he deserved by being a loyal and helpful friend. Some of his most devoted admirers were col ored people who found him a just and generous employer and a kind friend when they were no longer working for him. He has been buried in the Ar lington National Cemetery beside his father, Colonel John P. Mayo, and his mother, whem he cared for so well during the last twenty years of her life. No mother ever had a better son than Thomas Mayo. George Summey, Jr. Thomas Mayo could have achiev ed a distinguished career in any college or university in the coun try. By deliberate choice, review ed and reaffirmed from time to time, he spent his life as a teacher at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, achieving such distinction as only a great teacher is granted. It was no accident that the Col lege he chose to identify himself with is a Land-Grant College. No man understobd more thoroughly or accepted with more unwavering faith the philosophy of the Land- Grant College movement. He never tired of insisting tlVat in a tech nological age we must provide— as the Morrill Act declared—“a lib eral and practical education” for the students who are to assume leadership in agriculture, engineer ing, and the sciences. If it seemed at times that he overstressed the liberal at the expense of the prac tical, it was only because he saw Iso many of the rest of us over stressing the practical at the ex pense of the liberal. Before his death he was to see American in dustry beginning to redress the balance. As a member of the faculty who for some years accepted adminis trative responsibilities as head of a large department, he never con fused ends and means. He believed as firmly as President Eliot of Harvard, in the words of the inaug ural address of 1869, that “the only conceivable aim of a colleg’e gov ernment in our days is to broaden, deepen, and invigorate American teaching in all branches of learn ing.” Through his example and encouragement, many a young in structor came to understand what it means to be a techer, and some of his older fellow-teachers had their understanding focused on es sentials. His own teaching over nearly four decades was a broad, deep, and vigorous as he could have asked of any colleague. We will never know how many students of the college he led to make of their edu cation a liberalizing experience. Even the number who speak of his influence to the rest of us are a remarkable company. These stu dents are his memorial, the only one he would have wanted. J. P. Abbott My acquaintance with Dr. Mayo began the day he arrived on the A&M campus. Starting on a cas ual fraternal basis, it quickly rip ened and deepened when, on more intimate acquaintance, I came un der the charm of his attractive personality and could begin to ap preciate his superior scholarship, the wide range of his interests and his enthusiasm for them, in short, his intense joie de vivre. In his youthful years I was associated with him quite intimately. It was only natural that he was my choice for best man at my wedding, and just as natural too that he was glad to fill that part. His sudden removal from our midst comes as a great shock to all who knew him and I certainly never expect to see another person fill the void that has been left in A&M life by his untimely demise. No one can estimate the extent to which he influenced and enriched the lives of his students and all others with whom he came in close contact. It is doubtful if any one state ment has ever been made more fre quently and more generally about any member of the A&M staff than the one so often heard about Dr. Mayo—that he was “a born teacher,” to which I would like to add two words — “and helper'.” Looking back over the year in sad dened retrospect in search for what might be the most outstanding of the many different facets of. his very active life, I would surely give first place to his constant desire to be helpful. I can truly say that if anyone, in whatever station of life, ever called on Thomas Mayo, for assistance and did not get it and with reasonable promptness at that, it never came to my atten tion. How he ever succeeded in doing so much for others while do ing so much of what he hoped to accomplish for himself, has ever been occasion for admiring amaze ment on my part. C. B. Campbell Dr. ’Bhomas F. Mayo was known to thousands of his friends, stu dents, and even mere acquaintan ces as “Tommie Mayo” or just “Tomipie” and I am sure he valu ed this intimate and familiar nick name as much as or more than his more formal titles. For intimacy was the heart of his social system; always intellectual and spiritual in timacy,, and high plane. And many of his friends, and far more of his students, /nave grateful remem brances of their intimacy with Tommie Mayo. For they came to him for advice on matters of life and death to them. And I have cause to know, not from him, ever, hut from them, that his advice was always just plain sound, good sense. They have followed it to good fortune. A democrat, he was yet an. ar istocrat. The old Southern formal ities were still rituals for him. He lived within all the decencies of the Old South. It was a pleasure to see his courtesies to women, old and young; and to old men espe cially. And it was a pleasure to see the instinctive courtesies of these old and young women, and old men, when they first met him. It was my pleasure and honor, since 1916, to meet through him many, many fine women, old and young, and old men. Some of them have long preceded him in departing from this world. And I am sure their meeting him in pai’- adise will still, for them, bear the fine instinctive courtesies of this world. And I have always held it a du ty to see that Tommie Mayo met any and all fine people I came to know, especially young married couples from far parts of the country or the world, who were ac complished in music, or poetry, or art, and I have never been disap pointed at the meeting, in Tommie Mayo, or them. Thomas F. Mayo was a serious scholar. The bases of his schol arship were in art; the pedestals, poetry and music, in that order. It is one of my thanksgivings that he personally selected the magnif icent overprints that adorn the Li brary. Though we have parted on different ways in music, he for the Classical, I, still for the Roman tic, I yet treasure his memory when he, too, was immersed in the romantic music of Beethoven and Schubert. Many fine artists have played and sung in my house, yet not one of them played “Moon light Sonata” with divine fire, as Tommie did then. Poetry is music beyond the reach of many. But my old North Bar- olina teacher, Dr. Daniel Harvey Hill, the most responsive person to the music of words I ever knew, lamented that music was a dead language to him. But neither po etry nor music was a dead lan guage to Tommie Mayo, and art was the most living language to him. They were live languages to him responsively. Composition was not for him. But in our mod ern world, with its vast reproduc- tory records, responsiveness can lead to a very high world in itself. Then let us hope in the - vaster world of eternity, Tommie Mayo will respond with greater respon siveness than when here among us, and that the divine fire of compo sition will be his, too, to sing a New Song. Samuel E. Asbury SAILING THE DRINK LOS ANGELES—(A 5 )—Lloj'd D. Rees owns a cutter that has com peted in the Honolulu yacht race. It’s called the “Yo Ho Ho.” The dinghy is named the “Bottle of Rum.” His daughter’s boat is named “The Jigger.” regional meet during the latter part of July to see who is to rep resent this region in the Olympics in Houston. Two New Staff Members Join Cushing Library It has been announced by Mr. Robert A. Houze, head librarian, that two new professional libra rians will join the Cushing Memo rial Library Staff this summer. Miss Virginia B. Parks, a native of Georgia, will report July 12th to become the senior cataloging li brarian replacing Mrs. Joy S. Bak er. She comes to us most recently from Camp Rucker, Alabama, where she was librarian of Post Library No. 2. Prior to that she was army librarian at Ft. McPher son, Georgia. Miss Parks received her B.A. de gree from Randolph-Macon Wom an’s College, Lynchburg, Virginia, and her degree in library science from Emory University at Atlanta, Georgia. She has also done grad uate work at_the University of Chi cago Graduate Library School. Miss Kimbi’ough Alexander, a native of Mississippi, and a grad uate of Mississipp State College for Women, Columbus, Mississippi, began work as Junior Cataloger on June 15th. She received her de gree in library science from Mis sissippi State College for Women in May of this year. Local Reservists To Attend School Sixteen reserve officers from the College Station area will attend the command and general staff school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, July 11-25. Tw;o _of these officers, Clifford M. Simmang of the mechanical en gineering department, and Paul J. Woods of the history department, will be instrutcors. at rthe school. SIMP, ARE VO S>WORE ITS BETTErT* TO STUDY WITI4 M ’ vLS fBS (First in What Are The of the District The (H and Jury of Brazos Co ... Is Selected By A Jury Commiga That Is Appointed By The District Jtf Vote For The Man Who Has Been ^ With The Grand Juries For S he PaS Years. VOTE FOR B O DAVIS GRA! For DISTRICT JUDGE T (Paid Politi LFL ABNER i’Vr-T V* Al?.- WEIGHS HUN i: ' ;: Qm P O G O WHO CAN T£H WH£NJ eom <sav ^ocHiUVAp. FCOM OUT Of TH£ W£$T MI6HT eWZ&P AAg OFF ;y mv Feet? £>0 V&JNG PS ST, PQGQ" V IF THAT OH EOTH03!N’ US’UU (31T A GTIQZ J NO UGLY W A • TVIlA ' cvc TH16 AIN’T ObP bAPy, THIS 16 CHURCHY UA F&MM& IN TAK£6 AFTFf? MV AUNT MOQM1&"ON£ OF THF 2A/I6HIN 7 ZZMSTtBS OF THF TIPetANPS IN