A Seer Among Men
Edward Kidder Graham, born 1876, died 1918, President of the
University of North Carolina, a director of the American Universities’ Union in
Europe, a member of the International Committee of the Young Men’s Christian
Association, a member of the Educational Committee of the Council of National
Defense, Regional Director of the Students Army Training Corps Colleges,
Southeastern Division.
He was stricken on the march, at the head of his division of
war, in plague swept areas of duty. Wearied and worn, he fell on sleep at
Chapel Hill, October 26, under the shadow of the institution that gave birth to
his ineffable spirit and on the soil of the state that gave birth to his mortal
body.
Take him for his all in all, The Hill is not like to look
upon his like again.
Frail as a windflower in his physical frame, he was strong
of soul as corps commanders are who are born to leadership in critical causes.
A rare and radiant spirit. Gentle and lovable as a woman,
genial as the sun’s rays, lilting as the lark, soaring as the eagle.
His visions of the University as an agency of service to the
State and of the State as an agency of wholesome democracy were mountain-top
visitations that swept the farthest horizons, that considered alike the
inescapable necessities of mortal time and the final values of spirit and
destiny.
No man in the South or the Nation better knew the functions
of a state University. He believed with all his soul in the Physical
Sciences—in the conquest of Nature for the relief of man’s estate in the earth;
and just as strongly in the Social Sciences—in the new humanities whose field
is the conquest of Human Nature for the common weal. He treasured the Classics
of every race and all ages as priceless memorials of the noblest in man, forged
in the fires of spirit by the choicest souls among men. And true to the genius
of his Scotch forebears, he held The Book to be the classic of classics—the
final source of human strength in the everlasting struggle of the Best with the
Beast in the affairs of men and the destinies of nations.
A greater, nobler University and a greater, nobler
State—these were the soul, the very essence of the being of Edward Kidder
Graham. As this institution and this state move forward in the years to come
they will forever glimpse far in the fore the beckoning hand of this gentle,
sweet spirit, this lover of his kind, this prophet, priest, and king among his
fellows. His life brief as it was as men count time is a lasting, everlasting
benediction to the State and the Nation.
Our friend of our souls, our prayer in this crushing hour is
Tennyson’s prayer over Arthur Hallam’s mortal clay—
I would the great world grew like thee;
Who grewest, not alone in knowledge and in power,
But day by day, and
hour by hour,
In reverence and in charity.
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