The readers of the Guilfordian will rejoice with the many other friends of Mary M. Hobbs that she honored the University of N.C. by giving it the opportunity of conferring the doctorate literature upon her as the Greensboro Daily News puts it--”that she did not win this distinction by any one line of work or thought, though more than one of these might have deserved it. She is more than these—she is a light shining that men may see the truth. Her personality and the conscious influence of her noble character and high purposes have opened the way for the recognition which her genius for good deeds and her willingness to work incognito, entitles her to have. She has not only been doing things but has been growing by doing them. She has not labored to make a career but has fitted into the place which she has so efficiently filled.”
At the Commencement exercises of June, 1921, said University conferred on Mary Mendenhall Hobbs the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature in the following words:
“Mary Mendenhall Hobbs was born at Jamestown. She learned and laid deep foundations of liberal culture first under the tutelage of her father at New Garden Boarding School an later on at the Howland School in New York.
Deeply imbued with faith in the widening destiny of women, for more than decades she has stood forth in the light, immeasurably courageous in advocacy of complete and full-orbed education, whether under church or state, for youth and maid alike. Whether advancing the noble cause of higher education; widening the channels of religious influence in the Society of Friends, both locally and nationally; or vitalizing the consciousness;--it has been with the spirit and the pen of the literary artist that she has kindled the emotions of her generation. In recognition of this contribution in our mental and spiritual life, the University of North Carolina will now confer upon her the degree of Doctor of Literature.”
It may not be out of place to say here that Mary M. Hobbs, by her strong intellect, her clear reasoning and her sympathetic nature has labored earnestly in season and out of season on the things that came to her hands.
From girlhood she has had an abiding faith and interest in the Society of Friends of which she was a birthright member and has had responsible positions in the local, Yearly and Five Years Meetings. She is at the present time a member of the Executive Committee of the Five Years Meeting.
She is widely known throughout our State through her carefully laid plans and enthusiastic efforts for education, both in her church and state.
She was a strong advocate for the Normal and Industrial School in Greensboro, both by pen and voice, speaking for it whenever opportunity offered. The University also has had her championship. The development and disenfranchisement of women has, for years, received her constant efforts.
In her own church she has done much for education in all its phases and particularly in giving the girls a chance to help themselves in this line. New Garden Hall stands as a monument to her untiring efforts for the girls of N.C. Yearly Meeting in particular and for the girls of the State in general.
From the front page of The Guilfordian, Guilford College, Greensboro, N.C., Sept. 28, 1921
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