Announcement that J.R. Duke, tobacco magnate, has created a trust fund of $40 million to be used for educational and charitable purposes with 32 per cent of the income to go to some institution of learning, was widely discussed in Concord today. In making the announcement of the trust fund Mr. Duke declared Trinity College can have the money if the name of the institution e changed to Duke University. If the trustees of Trinity refuse to make the change, Duke University will be established somewhere in North Carolina.
Former students of Trinity are wondering if they will soon be alumni of Duke University And most of them, judging from remarks heard here today, are perfectly willing to make the change. They express the opinion that the trustees of Trinity will accept Mr. Duke’s proposition as soon as they can be called together.
Two members of the board of trustees of Trinity, W.R. Odell and J. Sherrill, reside in Concord. Their attitude in regard to the matter is not known, however.
But Trinity alumni here talk freely of the matter. “The Dukes have done more for Trinity than anybody else,” one alumnus said this morning. “I see no reason why Trinity should refuse to accept the $6 million available now for buildings and land, and the income on 32 per cent of the $40 million trust fund. The college was established as an asset to the state and nation. It was established as a means of aiding the youths that wanted an education. It seems to me that this purpose can be carried out just as well through Duke University as through Trinity College. In fact, it seems to be that purpose can be better carried out through Duke University, which promises to become the equal of Yale and Harvard.”
The fact that the proposed institution will be called Duke University does not mean that Mr. Duke will try to run the university, another Trinity man stated. “The Dukes have been giving lavishly and regularly to Trinity College,” he said, “But they have not tried to dominate things at the college. They give the money and allow the college to be run as any other college. It seems but reasonable that Mr. Duke will pursue the same course in the future. He would hardly create the trust fund of $40 million and then risk hampering its good by trying to tell the officials of the college how to conduct their work.”
Regardless of what is done, the action of the trustees will be watched with unusual interest by Concord people, and especially by former students of Trinity.
From page 2 of the Concord Daily Tribune, December 9, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1924-12-09/ed-1/seq-2/#words=DECEMBER+9%2C+1924
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