W. & J.'s Hutchison

W. & J.'s Hutchison

Washington & Jefferson College (Washington, Pa.) inaugurated a new president ast week. Year ago the students struck, announced emphatically that they did not like the policies (in regard to campus garb and athletics) of President Simon Strousse Baker (TIME, March 30). Small, oldish President Baker resigned. His successor pleased nearly everyone. Rev. Dr. Ralph Cooper Hutchison is tall, dark, one of the youngest college presidents (34) in the U. S. Born in Colorado, he went to Lafayette College (1918), spent seven months in naval aviation, went to Haryard, Pennsylvania, Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1922. worked for the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, missionized in Persia, became dean of the American College in Teheran. This he built from a small high school to an institution of some 800 students. Last year he returned to the U.S. with his wife who had contracted an Asiatic malady. W. & J.'s trustees saw their chance, got Dr. Hutchison to take the presidency.

Secretary of the Interior Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur attended the W. & J. inauguration, urged that "the college and all that it stands for must volunteer to accept its measure of the responsibility of carrying our Nation forward." In his inaugural address Dr. Hutchison flayed the "false, materialistic doctrine" of going to college "because it pays," praised the oldtime college education which was "inviting only to those who did not set profit or wealth as their main objectives in life." Washington & Jefferson, chartered in 1787, is the oldest college west of the Alleghenies. Some of its original land is said to have been given by George Washington. Among its alumni: the late Composer Stephen Collins Foster ("Swanee River," "Old Black Joe," "My Old Kentucky Home"), the late James Gillespie Elaine, President Joseph Ross Stevenson of Princeton Theological Seminary, Professor John Livingston Lowes of Harvard, Peter Moore Speer, vice president and general counsel of Standard Oil Co. of N. Y., the late Episcopal Bishop Coadjutator David Hummell Greer of New York, the late Senator Matthew Stanley Quay of Pennsylvania. W. & J. students are fond of virile gear such as corduroys and sturdy boots. Most of them like their new President Hutchison because, though he has no hobbies, no sports, he shows an earnest, agreeable interest in their games. In recent college elections the non-fraternity students won a sweeping victory. President Hutchison, a Sigma Alpha Epsilon, expressed approval.

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