Innocent Merriment

In Camden, N.J., President Arthur E. Armitage of the College of South Jersey (475 students) got off a quip. Other colleges had done well for themselves by changing their names to honor a great benefactor, * he told his audience; it might be a good idea for South Jersey.

"We'll be delighted to call ourselves Goldthorp or Asbell or Richmond College, or anything else," Armitage said, "if it will bring in a real endowment. If anybody doesn't have a million dollars but would like to put a smaller sum to good use, perhaps they'd like to endow the library or the chair of English literature. We'd be happy to make the namesake fit their pocketbook."

When the newspapers picked up his innocent merriment last week and made it sound too straight-faced to suit him, President Armitage beat a hasty retreat. "I'm not peddling the institution," he insisted. "We're just a nice little school getting along nicely." Nobody had come through with a million, he added, but one friend of South Jersey (who remained anonymous) had pledged $5,000.

* Example: Durham, N.C.'s Trinity College which, in 1924, in consideration of millions in endowment from Tobacco King James Buchanan ("Buck") Duke, became Duke University.

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