Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 120

formal inauguration, involving the invitation of members of the cap-and-gown fraternity. Mortar boards perched on engineers would have been considered the height of absurdity. So Dr. Fuller's inauguration was merged with the Commencement exercises in June, at which time he gave the principal address.

It was a scholarly address, stilted enough for Victorians and long enough to wear down two modern audiences. His subject was the "Present Place and Work of Technical Schools." After discussing at length the growth of similar schools in Europe, much as Dr. Thompson had done, he showed why such schools were to become of increasing importance in America. "Intelligence and skill are every year becoming larger factors in industrial pursuits," he said, "and technical schools are coming more and more to be relied on to meet the demand for intelligent and skilled labor and superintendence." He listed some of the major problems confronting America and pointed the way to their solution by training young men in applied science. The objectives of the faculty, as he outlined them, were to develop and mould the individual student, to teach practical applications as well as theory, and to do well whatever might be attempted. "The atmosphere of these rooms should be one, not of content, but of aspiration, and the impulse to broad and generous thinking, to high attainments in science and the arts, and above all, to a pure and noble Christian living, be so strong that it shall abide to the end of the days of every one who graduates from these walls."

This was Homer Fuller's creed. A devout and earnest clergyman, he judged men almost wholly on the extent of their "pure and noble Christian living." Few have questioned his sincerity or his devotion to the welfare of the Institute. That he was in constant conflict with the students may be best explained as lack of understanding. He had dominated boys in the academy as it was traditional that they should be dominated. The same technique would not work with the

120

webmaster@wpi.edu

Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999