TIE MICHIGAN DATTY PAGE FIVE W Rutven Retirement Closes Busy Era in Michigan E ducation Genial President Leaves Weighty Post * * (Continued from Page 1) tion as a whole. Many able ad- ministrators, facultymen, alumni and private citizens aided the Uni- versity with skill and funds. Yet when some University his- torian gets around to writing the history of the thirties and forties at the University, the period will be known as the Ruthven era, and rightly so, according to campus observers. For it was his firm administra- tive hand and his driving. edu- cator's desire to make the Uni- versity "worthy in all respects of a great democracy," which showed the way in the period of development. His thinking and action in the field of administrative reforms, student housing, alumni relations and the expansion of teaching re- search, and public service, his friends agree, were founded on a base of steady optimism in the fu- ture progress of mankind through the education of youth. This faith in the powers of en- lightenment in the hands of fully- educated men, mortared with his tactful, genial personality, is cre- dited as being the major reason for the success of President Ruthven's tenure of office. PRESIDENT RUTHVEN early in his life began to display the quali- ties which would serve him so well in his position of the University's top official. Born in Hull, Ia., on April 1, 1882, he soon began to display his keen interest in the outdoors which has stayed with him all his life. At the age of twelve, his father John Ruthven a business man and railroad contractor who died in 1939 at the age of 94, pre- sented him with a copy of Darwin's "Origin of the Species." Young Alexander devoured the contents of the book and decided to make the study of biology and - natural science his career. After attending public schools in the area, President Ruthven en- tered Morningside College, Sioux City, Ia., from which he was grad- uated with a bachelor of science degree in 1903. While in school he helped pay his way by breaking horses for neighboring farmers. He played tackle on the football team and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. * * * H-E CAME TO the University in 1903 after a professor under whom he had begun work at the University of Chicago transferred to the University. President Ruth- ven came along as an assistant as- signed to operate an old lantern slide projector at 15 dollars a month. One of the students in the class who had the most sympathy for r. I the young assistant's clumsy first attempts with the projector as President Ruthven recalls, was a physician's daughter named Flor- ence Hagle, '04. President Ruthven married her in 1907, a year after he had been awarded his doctor's degree and appointed an instruc- tor in the zoology department. The Ruthvens have three children: Mrs. Lawrence C. Stuart, of Ann Arbor; Bryant W. Ruthven of Tennessee; and Alexander Peter Ruthven of De- troit and Ann Arbor. All grad- uated from the University. President Ruthven began to con- centrate his studies on reptiles and amphibians. He took part in or led expeditions throughout Michigan, the Middle West, Mexico and South America. Promotion fol- lowed rapidly.' By 1911 he was an assistant pro- fessor and curator of the museum of zoology. Two years later he was appointed director of the museum, a post he held until moving on to the presidency. In 1915 he became a full professor and in 1922 was appointed director of the rapidly- expanding University museums. For two years, 1927-29, he served as chairman of the zoology depart- ment and director of the zoological laboratories. * * * AN ARDENT supporter of the administration of President Clar- ence Cook Little, he was made dean of administration, a post equiva- lent to the present position of pro- vost. All during this period of aca- demic and administrative advance- ment, zoology remained President Ruthven's major interest. He con- tinued his field work in South America and the West, at one time falling victim to a severe case of malaria. Mrs. Ruthven, a zoologist herself, accompanied her husband on many of these expeditions. President Ruthven is the author of more than 100 scien- tific and educational articles and has to his name authorship of two books and co-authorship of two others. After his appointment as presi- dent, he found to his regret that he no longer had time for his sci- entific studies. He continued re- search in his spare time for a few years and saw several of his stu- dents through their doctoral ex- aminations but finally had to drop his zoological activity entirely. He resigned as director of University museums in 1936. * * * i small1 farm otni nii4- aj'Trc 44,t River which he calls "Stanerigg" for the Ruthven ancestral home in Scotland. Thursday afternoons, whenever he can manage it, he sneaks out of his office and heads for "Stanerigg" for a few hours of riding. In the summers which he and Mrs. Ruthven spend at their sum- mer cottage in Frankfort on the shores of Lake Michigan, he liter- ally lives on horseback, according to Mrs. Ruthven. Dogs have been another inter- est of the president. After a succession of scottes and bull- dogs, he turned to boxers a few years ago and several of the pups of Lexie, his present boxer, have won show prizes. Another outside interest which President Ruthven has pursued is book collecting. He has accumu- lated autographed copies and first editions of publication of faculty members and alumni, numbering between 300 and 400 volumes. He also has about 1,000 volumes of first editions on the general his- tory of biology. * * « THROUGHOUT his administra- tion, President Ruthven has taken special pains with the prob- lems of students. His policy has been to grant responsibility to stu- dents whenever he felt that they were capable of shouldering it without danger to the reputation of the University. In the early days of his tenure, students were constantly getting the University into hot water by consistent vio- lations of the 18th Amendment. The dormitory system, inaugu- rated among the male students by the construction of Allen- Rumsey unit of the West Quad in the late thirties, also proved a source of trouble for a time, One night President Ruthven intervened personally to halt a combination water fight and de- trousering spree which preceded a Black Friday celebration-tra- ditional pre-war hazing day for freshmen. President Ruthven's office is al- ways open to students. "On my schedule, the students get in first, the faculty next and the deans whenever they can," is his dictum on appointments, one which his secretary Miss Ruth A. Rouse has followed since she first arrived on the presidential scene 22 years ago to dust out the office before the newly-appointed president moved downstairs from his old office as dean of the administration on the second floor of University Hall. BY AND LARGE students have reciprocated this regard. Before the war, they used to refer to him as "Butch" and in 1939, on the anni- versary of his 10th year as presi- dent a thousand students partici- pated in a banquet and pageant given in his honor in Yost Field- house. More than 2,500 guests sat down to dinner. The pageant parade in which students acted out episodes in President Ruthven's life and por- trayed the various activities and services of the University lasted for hours. U.S. Attorney General Frank Murphy, accompanied by an unknown clerk named G. Mennen Williams, flew down from Wash- ington to speak at the testimonial. In order to handle all the busi- ness of the University, President Ruthven sticks to an exhausting schedule. On weekdays and Sat- urdays he rises every morning at 6:30, has a light breakfast and then walks to his office on the second floor of the salmon- colored Administration Building. If the weather is particlarly nasty, however, he calls for a car and drives over. Appointments and dictation take up his time until noon when he usually goes out for a luncheon meeting with either a University committee or to welcome some vi- siting group to the campus. He returns to his office after 1 p.m. and the rest of the afternoon is usually taken up with appoint- ments. He generally leaves some- of sensational or unfavorable news, for he called for the es- tablishment of a news service operated by the University to in- terpret its work to the citizens of the State in his first press re- lease after being appointed. The present University News Service grew out of this idea. A field of education which claimed President Ruthven's in- terest from the first was adult education and other types of ex- tension work. The University pio- neered in this field, establishing branches in Grand Rapids and De- troit. The current television pro- grams are administered under the Extension Service. * * * RELUCTANT as he is to step into the public spotlight, on fre- quent occasions President Ruth- ven has felt it his duty to the Uni- versity and American education as a whole to speak out. In the early thirties, he aroused criticism from some quarters for raising the entrance requirements of the University. He has continually spoken out against the tendency for Univer- sity semester fees to "escalator" in recent years. "There is no wrong side of the tracks so far as in- dividual rights to state-supported higher education are concerned," he repeated again and again. He also has urged Congres- sional passage of a bill to estab- lish a labor educational exten- sion service on the grounds that labor is being discriminated against in respect to educational opportunities. Both in the early years of the national defense effort before Dec. 7, 1941 and later during the war, President Ruthven spoke out against the lowering of standards of education. The years of the first World War when the University was nearly ruined by a policy of draining off the top faculty to wartime jobs, corrupting curricu- lum in order to turn out needed technicians and turning the cam- pus over to the various ROTC units, were clearly in President Ruthven's mind when he warned of the consequences to be expected if educators allowed the humane element in education to be de- stroyed under the pressures of wartime. * * * "AS THE FLOOD of barbarism comes down over the world," he said, "educators should concern themselves with plans to maintain or restore civilization and they should hold the standards of edu- cation on as high a level as pos- sible in the hope that, when the storm is over, there will be some who will be prepared to recover our freedoms and reorganize a so- ciety of free men." "It is not our duty to develop soldiers alone, nor skilled puppets," he said in another speech. "Edu- cators in times of trouble must continue to emphasize the im- p6rtance of instruction in humani- ties and pure science." Some of his utterances have as much meaning today as they did then: In 1942 he addressed the in- coming members of the freshman class. "Yours will be the major sacrifices," he said, "but you are preparing to make them. . . . You will detect, if you have not already done so, that the war effort is tainted with politics, selfishness and waste. Despite all of these * * * - disheartening conditions, however, I urge you with all sincerity to look to your own responsibilities for service to your fellow men, for this is the only way democracy can be preserved. It will do no good to complain. "What is lost must be regained. What is in danger, must be pro- tected. What is worthwhile must be acquired, Freedom is not to be had for the asking.... We must, of course, be ready to fight and, if need be, die for it, but only an intelligent and truly informed citi- zenry is capable of owning and us- ing freedom and thus of main- taining a democracy worthy of the name. "You will be taught to kill, in- sist also upon learning how to live . determine to be more than soldiers . .. Your world is sinking in a slough of selfishness and bru- tality; do not go with it by allow- ing yourselves to become hopeless, selfish, brutal, indolent or ignor- ant. . . Some of this sounded like "pacifism" to certain newspaper columnists. By quoting him out of context, they were able to arouse a controversy. While President Ruthven was in England on an educational mission in 1942, there were even rumors of an ouster movement. Nothing so drastic occurred, however, and later events seem to support Presi- dent Ruthven's position. President Ruthven is now anxi- ous to retire. He sincerely feels that a younger man with a new per- spective would be healthy for the University. "A change of scenery is often beneficial," he smiles. Meanwhile, his mind is occupied with the prospect of a well-earned rest and the thought of devoting his retirement to biology (he in- tends to stay in Ann Arbor and resume his zoological investiga- tions), science and books--not to mention Morgan horses and box- ers. STRAIN OF OFFICE-Above is President Ruthven as he looked when appointed to the presi- dency in 1929. Below, after ten years in office. I -Daily-Jack Bergstrom RUTHVEN SCANS A FIRST EDITION FROM HIS LIBRARY THRO'UGH his "extra-curricu- lar" activities, however, he main- tained his interest in biology. He imported from Vermont, the first pure-bred Morgan horses in the state. He keeps his Morgans at a time after five. If he has no dinner engagement, President Ruthven dines at home with Mrs. Ruthven and then spends the rest of the evening until 11:30 working on speeches, reading, or catching up on his paper work. PRESIDENT Ruthven often finds it necessary to be absent from the campus on business. There are countless educational confereneces to attend and speaking engage- ments to be met. Since the inaugu- ration of the Michigan Memorial- Phoenix Project, President Ruth- ven has travelled from one coast to another, selling alumni on the research program. President Ruthven is a Method- ist in religion, a life-long Mason and is generally considered a Re- publican in politics. A naturally modest and retiring man, he prefers to stay behind the scenes and allow it to appear that the University runs itself. Im- mediately after his appointment he expressed a desire to "keep out of the news." He saw the University as "a quiet place for learned men to work out the problems of man- kind and for youths to become learned." A reporter was told that "I have no desire to keep news away from newspapers, but I want the University run in such a way that there won't be any news." In this statement, President Ruthven was obviously thinking To President and Mrs. Rutlven in hedays to come!0a n C F 14a Phone 9012 306 So. State St. We Congratulate You PRESIDENT RUTH VEN on a Job Well Done mmmmm I -I Fountain Pens Typewriters MORRILL'S Since 1908 Phone 7177 NE E STYLES FIRST AT WILD'S 314 South State Street Here's a Tribute to PRESIDENT RUTHVEN for his 22 years of excellent service to the University. Congratulations to 'our Incoming PRESIDENT I ameJ t.& 208 Michigan Theater Bldg. Phone 2-2072 s re I "YOUR FRIENDLY. CAMPUS BOOKSTORE" sal anan m~*a ma Neither a good appearance nor a good education can guarantee su~.ccess. But what a head start they give you! Ask the man who buys his clothes from.,. fI. ti:"l I f4~ I I 10-18. Printed sheer \ voile. In 5:;.r;...,/: .;y: : if,:;! ;.; :: , i;' h' %'' r;". ;:"; k; I} I I . I II I 11