Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914 [PAGE 134]

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132

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[October 8,

Elijah R. Hatowski, Junior—College of Engineering. Charles W. Bailey, Junior—College of Literature and Arts. E. A. Williford, Sophomore—College of Engineering. I recommend that the Trustees of the University of Illinois accept the gift from the trustees of the Henry Strong educational fund, to be administered in accordance with the wishes of the donors, and that they express their cordial appreciation of this action of said trustees.

On. motion of Mr. Blair, it was voted to accept the proposed gift of the Trustees of the Henry Strong Educational Fund, to be administered in accordance with the wishes of the donors, and to ask the president of the University to send to the trustees of the fund an expression of the board's hearty appreciation of this benefaction.

M E M O R I A L TO PRESIDENT GREGORY. (5) The following statement in regard to a suitable memorial for the first president of the University, Dr. John Milton Gregory: The Trustees of the University on November 12, 1898, voted to permit the interment of the body of Dr. John Milton Gregory upon the campus, and undertook in the following language to care for the grave in perpetuity: "And the board will, as soon as practicable, give appropriate treatment to the grounds in that vicinity and will assume the perpetual care of the grave." Many propositions of a more or less definite character have been made to the Board of Trustees and in the alumni body of the University as to an appropriate action in the premises. The alumni have on one or two occasions appointed committees to interest the former students of the University in the erection of a worthy testimonial in memory of the first president of the University, but up to the present time nothing has come of all this discussion. I have had an interview with Mrs. Gregory, the widow of Dr. Gregory, and with Mr. Alfred Gregory, the son of Dr. Gregory. The family are very desirous that the grave should be marked in some appropriate -way, and they are quite willing to do this at their own expense if the University is not willing to undertake it. It seems to me that the grave should be marked in some appropriate and simple manner by the Trustees of the University at the expense of the University. The great work which Dr. Gregory did for the University of Illinois and for education in this commonwealth and in the commonwealth of Michigan from which lie came.to us would justify the erection of some noble memorial in the form of an appropriate building upon the campus of the University; and it ought not to be impossible to interest those people who were here as students during Dr. Gregory's administration and the men and women who may still survive who know of his great work and appreciate it. If the memorial were of a sort to enlist the interest of subsequent generations of students, such as a students' union building, I have no doubt that great material assistance could be obtained from those who were students after Dr. Gregory's administration. I think the same thing would be true of an art building. Dr. Gregory was a man who believed thoroughly in the vital significance of the esthetic element in the education of young people. Largely through his own initiative a sum of money was collected at the very beginning of the University from people who were interested in the same field, mostly in the cities of Urbana and Champaign, with which was purchased what for that era was a very valuable collection Of art objects, such as casts of famous statues, pictures, etc. The University after fdrty. years still has the bulk of this collection intact and in a good state of preservation. It has served as an important element in the education of the thousands of students who have attended the University since Dr. Gregory's time. An art building would, therefore, be a very appropriate form of testimonial to the memory of this great president. Mrs. Gregory has expressed hearty sympathy with the idea of the erection of" a chapel upon the University grounds, for which the alumni and former students of the University might be asked to contribute, and she has expressed a willingness to make a material subscription herself for this or any other purpose which may commend itself to her.

On motion of Mr. Hatch, it was voted that the Board of Trustees will undertake to mark the grave of Dr. Gregory in some simple and appropriate way. On motion of Mr. Blair, it was voted, further, that the president of the University be authorized to consider with the committee of the alumni, or with others interested in the matter, the possibility of erecting a suitable building on the campus as a memorial of the first president of the University.

PROVISION FOR T H E COMPTROLLERSHIP.

(6) The following statement outlining a plan for providing for' the vacant position of comptroller: The University needs very much at present additional assistance in the work of instruction in the field of accounting. It has seemed to me therefore that a good arrangement might possibly be made by which a professor of accounting could be obtained, to whom in addition might be assigned the duties of the