Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1924 [PAGE 298]

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1923]

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

295

September 7, 1923 Received from Professor Ira 0. Baker the following items on account of the "Baker Prize Fund:" Bonds No. K207 and K208 of the Whalen Paper and Pulp Co., each for $1,000, due in 1930, bearing 6 % interest, payable M a y 1 and November 1, and having the November 1923 and subsequent coupons attached $2,000.00 Bonds No. C159, C310, and C314 of the Vancouver Lumber Co., due on M a y I, 1937, each for $100, bearing 7 ^ 2 % interest, payable M a y I and November 1, and having the November 1923 and subsequent coupons attached 300.00 Checks to cover various bills for tablet, certificates, etc 212.14 Total $2,512.14

Lloyd Morey

Comptroller September 4, 1923 The Dean and the Heads of Departments, College of Engineering, Gentlemen: Shortly before the last Commencement I wrote to President Kinley saying that I would present to the University $2,500, the income of which is to be used for two prizes having a total value of one hundred dollars to be awarded annually to Civil Engineering Seniors, and for the installation and maintenance of a bronze tablet upon which shall be announced the successive annual winners of the aforementioned prizes, and for the engraving of a certificate to be given to the winner of the first prize and the printing and lettering such a certificate annually. In that communication I said that I hoped the award of the prizes would be under the direction of the Dean and the Heads' of the Departments of the College of Engineering. Later the Board of Trustees accepted the offer. I have secured the tablet and had it placed upon the wall immediately east of the door to room 203 Engineering Building, at a cost of $140 for the tablet and $6.39 for placing upon the wall. Professor C. C. Williams has in his possession the copper-plate engraving of the certificate and thirty copies of the certificate printed on bond paper. Adjacent to the tablet is a framed copy of the certificate. The cost of the plate and thirty certificates was $65.75. Therefore the entire expense of the tablet and the certificate is $212.14. I have given to the University the cash with which to pay the bills for the above, and in addition I have given to the University $2,000 of 6 % bonds due in 1930 and $300 in yl/i% bonds due in 1937. It is estimated that the total cost of casting the two names for the tablet will be $3.50 and the cost of inserting the slip on the tablet $2.00 and the cost of engrossing the certificate less than $1.00. Therefore the total annual charge against the fund will probably be $106.50. In m y communication to President Kinley I said that I desired to make m y gift such that you gentlemen should have unrestricted powers over details in awarding the prizes, as I think it entirely unwise to attempt the rule of the dead hand for either the near or the remote future. However, as I have had this matter on m y mind for several years past, I hope that a statement of m y views on the subject may not be inappropriate. 1. It seems to m e that the prizes will be useful in stimulating scholarship and interest in allied activities, and will in a measure help to neutralize the diverting influence of social and athletic activities. 2. M y thought is that the tablet will be a means of calling the attention of students to the fact of such a prize and of publishing the names of the successive winners. I hope the certificate will be appreciated by the winner as tangible evidence of the honor, and that possibly he may frame it and hang it in his office or home. that in seventy-five dollars and a second prize of often made divided I cent, first prize3. Isomewhat similar matters thefirstprize istwenty-five dollars.per a m a and of think the one hundred dollars prize money should be sixty into aware