Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Gregory Hall [PAGE 3]

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AN ALUMNI GREGORY MEMORIAL

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It is agreed among those concerned that some suitable testimonial should be instituted or erected on the University campus, in honor of the man, who more than any one else, and in a large sense more than all others, laid the foundations as they were laid, and in the earlier years shaped the character and scope of the institution which has developed into the University of Illinois as we know it—Doctor John Milton Gregory, the first Regent (President). He was elected to his high office March 12, 1867, and served with great distinction and winsome favor until September 1, 1880, when he resigned because his strength seemed to him unequal to the burden he had assumed and appeared inevitable while he continued in the position. This is not the place for an historic account, but it is becoming to say that what transpired in those early years is now recognized in wonderful accomplishments. Out of a chaos of ideas, of widely divergent, mostly crudely formed ideals, confusedly entangled, the old with the new, the good with the bad, the possible with the impracticable, the personal with the patriotic—there came forth clearly formulated plans, splendidly organized procedures, richly prophetic beginnings, which in their fair developments makes the institution what it is today. In the preparation for the remarkable results which have followed, there was in it all and thru it all, one inspired and inspiring voice, one towering leadership, one man who devised and directed^ one who eloquently pleaded when oratory was effective, one who vigorously battled when contests were unavoidable. Let any one unfamiliar with the inner history of the period, read the paper prepared by Doctor Gregory, called the "Report of the Committee on Courses of Study" etc., published in the First Annual Report of the Board of Trustees, to find at once the masterly mind enlisted in the service of the new institution during the pregnant years of its organization and development—years and activities whose influence has mightily affected the whole subsequent character and life of the University, if indeed they are not responsible for its very existence as such. It is to this man whose memory we venerate and love; this maker, this master; this founder, this fabricator; this pilot, this captain; this father, this friend—to whom we the inheritors of the fruits of his genius and of his devoted labors, propose to provide something commemorative of his service, his consuming devotion, his prevailing power. The University of Illinois is not, we may assume, in dire need of money, insatiable as is the absorbing maw and efficient as is its financial digestion. But the institution is a human one, it is founded on human needs, and thrives only as it touches human sympathies and desires, only

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