Rollins Welcomes William F. Blackman to the Presidency

              Rollins Has Auspicious Opening;
Dr. Blackman Assumes Presidency

Reprinted from the Florida Times-Union and Citizen, Jacksonville, October 14 and 19, 1902:


Rollins College, Winter Park, Oct. 18 -- The faculty and student body of Rollins College feel that the college has had the most auspicious opening in its history this year. The able and energetic administration of Dr. W. F. Blackman, the newly-elected president, makes doubly interesting the life that was already full of interest. One of the new features is the chapel service modeled after that which Dr. Blackman introduced into the Yale divinity school, and which was afterwards used in the Yale undergraduate chapel. In its present form the service ie: 1, introductory Scripture sentences; 2, Gloria; 3, Scripture reading; 4, prayer followed by Lord's prayer; 5, notices; 6, doxology; 7, recessional march.

Miss Reed, the new teacher of elocution, has opened a very successful school, and has already awakened great enthusiasm among her students. A dramatic class has been formed, which will take up as a study, the Criteria of the Body, Tone Color, Impersonation, and then will begin the work on the drama. in January the class will give a public presentation of one of the standard plays. It is expected that by commencement the class will be ready to appear either in one of Shakespeare's plays, or in a Greek tragedy. * *

The executive committee of the board of trustees of Rollins College last week elected Prof. W. Ft Blackman, Ph. D., of Yale University, acting president, pending the February meeting of the full board, when the action will doubtless be ratified. Dr. Blackman accepted the position and assumed its duties at once.

President Blackman has degrees from Oberlin, Yale and Cornell. He pursued social economic and ethical studies in the University and Royal Statistical Bureau of Berlin, Germany, during two semesters. He has also attended lectures in the Sorbonne and the College de France. For eight years he has been professor of ethics and sociology in Yale University, and joint editor of the Yale Review, a quarterly journal for the scientific discussion of social, political and economic subjects. He is a member of the National Conference of Charity and Corrections, and a director of the American Economic Association. He has published, through the Macmillans, "The Making of Hawaii, a Study in Social Evolution," which has been generally recognized in Honolulu, Europe and the United States, not only as the first authority on the social and moral aspects of Hawaiian history, but as a model of sociological method. It is understood that he has in manuscript a study on Percey Bysshe Shelly, the Poet of Anarchism, which will soon be published.

Before taking up college work, Dr. Blackman held three pastorates-in Steubenville, O.; Naugatuck, Conn., and Ithaca, N. Y. During his Naugatuck ministry the church built and endowed a parish house at a cost of $50,000, in which all manner of social activities were carried on. At Ithaca he had among his parishioners President and Mrs. Adams of Cornell University, and a large number of professors and instructors and students of the institution. Cornell conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in 1894.

Dr. Blackman was for a time a student in the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin, where he was soloist in the famous Second Church choir. This interest in music he has always continued to cultivate. Mrs. Blackman is also a fine singer, having studied for several years in Berlin, Paris and elsewhere. It is expected that their coming to Winter Park will greatly invigorate the musical department of the college and the musical interests of the town.

It is a fortunate fact that the new president has long been a close student of the history and resources of Florida, and identified with its interests. For fifteen years he has visited the State annually or oftener. During the whole of that period he has owned orange groves in Lake County, where his father lived, died and is buried; and of late he has been engaged in developing properties in Miami.

The college has occasion, to congratulate late itself on the fact that Dr. George M. Ward, the retiring president, is to retain an active connection with the institution. He has done more than anyone else, by his ability, good sense, geniality of disposition, dignity and charm of manner, indefatigable industry and unselfish devotion to the interests of the school, to establish it on secure foundations. He has felt himself unable to carry longer the burden of administration, and the trustees have with the utmost reluctance accepted his resignation of the presidency and elected him to a professorship, which will leave him leisure to devote himself for the present chiefly to the financial interests of the college. He will also remain a member of the board of trustees.

Under the new administration, the college-it may be said with confidence-will go forward along the path marked out already. It will not undertake to teach what cannot be adequately taught by any institution in a new country, and with relatively slender endowments and apparatus. But what it does will be done thoroughly. It will maintain and foster the highest ideals of Christian character and culture. It will employ the very best teachers that can be had; and it will seek to give to its students the knowledge and love of what is finest and most rewarding in life.

The coming of a new president to Rollins College is a matter of interest to the entire State of Florida. Rollins was founded seventeen years ago, and has had a most honorable and useful history. It has stood for the noblest ideals of character, and has exerted a stimulating and wholesome influence. on the intellectual and moral life of the Commonwealth. Under the wise and strong leadership of President George W. Ward it has emerged from the partial collapse which befell nearly all Florida interests after the freeze of '94-95, and is now on a better footing than ever before. It has a beautiful and healthful location, a fine campus, attractive and convenient buildings, and a serviceable equipment of books and apparatus. It has a large constituency of strong friends, both North and South, who know its worth and its needs. Its very able board of trustees includes, in addition to prominent business men and clergymen of this State, 1. G. Comstock and G. A. Rollins of Chicago, L. F. Dommerick and W. P. Hall of New York, W. C. Temple of Pittsburgh, F. F. Nettleton of Scranton, J. H. Wyeth of St. Louis, and E. H. Brewer of Cortland, N. Y., who have large financial interests in Florida. Already it has a considerable body of graduates and former students, who are spreading its influence and reputation among the people.