Senior Orations
Senior Orations at Wake Forest
Material has been gathered from Dr. G. W. Paschal’s books, History of Wake Forest College, Volumes I, II, and III (1834-1943); from newspaper clippings in the Office of Communications and the Library; from Faculty Minutes; Bulletins or Wake Forest College; from records in the Baptist Book Collection including Biblical Recorders; from Commencement programs in offices of the Dean of the College Provost, President Registrar, Library, and Treasurer. The bound copies of the Bulletin in Mr. Williard’s office were especially useful, as were material in the Baptist Book Collection. Mrs. Bagby in the Speech Department helped fill in some of the gaps; as did letters to the individual alumni who were the orators in 1945 and 1972. Some of the orations in 1972 did not have titles but Jane Tolar O’Connor and Susan House David kindly reviewed their orations and came up with suitable titles for the record.
Wake Forest Institute was founded in 1834 (16 students registered in February. 1834, and before the end of the year 72 students had enrolled). In L839 the Institute was rechartered as Wake Forest College. The history of Wake Forest divides naturally into three main periods: (1) from the beginning of the institution in the early 1830’s to the early 1860’s when the Civil War forced its temporary closing (1861-1865); (2) from 1865 to the early 1950s, when the movement of the college campus from Wake Forest to Winston-Salem was organized and carried out; and (3) from 1956 when the school began operation in Winston-Sa1em to the present.
In the first year of the Institute (1834) students organized a debating society. Soon after the opening of the second session in 1835, students organized two groups, the Euzelians and the Philomathesians. These two literary societies promoted debate and oratory at all special occasions of the college.
At first, all members of the senior class were expected to speak, unless excused by the faculty. In the early 80’s the number of speakers was fixed at ten; others in the class wrote a thesis. In 1899 the number of speakers was reduced to eight, in 1909 to six and in 1924 to four. In 1973 the Dean of the College reduced the number of speakers to three.
Ending with the commencement of 1901 the first speaker as the salutatorian and the last speaker the valedictorian. Some years the salutatorian and the valedictorian gave senior orations in addition to the salutatory and valedictory. Until the commencement of 1889 in awarding these distinctions, the grades of the scholars were not as important as degrees so that Master of Arts had precedence over Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Arts over other degrees. Beginning with the commencement of 1889 the Valedictory was awarded to the student graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Master of Arts who had made the highest average grade and the salutatory to the student, who made the second highest grade. From 1868 to 1878 the salutatory was in Latin. In the early years there was often a speech given in German or French; I have not listed these with the senior orations.
Beginning with the commencement of 1909 the speeches by the six selected members of the graduating class, three from each literary society in the earlier years to have been in competition for a medal, the A. D. Ward Medal. This medal was provided by Mr. A. D. Ward. a graduate of the University of North Carolina. who had become a member of the Board of Trustees of Wake Forest in1904 and continued as such until his death on April16 1940. He was President of the Board for the years 1907-10.
In 1923 the faculty voted as follows: “Nominations for Senior Speakers shall be made to the Faculty on the third Monday in April by a standing committee of the Faculty from those who have (a) submitted in writing a proposed address by the first Monday in April and (b) have spoken satisfactorily either before the committee or on some public occasion in College. The faculty will select four Senior Speakers on the third Monday in April. . Senior Speakers shall present their commencement addresses to the Faculty committee for approval by May 25. The President of the College shall be a member of the committee.”
The above resolution was amended to limit Commencement speeches of the senior class representatives to one thousand words and to empower the President to appoint the Committee (Standing Committee on Commencement Addresses). (In other years it was called the Committee on Senior Orators.)
The catalog of 1937-38 lists the Committee on Literary Societies and Debates. This committee recommended the Senior Orators to the faculty from 1938 to 1956. In 1956 the faculty was reorganized and the Committee on Literary Societies and Debates was deleted. Dr. Franklin R. Shirley became the chairman of the Committee on Literary .Societies and Debates in 1951 and for many years he handled the selection of Senior Orators, continuing after the Speech Department was created in 1960 until 1972. The Student Life Committee selected the Senior Orators for 1972, 1973, and 1974. In 1975 the Dean’s office along with the Assistant Chaplain took over this task. The format was changed considerably at this time, with top students being invited to a Senior Colloquium, where they presented short speeches, and the best three of these were selected. The speeches are now given on Sunday afternoon at an Honors and Awards Convocation. Judges are invited from the Winston-Salem community to select the winner of the award.
During World War II the college enrollment dropped considerably. In order to meet this crisis, in 1942 Wake Forest became a Coeducational institutional. The first female senior orator was in 1946. The present day ratio between male and female is about 50-30. —
On the following pages is a list of Senior Orators and their topics from the present back to 1868 (the opening of the school after the Civil War.)
Ethel Kanoy
Secretary to Dean Mullen
Completed March 14,1977
Wake Forest University Senior Orations
1997 *Leslie Ann Jackson Here
*Charlotte Anne Opal Finding Comfort in the Uncomfortable
*Donald Richard Pocock Accident or Destiny
1996 *Rose Erin Caldwell Serene Science
* Jennifer Lynn Fowler Paris Metro
* Ann Mary Leist Southbound on the Northern Line
1995 *Loraine Vera Fuller Knowing Angels
* Joy Lizette Goodwin An Education and Criticism
*Kathryn Patricia Huyvaert Becoming
1994 * Anna Kathryn Richardson Equipped to Care
* John Kenneth Stuckey Finding Poetry in Motion
* Aaron Benjamin Tomlin Beginning
1993 *Lisa Michelle Shannon Reflections on My Rich World
*Nancy Paula Sherwood As a Disabled Student *Stephanie Spellers Coming to Life
1992 Hannah Evelyn Britton I Had to Go To South Africa Before I Could Go To East Winston
Eric Ashley Hairston Childhood’s Echo
Douglas Hamilton Nesbit Trying out With Herman Melville
1991 Anne Elizabeth Barnard A Dehumanized Existence
Craig Macaulay Martin Stretched-out Hands
*Kellie Elizabeth Tabor Fourth of July – Siloam, North Carolina
1990 Edwin Hemphill Clark Within a Story
*Michael H. Monroe Impressions of a Monastic Sojourn
Grace Elizabeth Murray From “The Tube” to the Canvases
1989 *Karen Baynes Decisions
M. Lou Brown Kaleidoscopic Vision Lisa Jean Yarger Lights
1988 Amy Scherr Childs Oothoon’s Lament
* Scott Edward M. Graham Entropy and My Existential Education
Wendy Ellen Pohlig Thinking Out of Turn
1987 Milena A. Cvijanovich I Am an Architect
Maria Weston Merritt The Lesson: A True Story
James Francis Toole, III Playing With Mirrors
1986 *Raymond Benjamin Farrow, III “Strange Task. Strange Hope”: The Language of self
Gina Rae Grubbs The Moral Imperative of a Liberal Arts Education: Reflections on a Scholar
H. Lane Wurster. Jr. Thoughts on Trains and Trees
1985 Linda Ruth Boone Spanish & Identity: The Crisis of Knowing Two Languages
*Angela Michele Patterson White, Unlike Me
Matthew Gray Styers To Keep the Romance
1984 Kathy Janette Allen Something Worth Knowing 7 About the Self Douglas
James Furlong Revolution and A More Perfect Union
*Jennifer L. Womack Crossing Bridges
1983 Steven Randal Catron Success, Failure and Altiora Peto
*James Theodore Gentry John Stuart Mill. and Pac Man
Mercedes Maria Teixido The Nude as the Most Perfect Beauty. or Expose Your Real Self..
1982 *Martha Faith McLellan After the First Death: Reflections on poetry and Emergency Room Experience
Dennis Walter Hearne Toward an Ethical United States Foreign Policy
Catherine Mary Frier In Cautious Praise of Impetuosity
1981*John E.R. Friedenberg Art vs. Sport as an Imago for American Society
Stanlee Parks Greene, Jr. Education at Wake Forest: Myth or Reality
Lennis Louise Pearcy The Story
1980 *Joseph C. Davis. Jr. The Minor Third
John Marc Gulley Taking Time to Pause
Jane Cornwall Jackson Education: A Plea for Something Different
Evelyn Byrd Tribble In Defense of the Trite
1979 *Jeanne Preston Whitman Look Homeward
Linda Lou Crocker Revelation for a Skeptical Conservative
James Richard Saintsing If, Zen
Kathryn Ann Webb The Oedipus Complex
1978 *Mark Wayne Leuchtenberger Rungless Ladders
Emily Jane Owens Yes, Virginia. There Is Life After College
Michael Jac Whatley Between Two Points
1977 *Katharine Marie Amato Realizations, Revelations, and Rainbows
David William Kunz In Defense or Sheep
Katherine Ann Meiburg Physics and the Fine Arts
1976 Judith Kay Haughee On Becoming Real
*Barbara Lou Holland Thinking for Thinking’s Sake
Roberto Jehu Hunter A Just Distribution of Wealth?
1975 Albert Stanley Meiburg The Church-Related College: Servant of Reason, Servant of Faith
Ollis Jon Mozon, Jr. Unfortunately, Still a Black Dot on a White Elephant
*Evelyn Jean West The Sciences and Humanities: Exploring the Land Between
1974 Steven Alan Grossman Our Duty to Wake Forest as Alumni
*Brian Scott Linton Nothing Lasts Forever — It’s Time to Move On
Darian Lance Smith And Even the Desert Will Bloom
1973 *Janice Lynn Gruber . The Problem of Medical Care in America and a Prescription for Change
John Richard Kendrick, Jr. Victimless Crimes
John Anthony K. Browning The Now and Then Generation: Hanging Loose in the Anguish of Language
1972 Linda Jane Tolar Song of Myself: The Human Potential
William Russell Brantley Reynolda High School?
Susan House David Dropping Out: Sometimes a Good Decision
*Keith Watson Vaughn Our War Against the American Indian–Will it Ever End
1971 Carol L. Clark A Modern Myth: Peace through Institutions
Freemon A. Mark Too, Hear the Call of Revolution
F. Kevin Mauney “The Graduate” and Other Heroes
*Laura A. Stringfellow The Actors are at Hand—Mid Midsummer-Night’s Dream
1970 *Laura Susan Abernathy Where is “Woman’s Place”?
Laura Christian Ford The Idea of a University
Richard Allen Shoaf Grace. Speech, and Silence
Wayne Woltz Tolbert Population. Environment, and Technology
1969 Phyllis McMurry Tate The Worst Are Full of Passionate Intensity
James Nello Martin. Jr. What’s It all For?
Mary Ann Tolbert . Bleary-Eyed Wisdom Born of Midnight Oil
*Linda Sue Carter Where is the Renaissance Man?
1968 Ronald E. Bassett Quest for Values in the University
Frederick L. Cooper, III The Agony of the Ages
*Kenneth S. Johnson The Winter of our Discontent
Walter Brooks Stillwell III Education and Political Life
1967 William Michael Andrew The Problem of Democratic Education
*Sandra Leigh Myers The Importance of Christian Training as a Part Total Education
Vicki Lu Tolar Time and the Student-
Richard Carter Fallis Light in a Dark Land
1966 James Leslie Blackburn The Winds of Adversity . . .
Carol Ann Claxton Truth: Newspaper Style
Robert Kenneth Goodwin The Developing Nation–A Need for an Attitude for Growth and Change *Dona Simpson Westray The Vision of Greatness-
1965 Jerry Attkisson Reflections of a Senior
*Donia Ann Whiteley Literature and the Practical Man
Martha Swain Toward the Prize of the High Calling
Neal Tate Democracy in America
1964 Ronald Treadwell McIntyre The Uber Scientist
*John Leslie Rosenthal An Absurd Negligence and Discovery
C Frank Balch Wood Can Wake Forest College Become a Christian University
David Maier Zacks What Price Security?
1963 John Glenn Blackburn, Jr. Never Imitate
Susan Elizabeth Fulkerson Women in a Male Stronghold
*Eura DuVal Gaskins, Jr. The Fall of the Empire .
Douglas James McCorkindale Education and the Open Mind 1962
1962*Alfred Lee Baker The United Nations in World Affairs
Susie O. Jones That Man May Know Love
Anthony William Packer An Institution Within an Institution
Sammy K. Williams The College and the Faith
1961 *Richard F. Curlee A New Humanity
Sheron J. Dailey The Shruggers .
Betty Bruce Hoyard To Never Understand
George Williamson, Jr. Seeds of Discontent
1960 John A. Alford The Worth of Creation
*Janet M. Binkley The Academic Shell
Richard L. Burleson The Defacement of Honor
Donald O. Schoonmaker Wake Forest, 1960; An Inventory
1959 *Charles B. Deane, Jr. Equality of the Heart
Jane Gilbert Freeman A New Alphabet
Dinah G. Gattis Who Shall Restrain Us?
Charles S. Rooks The College Professor
1958 *David F. Hughes What Should Be
Rowland Hayes Thomas, Jr. Where Do We Go from Here?
Linda Carol Willard The House that Jack Built
Larry Corlis Williams Pilgrimage to a Sacred Shrine
1957 *Marjorie L. Thomas The Sleep of Death
Martha Cook Gentry No More Lab
Fred Simpson War and Peace
Charles Richards A School is for Students
1956 Kenneth David Freeman Academic Freedom
E. Pauline Binkley In Quest of Life’s Meaning
C. Richard Day Understanding The Cornerstone of Peace and Progress
*Harry Thomas Frank Insignificant Significance
1955 Carwile LeRoy Can We Go Home Again?
*Joseph C. Hough, Jr. Democratic Obsession.
Wilfred Winstead Forging Ahead
Isabel Quattlebaum. A More Perfect Union
1954 James Young Greene The Crisis of the Christian College
Gordon Eugene Boyce At the Crossroads Anne Marie Fuller A Dream on Trial
*Betty-Jo Usher Fingertips Through the Clouds
1953 *Virgil H. Moorefield, Jr. Out of Darkness…Light
Joe B. Mauney This I Believe
Clara Ellen Francis. Builders of Men
Brightie E. White, Jr. Our College Generation
1952 Lloyd Abernethy, Jr. Preface to a Creative Humanity
*Doris Anne Link Whoso Would Be a Man
Betty Jo Ring The Wake Forest Woman
Roy E. Shell The Freedom to Live
1951 David M. Clark, Jr. The Only Thing We Have to Fear
*Carol Oldham Her Greatest Opportunity
Julian C. Burroughs, Jr. A Challenge to Reynolda
Lucius Pullen Training for Peace
1950 T. Lamar Caudle III As A Mighty Oak
Edgar D. Christman The Major Assumption of our Representative Government
*DeLeon T. Murphy The Forgotten Man
Elizabeth Pringle In Defense of Women
1949 Henry B. Huff War or Peace
*William H. Wagoner The Vanishing American Statesman
Hugh C. Dover Liberal Education
Robert M. Winecoff The Whole Man
1948 E. M. Britt The best of Whatever You Are
Hubert B. Humphrey Learning to Live
Elwood R. Orr Today I am a College Graduate
*Dorothy Haworth Today I am Twenty-One
1947 John Dixon Davis What of Tomorrow?
William Marcus McGill The Challenge of Higher Education in America,
*James Arthur West, Jr. America: The Champion of Freedom
William Edward Poe One World and Democracy
1946 Nancy Hyde Easley Clod or Continent
*Frank Eugene Deese The Death of a Nation
Harold Prestwood Coston One World or None
James Oda Mattox Our Noble Heritage
1945 J. W. Chandler Heirs or Custodians?
William Thomas Smith Heroism and World Peace
J. S. Fentress A Panorama of Death
*Clarence Bowen A Hero Dies
1944 *Elbert Wethington The Fundamental Foundation of a Lasting Peace
Bruce Whitaker Education and Stability
Leo Hawkins The Working Man and World Society
Earl Parker An American Paradox
1943 W. Burnette Harvey War—Prelude to What
Lawrence Highfill A Powerful Idea
Edwin G. Wilson Let us Dare to Do our Duty
*John J. Mcllillan Look to the West
1942 *Ralph Brumet Marble and Slate
George Thomas Watkins III Shattered Altars
Charles Maddry Freeman Goodness is Not Enough
Robert Lansing Hicks The Sin of Indifference-
1941 Weston P. Hatfield Commencement of What?
*James S. Potter Religious Liberty–Bulwark of Democracy
G. W. Bennett From Campus to Camp
John T. Spencer. Jr. The Cultural Chemistry of a Deacon
1940 *T. Eugene Worrell Liberty that Enslaves
G. Thomas Lumpkin Ambition is but an Empty Dream
Adlai Hoyle In Defense of Youth
James Copple The Christian Optimist
1939 *Robert M. Helm. Jr. On the Threshold of What?
W. S. Hicks, Jr. New Frontiers for Youth
T. Sloan Guy, Jr. Visions
Cyrus M. Johnson Eve Still Rules Adam
1938 Archibald M. McMillan Fickle Youth’s Consistency
*Albert E. Simms Lights and Shadows Joel Francis Paschal Our Opportunity
Jack Benjamin McDuffie We Go Forth
1937 J. E. Lawrence Let us Pause and Reminisce
*J. A. Martin, Jr. Flaming Youth: Retrospect and Prospice
J. D. Beale Whither Education?
J. H. Blackmore The Church: Hold-over or Vital Force?
1936 H. A. Matthews Cooperation or Chaos?
*G. .E. Copple Education at the Crossroads
J. C. Murchison Through a Graduate’s Eyes
C. E. Hobgood A Rational Nationalism
1935 *Charles U. Harris, Jr. The Cause of Peace
Millard R. Brown Back to First Principles
Carl L. Ousley Social Security.
J. Glenn Blackburn Wake Forest Faces the Future
1934 W. Scott Buck The Lawyer and the New Deal
G. Carl Lewis Individualism in a Cooperative World
*Donald G. Myers New Times–New Virtues
W. O. Rosser. Jr. Our Obligation to Wake Forest
1933 Irby B. Jackson The Test of Education
*E. L. Smith A New Internationalism
Zon R. Robinson A Federation of the World
Clyde W. Glosson Our Glorious Heritage
1932 *William H. Ford Vision
Harold H. Deaton Pledged Responsibility
Thomas Carl Brown Through the Eyes of a Senior
Braxton L. Davis Character
1931 Harry L. Bridges The Challenge .of the Age
James M. Early Our New Universe
Nathan C. Brooks, Jr. Followers
*Clarence H. Patrick- Man’s Mightiest Movement
1930 *C. A. Maddry A Heritage to Sustain
B. M. Tomberlin The College Man and His Civic Adjustment
W. H. Bostick A Plea
E. B. Whitaker Have we Abolished Slavery?
1929 E. C. Shoe The Abiding Work of Christian Schools
W. L. Cohoon The Mission of our Alma Mater
R. P. Caudill A New Aristocracy
*Joe L. Carlton Our Standard Man
1928 *O. T. Binkley A Plea for Idealism
J. Elmer Cloer The American Plan
G. N. Ashley Right and Wrong in Latin America
G. M. Griffin, Jr. Youth and Young America
1927 D. S. Haworth The Challenge to America
*C. R. Tew War
B. W. Walker The Citizen and His Government
R. E. Wall Education for Democracy
1926 A. S. Gillespie Matthew T. Yates
J. S. Hopkins A Plea for Moral and Religious Education
*C. B. Earp Our Thought-World
F. H. Malone The Need of Moral Progress in Society
1925 D. D. Lewis The North Carolina Family
F. L. Paschal The New Progressivism or North Carolina
J. J. Tarlton The Modern Trend of Education in America
*S. L. Blanton . The Function of a Christian College
1924 L. E. Andrews The Compromise of Justice
S. N. Lamb The American Hero of the Twentieth Century
B. T. Jones, Jr. A Martyr to a Lost Cause
*H. T. Wright The Challenge of the Situation
1923 G. H. Morton The Menace of Nationalism
P. O. Purser The International Mind
E. L. Spivey A Chal1enge to North Carolina Baptists
G. W. Blount The Christian State
H. P. Naylor The White Man’s Obligation
*W. R. Wallace The Efficiency of the American Government
1922 T. W. Allen The Great Delusion
R. S. Averitt The Spirit of the Red Cross
O. H. Hauser The Response to the Social Call
*A. L. Goodrich Intercollegiate Athletics in North Carolina
F. B. Helms North Carolina in Transition
E. L. Roberts The Ideals of America’s Champion of Peace
1921 D. T. Hurley The Democratic Destiny
C. F. Gaddy Playing the Game
R. R. Carter Truths about North Carolina
*A. R. Whitehurst The Nemesis of History
R. C. Brown The College Man and Leadership
G. R. Sherrill The Baptist Crisis in North Carolina
1920 McKinley Edwards The Dynamic Force in Reconstruction
E. J. Trueblood Southern Ideals
E. D. Banks The Unfinished Task
*F. C. Feezor The Coming of Internationalism
I. L. Yearby World Citizenship
C. M. Austin An Independent Ireland
1919 L. B. Dawes Carry On
R. P. Burns The Dominion of Man
*R. R. Mallard The Southern Soldier
W. E. Honeycutt Guarding the Deposit
B.. T. Ward The Unfinished Task
J. I. Allen, Jr. Woman and the New World
1918 M. T. Rankin Heroes at Home
L. V. Coggins America’s Fight for World Freedom
R. L. Humber, Jr. The True Basis of Democracy
B. L. Liles The New Washington
J. C. Canipe The Social World Crisis
*J. T. Gillespie Our Supreme Debt to the Unborn
1917 A. C. Reid The Ascendancy of Southern Principles
J. B. Rucker The Liberalizing Influence of the Present War
J. M. Hester Americanism and World Peace
I. E. Carlyle Our Duty to France
P. S. Daniel The Invisible Empire
*J. Baird Edwards The Dawn of Universal Democracy
1916 E. B. Cox, North Carolina’s Imperative Task
R. K. Redwine Social Inequality
A. C. Lovelace Vital Preparedness
R. H. Taylor Our Debt to France
*C. J. Hunter, Jr. The Effect of War on Literature
K. M. Yates The Neglected Factor in the Rural Problem
1915 R. L. Brown Unrecognized Heroism
J. P. Mull The Farmer, the Neglected Citizen in Legislation,
A. Y. Arledge The Democracy of the Eleventh Hour
J. M. Pritchard Shall the Death Penalty be Abolished?
*B. M. Watkins The Quest of Freedom,
Earle Prevette The Mediterranean of the New World
1914 W. W. Walker The Problem of the City-
George C. Pennell North Carolina’s Legal Relic of Barbarism
* L. Jarvis Women’s Status in Government .
D. M. Johnson Anglo-Saxon Conservatism
E. P. Yates America’s Olive Crown
E. P. Stillwell The New Chivalry
1913: L. L. Carpenter The Old North State in the Field of Literature
T. C. Holland The Judicial Settlement of International Disputes
O. F. Herring The Immortal Minority
*V. V. McGuire The Relationship of Women to Some Economic and Social Problems
Sam Long , The Discovery of the Child
C. R. Sorrell America’s Uncrowned Queen
1912 S. Cecil Hilliard The Industrial Problem
C. Ray. Sharpe Our Defective Courts of Justice
*B. Vaughan Ferguson The Industrial Age and the Child
Arthur T. Allen The Demand of the Hour
William Marvin Scruggs Progress in Medicine and Its Relation to the Public
Roy R. Blanton The Twentieth Century Woman
1911 W. G. Moore Man’s Redemption of Man
C. T. Murchison The South Regaining National Leadership
J. C. Smith The One Hope for Peace
*J. P. Tucker America. the Arbiter of Modern Progress
J. R. Carroll Allies of Progress
J. B. Eller Back to the People
1910 Dee Carrick The Martyr, Carmack
E. I. Olive The Western Pioneer
H. B. Jones Political Insurgency
A. R. Williams The Saxon Ideal of Popular Government
E. N. Johnson The Rise of the Sunburnt Boy
*F. T Collins The Passing of the Old Guard
1909 W. B. Hampton The Blending of the Sections
J. J. Hayes The Demand for Washingtonian Conservatism
O. W. Henderson. The Majesty of Law
W. H. Hipps The Return of the Sceptre
E. E. White The Last of the Tribunes (Grover Cleveland)
*J. S. Martin The New North
1908 F. F. Brown Builders of the South
H. A. Jones Socialism–Not the Remedy
J. F. Justice Industrial Ethics
F. D. King The Trend of American Life
B. T. Stevens The Coming American
P. C. Stringfield The Problem of the Pacific
1907 T. H. Beverley The Hebrew as a Factor in Human Development
T. N. Hayes Civic Duty of Educated Men
C. R. Mangum Religion and Social Development
O. J. Sikes Jefferson Davis
W. E. Speas The Industrial Development of the South
W. H. Weatherspoon The Emancipation of the Laborer
1906 T. B. Ashcraft The Heart of the Nation
E. B. Earnshaw Conscience in Public Life
E. M. Hairfield Lights and Shades of American Civilization
B. T. Holding Where Life Really Exists
Liston Jackson The Problem of the American City
1905 J. B. Anderson Americanism and American Traits
R. D. Covington Some Dangers to our Republic
M. L. Davis Nathaniel Macon
E. Long The Newspaper of To-day and To-morrow
A. H. Olive The Move of Population Southward
H. F. Page The Smitten Rock.
1904 T. Allan The Type of Southern Leadership Needed
R. R. Fleming. The Unity of History .
Y. W. Barnes The Evolution of the Individual Under the Influence of Christianity
D. H. Bland The Problem of the Town
R. D. Marsh Political Equality and Industrial Inequality
J. W. Whisnant The Public Highway
1903 E. M. Harris Changes in Country Life
E. B. Fowler The South in Literature
T. A. Allen Oration
W. S. Privott Flexibility, the American Ideal
J. E. Ayscue The Need for College Men in North Carolina
H. E. Craven Democracy’s Dependence upon Education
J. B. Royall Nationalism and World Civilization
D. A. Covington Arbitration: the Solution of the World Problem
1902 W. A. Dunn The Renaissance in the Orient
B.. P. Walker North Carolina’s Call for Men in the Twentieth Century
J. C. Sykes Cecil Rhodes, Empire Builder
W. E. Woodruff The Dynamics of Truth
G. T. Stephenson The Justifiable Trust
A. J. Bethea Wade Hampton
D. W. Sorrell The Onward March of Freedom
H. V. Scarborough The Educated Farmer
190l J. Q. Adams Salutatory
H. E. Flack Materialism and Academic Freedom
S. G. Flournoy The Dignity of Labor
N. L. Gaskins The Commercial War Drum
R. E. Sentelle Nineteenth Century Transformations
E. W. Timberlake, Jr. The Citizen and the State
Jesse A. Williams The True Patriotism
G. B. Rooke Valedictory
1900 A. R. Dunning Salutatory
Wayland Cooke National Conscience
O. K. Powers The Nation’s Crisis
G. F. Edwards The Dawn of a New Era–Its Demands and Possibilities
J. Z. Eure Asleep on the Field of Battle
D. M. Stringfield The One Who Creates and the One Who Employs
Harry Trantham Valedictory.
1899 C. N. Bailey Salutatory
W. F. Powell North Carolina in the Twentieth Century
W. N. Johnson Individuality
T. D. Savage Literature and its Rewards
L. R. Varser The Third Act
P. S. Carlton The Value of a Vote
J. C. Turner Valedictory — The Battle of Life.
1898 T. H. Lacy Salutatory
J. D. Larkins Shoot. or Give Up the Gun
S. J. Honeycutt “Write Me as One Who Loves his Fellowman”
C. S. Burgess The North Carolina Academy
H. M. Evans Poetry and Fact
G. M. Beavers The Danger of Victory
J. Hamilton Anglo-American Alliance
A. C. Cree The Grand Old Man
T. N. Johnson Modern Ostracism
J. C. McNeill Valedictory
1897 R. N. Simms Salutatory — Meliorism
C. L. Greaves Truth Triumphant
A. F. Sams The Tyranny of Public Opinion
G. E. Lineberry Its Origins and Dangers
A. B. Cannady International Arbitration
W. H. Heck The Mission of the Past
S. E. Hall Political Bossism
H. H. Mashburn How Shall we Readjust Ourselves to our New Condition
G. R. King Valedictory
1896 Wyatt P. Exum. Jr. Salutatory
John H. Gore. Jr. “Capo d’ Astro”
Bruce Benton The New Era
Gideon M. Bray A Forest-Born Statesman
Willis G. Briggs Municipal Reform
William H. Davis The Personal Element in Character Building
Spright Dowell Prophets and Progress
James N. Tolar The Ideal Life
Isaac M. Meekins The Oppressed Masses
Marcus B. Dry Valedictory
1895 Samuel R. Buxton Salutatory
John R. Kerr An Unpaid Debt
Raleigh T. Daniel. North Carolina and American Independence
James V. Devenny Mingling Voices
Isaac S. Boyles Distant Enchantments
William C. Newton The Dixie Dollar
John A. Oates Wake Forest and her Young Alumni
Frank E. Parham Valedictory
1894 W. L. Foushee Salutatory
M. O. Carpenter Shifting
R. L. Freeman The South Carolina Dispensary Law
J. E. Yates A Parliament of Religions
R. F. Beasley Wooing Sirens
J. D. Robertson A Patriot
R. W. Haywood Valedictory
1893 Charles P. Sapp Salutatory
E. Yates Webb Jefferson Davis
Josiah C. Kittrell The Modern Sphinx
Samuel J. Porter Our Southern Sister
Rufus W. Weaver The Message of Modern Science
Isaac T. Newton Modern Epicureanism
Franklin P. Hobgood. Jr. Valedictory
1892 G. W. Paschal Salutatory
C. D. Graves We are Drifting–Whither?
James Long The Coming Man
O.. H. Dockery, Jr. Napoleon’s Greatest Marshal
J. W. Millard A Meeting and a Farewell
J. P. Spence A Discipline of Peace
W. W. Vass, Jr. Valedictory
1891 J. L. Kesler Salutatory
B. W. Spillman Laugh and Grow Fat
R. B. White Dies Irae
H. A. Royster The Last of the Saxons
B. K. Mason A Blinded Nation
F. M. Royall The Hero of a Fallen Empire
C. B. Williams Valedictory
1890 J. R. Hankins Salutatory
T. R. Crocker The Heroine of the Hebrides
G. W. Ward New Aristocracy vs. the Old
J. O. Atkinson The Empire of Night
Josiah Crudup The Hero of Popular Education
J. B. Spilman Who are the Jesuits?
L. S. Cannon. Valedictory
1889 R.E.L. Yates Salutatory.
T. M. Hoffman Haud Immemor — A Tribute
T. S. Sprinkle Pain
M. L. Carr Triumphant Republicanism
Lee Royall Uncle Sam
J. L. Fleming The American Farmer
W. C. Dowd The Homestead Law
H. A. Foushee Valedictory
1888 J. W. Lynch Salutatory
Claude Kitchin The Hidden Truth
W. J. Ward The Philosophy of Success
R.. B. Lineberry Loud Pretenders vs. Silent Toilers
M. L. Kesler Disinterestedness .
D. T. Winston Poetry of the Lost Cause
G. C. Thompson Valedictory — That Good Old Word, Good-bye
1887 J. B. Carlyle Salutatory ..
E. J. Justice The Power of Truth
J. M. Brinson The Progress of Democratic Ideas
E. F. Tatum Words
D. O. McCullers A Hero of History
H. E. Copple Perseverance Leads to Victory
Walter P. Stradley Valedictory — Finally, Brethren, Farewell
1886 C. E. Brewer Salutatory
Jacob Steward A Rising Cloud
J. D. Boushall Spots on the Sun
T. C. Britton No Surplus Men
J. W. Watson The Politician
E. H. McCullers The Old and the New
J. L. White Valedictory
1885 W. W. Holding Salutatory
H. B. Conrad Act, Act, in the Living Present
E. F. Eddins Clogs to Progress
J. A. Beam Triumphs of Electricity
W. C. Allen Hero-Worship
J. R. Hunter The Reformation
A. T. Robertson Valedictory – “Haec ol.im meminisse juvabit”
1884 J. C. C. Dunford Salutatory
W. S. Royall National Character
W. V. Savage Infidelity in France in the Eighteenth Century and its Causes
W. E. Wooten Home. Sweet Home.
Ivy G. Riddick The Power of Shrines
W. B. Morton The Diana of America
W. W. Kitchin Are We Degenerating?
H. A. Chappell Utilitarianism
W. H. Kornegay Valedictory
1883 Thomas Dixon Salutatory
C. G. Jones, Jr. Uncrowned Kings
W. H. Osborne Ideals
Ed S. Alderman Savonarola
G. P. Bostick The Empire of Woman
G. C. Briggs The Race Problem
W. F. Marshall The Oldest of the Arts Still Popular
H. B. Folk Valedictory
1882 C. A. Smith Salutatory
E. E. Hilliard Two Things to Do — Think and Act
T. B. Wilder The Old North State
E. G. Beckwith The Tongue to Sound, the Thought to Soar
J. W. Fleetwood The Debt Which our Age Imposes
D. W. Herring Will the Rudder, Talent, the Ship
W. J. Ferrell “Red-Tape”
0. L. Stringfield Big Hearts
W. T. Lewellyn Magnanimity
H. G. Holding Valedictory
1881 D. B. Reinhart Salutatory
M. V. McDuffie Three Great Occasions in Life.
N. R. Pittman Man’s Inhumanity
D. L. Ward, Enlightenment, the Shield and Buckler of our Country .
L. N. Chappell True Merit Rests. on Real Power
W. T. Jones The Trust that’s Given, Guard
Ed M. Poteat Lumber-house or Workshop, Which?
C. J. Hunter The Educational Value of Mathematics
L. T. Carroll There’s Life in the Old South Yet
R. A. P. Cooley Valedictory
1880 H. Montague Salutatory
J. T. Alderman Carolina’s Rural Home
J. M. Davis Hew to the Line — Let the Chips Fly Where They May
C. S. Farriss Action
W. G. Ferebee The End Not Yet
M. A. Jones The Sublime Principle in Life
B. H. Phillips Guard the Portals
W. H. Ragsdale Keys to the Hall of Greatness
W. B. Waff Enthusiasm
J. N. Holding Valedictory
1879 Edwin F. Aydett Salutatory
John T. J. Battle Mind versus Muscle
Robert P. Johnson Ready
George T. Prichard Echoes from the Past
Charles Spurgeon Vann The Triumphs of Life
George P. Hamrick The Right Man in the Right Place
Wesley N. Jones On the Threshold
John F. McMillan The “Footprints” of our Day
Cornelius A. Rominger “Luck, a Fool — Pluck, a Hero”
William J. Wingate he Secret of Success
William L. Wright The Greatest Conqueror is He Who Conquers Self Needham
Y.Gulley Valedictory
1878 J. G. Bunch Latin Salutatory
J. G. Bunch The Power and Freedom of Thought
John Calhoun Caddell No Day Without its Mark
W. J. R. Ford Duties are Ours, Results belong to God
Arthur E. Walters To Bear is to Conquer our Fate
Fleet Rose Cooper Man a Progressive Being
Neill Dockery Johnson This Age Needs Heroes
William T. Jordan Night Brings Out the Stars
Walter E. Daniel The Lamp of Experience
Walter E. Daniel Valedictory
1877 William L. Poteat Latin Salutatory
William L. Poteat Ripples on the Sea of Life
James W. Denmark The Progress and Achievement of Science
Charles W. Scarborough Consecration
James Redden Jones The World’s a stage and Man an Actor
E. B. Jones Dare and Do
Edgar Estes Folk Man an Immortal Being
Edgar Estes Folk Valedictory
1876 John T. Bland Latin Salutatory
John T. Bland Material Tendencies of the Age
John L. Britt Communing with the Wise .
Benjamin F. Montague What Man has done, Man can do
John B. Powers Dangers to which men of talent are exposed
John E. Powers Valedictory
1875 Hugh R. Scott Latin Salutatory
Hugh R. Scott Trust in God and Do the Right
Leroy W. Bagley Relations of Science to the Bible
William Carey Brewer Woman not Always Perfect
Thomas Carrick Force Void of Counsel, Unavailing
John Y. Phillips Imaginary Evils
M. D. Phillips The Ordeal of Virtue and Knowledge
W. W. Jenkins The Relation of Eloquence to Liberty and Greatness
Richard C. Sandling Youth the Proper Seed-time.
John E. Ray “Man”
John E. Ray Valedictory
1874 F. R. Underwood Latin Salutatory
F. R. Underwood The Way to True Greatness .
William David Gulledge The Love of Fame
George Washington Purefoy The Elements of National Greatness
Anize C. Dixon The Biography of Cupid
Anize C. Dixon Valedictory
1873 William O. McDowell Latin Salutatory
William O. McDowell Gently Scan thy Fellow-man
Jesse John Vann There is Life in the Old Land Yet
Nathaniel B. Canady . The Milk of Human Kindness .
Allen Rogers Jones Our Alma Mater
Edwin Walter Timberlake Those Who Deserve a Nation’s Praise
Henry T. Trantham Excellence the Reward of Much Labor
Richard T. Vann The Proper Study of Mankind is Man .
Richard T. Vann Valedictory
1872 J. S. Mitchell Latin Salutatory
J. S. Mitchell Oratory of the Past and the Present
James Henry Garvey The Wilderness Shall Bloom
Charles H. Martin The Graduate
Charles H. Martin Valedictory.
1871 Henry A. Brown Latin Salutatory
Henry A. Brown We Should Take Things as They Are
Columbus Durham Pressing on to what is before.
William D. Trantham The Land We Love
William D. Trantham Valedictory
1870 Robert E. Royall Latin Salutatory
Robert E. Royall Teaching
William Bland Power of Pubic Opinion Samuel
Wait Brewer What Next?
Martin Luther Fowler The Law of Change
George Washington Greene Truth is Mighty and Will Prevail
Charles M. Seawell The South — the Home of the Southern People
Charles M. Seawell Valedictory
1869 William H. Pace Latin Salutatory
William H. Pace Graduate Development
Albert Hines Hicks The End of Glory
John Cates Scarborough The Search for True Happines
Roscius Pope Thomas Southern Literature
Robert S. Pritchard Laziness
Robert S. Pritchard Valedictory
1868 Henry A. Foote Latin Salutatory
Henry A. Foote American Republic
John Bruce Brewer The Imagination
Samuel Emmett Overby Nature and Art Contrasted
J. T. Wescott Intellectual Culture
F. M. Pennington Ruins of Time
Franklin P. Hobgood Superficialness
Franklin P. Hobgood Valedictory