CLASS OF 1902
EDWARD F. CREGG A MEMORIAL
ADOPTED BY THE SCHOOLMASTERS CLUB OF LAWRENCE, MARCH TWENTIETH NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN
For the first time since this fellowship was formed, the fatal asterisk of Death is set against the name of one of its members. The motto runs that Death loves ever a shining mark. This comrade that we have lost had as white a soul as ever brightened the world of men. He never sought nor loved the light of public praise or popular esteem. His life was illumined by its own radiance. Like a lamp within a vase, his spirit shone out through all he said and all he did and all he was. And all men saw its shining, and were themselves touched by something" of its pure and steadfast light.
His power as a teacher lay in his personality; for it is personality, after all, that educates. A man teaches not by what he does or says, but by what he is. The example of a fine manhood teaches with tongues of fire. And this young man had a personality of rare sincerity and charm. He was a living example of the strength that lies in gentleness and the gentleness that is strength. His pupils, with the unfailing intuition of childhood, trusted him and loved him and found happiness in serving him. Among his teachers he moved not as a superior among subordinates, but as one first among equals—primus inter pares—and they gave him back an allegiance unalterable. His school was his all in all. The imprint he has left upon it will not soon be overworn.
He possessed in an unusual degree the qualities that make a schoolman more than the doer of a day's routine. He had vision, and the courage to go forward. He kept the open mind. Not everything was true because it was old, nor false because it was new. He never flinched in the face of facts. If there was weakness anywhere in his school practice he knew it had to be found and acknowledged before it could be removed; and he was wholly undismayed by the upsetment such discoveries brought to his assumptions or his theories. He never wasted strength in concealing or defending faults. He had the genuine scientific attitude without which there can be no educational progress, It was something more than our love for him that destined him in our thoughts to a high place among the educators of tomorrow.
We do not forget that the circle of our vanished comrade's influence described its arc far beyond this fellowship and the schools we have so deeply at heart. We do not forget that the city that he loved and that loved him mourns him in every street and in every home. We are proud that this is so, for it fills our hearts with the assurance that the things we stand for and strive for —the things we try to teach the boys and the girls, the young men and the young women, of our city—are universally recognized and loved and desired: truth and honor and purity of heart and loving-kindness—those high qualities that made us love this man in life and will make us love his memory forever.
