The Two Towers: Main

The great illuminating scientific power of the next half century will be a simple, single well-balanced course of liberal culture upon a scientific basis. Every institution will tend in this direction by the silent but intelligent adjustment, year by year, to the necessities of the hour.
      --John Woodman, 1868

a time of settling. People get misplaced, circumstance does not cooperate, and timing is wrong.

There were several such years of upheaval before a new pattern could even be seen. But by 1955, after the brief presidency of Alvin E. Cormeny and the inauguration of Arthur B. Bronwell, strong exciting colors were beginning to show. The enrollment was reaching up again toward the 900 mark, the school had come to terms with reality by terminating the Washburn Shops, the curriculum had been stabilized with a reasonable proportion of humanities and graduate work, and the Civil Engineering building (named Kaven Hall after Moses Kaven, a generous benefactor of previous years) was opened for classes. The big heavy drafting desks, used almost continuously since the school began, had been moved down the long hill to Kaven, and while it had been a-building, Professor Holt and his professors had collected a group of pictures illustrating the accomplishments of their graduates--their trophies--to decorate its wide corridors. "I've waited forty-five years for this day," said Arthur J. Knight at the dedication, breaking his precedent of not speaking in public.

"When we get the Civils out of here--" had been the cry of the growing Boynton Hall staff for many years. There were several summer months during the remodeling of Boynton when everyone was out of the building with the exception of the switchboard operator. Partitions were put in; partitions were torn down, sometimes revealing old blackboards still covered with chemistry formulas written there by Dr. Fuller. When the staff moved back, the Alumni Association (now with Warren B. Zepp as secretary-treasurer) was given the spacious quarters of the old design room. David Lloyd, the first person in Institute history to bear the title of business manager, was eventually given a big corner for the corralling of several financial functions which had been distributed among many persons since the retirement of Emily W. Danforth, financial secretary for forty years. Now there was ample room for the president, the registrar, and the Placement office. On the third floor were classrooms for History, Languages, Economics, Government, and Business. Also in Boynton there was a new office for Admissions and Students with a new director, Donald Downing, and his associate Ernest W. Hollows. Jerome Howe, as previous Dean, had meanwhile retired, and Paul Swan, Associate Dean, had become president of Leicester Junior College.

Since its organization the Institute had had a strong tie with this school in Leicester. Almost all of the founders of Tech had been either graduates or members of the board of what had then been known as Leicester Academy. The Earles, from Leicester, had helped to strengthen the tie, and there had been many trustees and teachers who served both schools in the capacity of directorship.

Three times between presidents of W.P.I., in extremely trying transition periods, Dean Francis Roys had acted as chief