Range Rider, Volume 29, Number 2, June 1978 Page: 2
19 p. : ill., ports. ; 38 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The presidentia
inauguration ...
Range Rider
June 1978, page 2a restatement of values, commitments, traditions
Following is the complete text of President Fletch-
er's inaugural address delivered April 24, 1978:
The inauguration of a university president is seen
by some as anachronistic, by others as quaint, by a
few as wasteful, by a few more as inspiring, but by a
surprising number as opportunity. Those who opted
for this inauguration fall into the latter category.
They initiated it as an opportunity to act out values,
commitments, and significant traditions of this
institution that, while inherently enduring, need to be
restated in such ceremonial moments as this in order
to be recherished and recentered in the life of the
institution molded around them.
But it is more than opportunity; it is historic op-
portunity. I am deeply aware that I am being inaug-
urated as the twelfth president of Hardin-Simmons
University. In the solemnity of this moment the con-
tributions of the preceding eleven men who have
carried this same burden to this point in time are
sharply edged in my own awareness.
The Rev. W. C. Friley
Dr. George O. Thatcher
Dr. O. C. Pope
The Rev. C. R. Hairfield
Dr. Oscar H. Cooper
Dr. Jefferson Davis Sandefer
Dr. William R. White
Dr. Rupert N. Richardson
Dr. Evan Allard Reiff
Dr. James H. Landes
Dr. Elwin L. Skiles
Conventional wisdom has long held that inaugu-
rations constitute bench marks in the ongoing histo-
ry of the institution they represent. As such they are
occasions for laying out new courses and stated
goals, both with reference to the institution's historic
and its immediate and emerging realities.
It was only in recent years when the toll of the
task began rotating university presidents with alarm-
ing rapidity that inaugurations became optional
events. Trustees, dismayed at the frequency with
which they had to start searching all over again for
leadership, questioned the wisdom of such. And
presidents, cautious in the face of antecedently defeat-
ing constraints, wondered whether their tenure
might be so short that an inauguration would only
mock it.
.. . .. . .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. . . . . . .Thus this inauguration may be said to represent
two kinds of optimism: my optimism on one hand,
and that of the faculty and trustees on the other.
Consenting to the pomp and circumstance of an in-
augural event involves a call to dig in deeply to
leave tenure to providence with eyes only for the
course that stretches before.
More significant, however, is the optimism of the
trustees who authorized the inauguration and the
faculty who planned it. Their confidence is not just
in the person they invest with the medallion of lead-
ership but in the future of the institution that indi-
vidual is to lead. Which brings us to the heart of my
remarks. Is this optimism-whether mine or theirs-
well founded?
Shortly after I arrived on campus, a student
stopped me at the door of Moody Center and asked
me if the scheduling of an inauguration nearly six
months later was based upon my desire to wait and
see whether I would like it or the trust-
ees' desire to wait and see whether they I stand
would like me. I told her that I was
sure that the tradition that positioned the dee
such events at about this point in a my bei
new president's tenure had probably Christ hbeen well grounded in both perspectives. But it does
help one to have some time under the load before
having to speak to the implications of a formal be-
ginning. There is a certain credibility attached to the
remarks and a certain integrity involved in their
formation that only a few months in office make
possible.
But my convictions concerning the shape of a
responsible reply stem from another conversation
that has been held with more than one person in
these intervening weeks and months. "How are you
doing?" I am asked. "Fine," I reply conventionally.
"Do you have the answers yet?" I am queried. "No,"
I reply, "but I am isolating many of the questions."
What I would like to do now is review some of
those questions. Then, though it may involve a pre-
sumption that could someday haunt me, some
answers. (Continued on next page)
in this place and accept this responsibility out of
ep conviction that the God whom I worship with all
ng and to whom I was reconciled through Jesus
has led me.Dr. Fletcher stands in front of newly adopted H-SU seal to deliver his inaugural
address. Seal was adopted at the May meeting of the trustees' executive committee.From left: Dr. James Flamming, pastor, First Bap-
tist Church, Abilene; Dr. Fletcher; and Mrs. James
Cassle, H-SU board member.Dr. Donald M. Anthony, director, Christian
Education Coordinating Board.President Fletcher and his father, Jesse N. Fletcher,
San Antonio, speak to Abilene Mayor Oliver Howard.
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Hardin-Simmons University. Range Rider, Volume 29, Number 2, June 1978, periodical, June 1978; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117028/m1/2/?q=%22Hardin-Simmons%20University%20--%20Alumni%20and%20alumnae.%22: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hardin-Simmons University Library.