Thomas Roderick Dew: An Address Delivered April 3, 1939, at the Memorial Service for Thirteenth President of the College of William and Mary in ... France, August 6, 1846 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Thomas Roderick Dew: An Address Delivered Ap...)
Excerpt from Thomas Roderick Dew: An Address Delivered April 3, 1939, at the Memorial Service for Thirteenth President of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Who Died in Paris, France, August 6, 1846
Even at that date the body of Thomas Roderick Dew had lain for fourteen years in Montmartre cemetery in Paris, and it remained for the generous impulse of one of his kinswomen to make possible the ceremonies we hold today.
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John Stewart Bryan was an American newspaper publisher and college president. He is noted for his service as a Richmond newspaper publisher and president of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.
Background
John Stewart Bryan was born on October 23, 1871 at Brook Hill, the estate of his maternal grandfather on the outskirts of Richmond. He was the eldest of the five sons of Joseph and Isobel Lamont (Stewart) Bryan. His mother was the daughter of a Scottish immigrant who had prospered in business; his father was descended from a late-seventeenth-century English settler in South Carolina.
After serving during the Civil War with Mosby's Rangers, the elder Bryan practiced law and, in the Reconstruction era, recouped his fortunes in railroads, mining, and real estate.
In 1887 he acquired the Richmond Times and in 1896 the evening Leader. John Stewart Bryan grew up at Brook Hill and later resided at Laburnum, the Bryan estate near Richmond.
Education
Bryan attended private schools in Richmond and the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, before entering the University of Virginia, where he graduated with both the A. B. and A. M. degrees in 1893. He returned to his alma mater a year later to study law but transferred to the Harvard Law School and received his LL. B. degree in 1897.
Career
After briefly practicing law in New York City and Richmond, Bryan in 1900 joined his father in the management of his newspapers. Three years later the Bryans transferred control of the Leader to the Williams family (which owned the evening News) in exchange for their morning paper, the Dispatch, the two morning papers being merged as the Times-Dispatch and the evening papers as the News Leader.
Bryan succeeded his father as president of the company in 1907, and Joseph Bryan died the following year. Shortly before his death he had reacquired the News Leader, and most of the young publisher's time was devoted to writing editorials and managing that paper; he sold the morning Times-Dispatch in 1914. In managing the News Leader, Bryan was especially fortunate in his choice of editor. In 1915 he appointed to this post Douglas Southall Freeman, who had joined the staff in 1912 as an editorial writer.
On international issues, the News Leader advocated American involvement in World War I and enthusiastically endorsed Wilson's peace program and American participation in the League of Nations. Both Freeman and Virginius Dabney, the editor from 1922 of the Times-Dispatch (which Bryan repurchased in 1940), were indelibly influenced by the publisher's political philosophy.
During World War I he served on the war council of the Y. M. C. A. , a post that took him to the Paris Peace Conference.
His formal connection with the College of William and Mary began with his appointment to the board of visitors in 1926; he was soon made vice-rector. With the failing health of President Julian A. C. Chandler, Bryan was drawn more and more into the affairs of the college, an involvement which led to deepening affection for the institution, appreciation of its potential, and confidence in its future.
Upon Chandler's death in May 1934, Bryan was asked to accept the presidency. Friends and family urged him to decline, fearful that his strength, at sixty-two, would be overtaxed, but he accepted with the understanding that he could not devote all his time or very many years to the office.
He envisioned William and Mary as a great liberal arts college with ample private endowment to pursue its destiny, but despite his efforts, large gifts were not forthcoming. With strong state support and some private funds, he pressed toward his goals by adding young teacher-scholars to the faculty and by improving the quality of the student body through a more selective admissions policy.
The faculty was encouraged to develop its organization, revise the curriculum, and participate in the formulation of college policy. He retired in 1942, confident that the college was committed to excellence.
Bryan died in Richmond in 1944, a week before his seventy-fourth birthday, of a cerebral hemorrhage, and was buried at Emmanuel Church near his birthplace.
Achievements
Bryan was one of the founders (1904) of the Cooperative Education Association of Virginia, which sparked the movement for strengthening public education in the state. Although never seeking political office, Bryan was a dedicated public servant. He held a number of community posts; he was chairman of the Richmond Public Library board, a founder of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and president of the Virginia Historical Society.
His other achievement was in service as a president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association, 1926-28.
However, the climax of Bryan's career was the presidency of the College of William and Mary where he improved the quality of the student body through a more selective admissions policy.
He was reared in an atmosphere of gracious living, strong Episcopal faith, and close family ties, especially with his father. A prominent Episcopal layman, Bryan frequently attended the church's conventions and sat on its National Council (1919 - 28).
Politics
In his political affiliation Bryan was a Democrat and at some point he was a delegate to several Democratic national conventions.
Views
Over three decades, although chiefly concerned with the dissemination of accurate information on public issues, Bryan and his distinguished editor ensured the paper's continuance as a moderately progressive force in Virginia life. Over the years the News Leader supported such political reforms as the direct primary and a simplified ballot, opposed prohibition, and ardently defended tax reform and better public schools.
Membership
He was a member of the Cooperative Education Association of Virginia, of the Virginia Historical Society and of the Virginia Historical Society.
Personality
In his youth, John Bryan was tall, frail youngster, with eyesight handicapped by a boyhood accident. Later in life he became a man of generous spirit and a gifted conversationalist, Bryan made perhaps his greatest contribution to William and Mary through the impact of his personality, which infused both faculty and students with confidence in his aims and enthusiasm for bearing their share of the effort.
Connections
Bryan married Anne Eliza Tennant of Petersburg, Virginia, daughter of a tobacco manufacturer, on June 4, 1903. Their children were: Amanda Stewart, David Tennant, and John Stewart.
