Name/Title
AU Howard, Alfred T. - 1932-12-31 letter to Joseph Hastings HarrisEntry/Object ID
1990.1.405Context
The Bonebrake Theological Seminary
Dayton, Ohio
Alfred T. Howard
Missions and Social Ethics
Dec 31 : 1932
President J. H. Harris
Bonebrake Theological Seminary
Dayton, Ohio
Dear President Harris:- As the last hours of the year 1932 slip away I want to write a note of appreciation to you my esteemed superior officer and comrade in service.
It is impossible for me to over state my appreciation of your breadth of mind, fairness, and humility of spirit shown in many years as conference superintendent and manifestly shown in general Conference proceeding on many occasions.
During the past four years these great qualities have shown with steady light in all you have had to endure as the chief burden bearer at the Seminary. To these other qualities a rare patience, worthy of Abraham Lincoln should be added.
It seems to me you were God's man at a critical hour for this great Seminary task. I can not see how you could have done better and I can not imagine how any one else could have done so much without stirring unhappy rivalries. I appreciate the sacrificial spirit of Mrs. Harris and James and Richard along with your own. With corn at nine cents per bushel and wheat at the lowest price it has been in two hundred and fifty years the financial out look in the early months of 1933 do not look very bright to me.
During whatever difficulties may come I want you to know that I believe that there has never been such harmony in all that relates to the internal work of the Seminary as has existed during these years of your administration and this spirit of harmony has increased each year until what seems to me the almost ideal conditions of the present time. I have said "never" just above here. My personal knowledge of fact goes back about twenty years.
May the Good Father give you grace and strength for the difficult problems of these coming months. With all its possible difficulties may 1933 be a happy year.
Yours loyally
Alfred T. Howard
