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1fn jfflemoriam GEORGE STOCKTON WILLS April 3, 1866~February 27, 1956 PH.B., PH.M., A.M., Lrr.D. Professor of English, Emeritus A few times in its history, a generation, after it has passed, wiII be observed to have left behind it some portion of it which can yet challenge and benefit a changing world. Often that portion is an invention. At other times-a philosophy. the first college-level American -Literature course in this country. Some rare times, it is a man with the in- ventiveness of original research and the He_was not the scholar-recluse. strength of firm knowledge. Dr. Wills was the adviser in the founding, George Stockton Wills was such a man. A in 1923, of Pi AlphaAlpha fraternity at Western man of iron. Maryland. In later years he proudly acclaimed In his later years he walked down the himself as a "fully initiated Black and White." corridor of the third floor of Science Hall-his His classes were conducted with the firm back bent. Suddenly reprimanding himself for command for active student thought-yet a his posture, he would be seen to pause, sum- demand for student respect and production of mon the .strength into his spine, and continue scholarly learning. erect into the classroom-and through the class. He could surrender neither his opinions nor He forced himself to study-to write-until his heritage. he would fall asleep at his desk-with pen still In September 1944, at the age of seventy- firmly in hand. eight, he retired. That word was in itself a From his vantage point, he saw contribu- joke to the man. For, alter his "retirement," tions the present could well accept from the he taught English classes during the regular past. college year as well as in the summer sessions. Under the direction of the Carroll County His 6nal class was in the spring of 1954-with Historical Society, and the editorship of Dr. the English honor students. Thomas F. Marshall, he wrote a two-volume In his last years, he continued to read latest history of Western Maryland College. books, to write the history mentioned above, He would liked to have seen Old Main to walk briskly, to tip his hat, to attend the restored-remaining the heart of the campus. majority of college functions, and to inspire a He has been II part of Western Maryland for generation of students who had never heard graduates of many years. A native of North him speak. He was to them a "grand old man." Carolina, he first came to the college English He was learning until he died; and, if his faculty in the fall of lSfJS; left to complete concept of an after-life is correct, he plans to graduate work at Harvard; accepted the posi- continue learning-without earthly restrictions. tion as head of the English department at Shakespeare, of whom Dr. Wills was a de- Baltimore Polytechnic Institute; and returned voted admirer and scholar, put the appropriate to this campus, as head of the same depart- ment, in lfJ22. . words on the lips of Marc Antony: He had written the first Master's thesis ever "His life was gentle, and the elements to be produced on an American subject in literature (his work being on Sidney Lanier); So mix'd ill him that Nature mig11tstand up and he was later recognized as having offered Alld say to all the world, 'This was a mont:" 14