May 21, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 85 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
THE SECOND STAGE OF AOG HISTORY (1901-45); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 85
(Extensions of Remarks - May 21, 2019)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E641-E643] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] THE SECOND STAGE OF AOG HISTORY (1901-45) ______ HON. JOHN SHIMKUS of illinois in the house of representatives Tuesday, May 21, 2019 Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I rise to include in the Record part two of an article I submitted earlier this year by Keith J. Hamel honoring the 150th Anniversary of the West Point Association of Graduates: ``At the turn of the 20th century, the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy had been in existence for more than three decades. It began on May 22, 1869, when 15 graduates, acting upon an idea from Robert Anderson, Class of 1825, met in the office of Dr. Horace Webster, Class of 1818, and adopted articles and bylaws for the new organization. Article II of the Association's Constitution stated: ``The object of this Association shall be to cherish the memories of the Military Academy at West Point, and to promote the social intercourse and fraternal fellowship of its graduates.'' According to Charles P. Echols, Class of 1891, the early years of the Association were dedicated to ``little more than holding an annual meeting at West Point, collecting dues, and publishing an annual bulletin.'' Echols was generalizing, of course--in its early years, the Association moved Sylvanus Thayer's remains to the West Point Cemetery and memorialized him with a statue, and it built a memorial hall at West Point with funds left by George Cullum in his will--but in the first stage of its existence, the Association was hardly recognizable as the organization it would later become. That began to change during the Association of Graduates' second stage of evolution (1901-45), as changes to AOG's mission, governance, and operations signaled its desire to become more like a ``modern'' alumni association. One year into that second stage, the membership of the Association was celebrated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who attended West Point's Centennial Exercises and said during his June 11, 1902 speech, ``During [its first 100 years] no other educational institution in the land has contributed so many names as West Point has contributed to the honor roll of the nation's greatest citizens . . . The average graduate of West Point during these hundred years has given a greater sum of service to the country through his life than has the average graduate of any other institution in this broad land.'' A year earlier, almost as if in anticipation of Roosevelt's remarks, the Association's 1901 Annual Reunion included an ``Index to Obituaries (1870- 1900),'' which contained 953 names of the president's ``honor roll'' and information on how to find biographies detailing each's ``sum of service to the country.'' Also, with 1902 being the Centennial of West Point, some 350 members of the Long Gray Line were present to personally hear Roosevelt's tribute, more than triple the attendance of the previous highest annual meeting attendance (109 in 1883). During the Centennial Exercises, they also witnessed Lieutenant General John M. Schofield, Class of 1853 (Retired) and President of the Association, unveil a tablet commemorating the Academy's first century of existence. ``Let us all pledge ourselves to our country, that the best efforts of our lives shall be to make the record of the second century even more memorable than that of the first,'' Schofield said in his brief remarks. Despite the excitement and vigor inspired by West Point's Centennial Exercises, the Association of Graduates returned to a more [[Page E642]] typical level of attendance in 1903, with only 20 graduates attending the annual meeting. Lack of participation became one of two main concerns of the Association in the new century. During the 1905 annual meeting, Alexander Webb, Class of 1855, proposed a resolution to form a committee to study the attendance issue and to offer a solution. Webb's classmate Charles Larned was appointed chairman. He reportedly addressed the matter at the 1906 meeting, but no records of his report exist. A few years later, however, Robert Howze, Class of 1888, who was a member of Larned's ``Committee on Entertainment,'' suggested that interest could be added to the annual meeting if the Superintendent would designate one day during the graduating week as ``Graduates' Day,'' and that ``some specially interesting features be added to this day's exercises.'' Howze's idea was enthusiastically received and unanimously adopted, but it took 15 years before it came to fruition under a new name. The second main concern of the Association centered on a gift that graduates could present to the Academy. In 1907, John Carson, Class of 1855, suggested that the Association raise funds for an organ for the new Cadet Chapel, for which the Academy had just broken ground a year earlier. At the same annual meeting, a proposal was made to purchase bronze doors for Thayer Hall (then the name of the ballroom in Cullum Hall), but it was rejected given that plans were already underway to change the room, making such doors obsolete. The gift matter went to committee, and the following year its members recommended a memorial window for the new Cadet Chapel to be built over the altar. By 1909, one year before the Cadet Chapel was completed, the Association had raised $1,564 for the ``Memorial Window Fund.'' Eight glass companies submitted competitive designs for the project, and on October 17, 1909 a jury of committee and advisory members settled on two designs, which went head-to- head in a second competition in February 1910. The contract for the memorial window, at an amount of $8,000, was ultimately awarded to the Willett Stained Glass and Decorating Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Soon after, Bertram Goodhue, the architect of the Cadet Chapel, wrote a letter to the Association stating, ``I think there is no doubt but that you will have . . . the most wonderful window of modern times and one of the finest in the world.'' At the conclusion of the 1911 annual meeting, which was held in the new Cadet Chapel, Horace Porter, Class of 1860, presented the memorial window to the Academy on behalf of the living alumni, approximately 140 of whom were present to see Major General Thomas Barry, Class of 1877, the 27th Superintendent of USMA, accept the Association's gift. In addition to noting the increased number of graduates attending the 42nd annual meeting, the 1911 Annual Reunion was the first to highlight classes holding their own reunions at West Point, citing those of 1886, 1891, 1896, and 1901. Two years later, all five living members of the Class of 1863 returned to their Rockbound Highland Home to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their graduation. According to the 1913 Annual Reunion, ``Everything possible was done to make it pleasant for the visiting graduates by the Superintendent, the Quartermaster and the officers detailed to meet the trains and have charge of rooms in Cullum and Cadet Barracks.'' In a letter submitted to the 1913 Executive Committee, Francis Hills, Class of 1866, went even further, extending his personal appreciation to Colonel Clarence Townsley, Class of 1881, the 28th Superintendent of USMA, for making all graduates ``feel that they are warmly welcomed to their old home.'' In the wake of these warm sentiments, Gustav Fiebeger, Class of 1879 and a member of the Executive Committee, announced a plan at the 1915 annual meeting for classes to purchase one panel each for the remaining windows of the new Cadet Chapel. According to George Pappas, Class of 1944, the next morning, representatives from the Class of 1875 presented the Association with a check for $250, making it the first class to place a window in the Chapel. Within two years, more than 20 classes sponsored windows. ``The Stained Glass Window'' project became the forerunner of Class Giving at the Association of Graduates, with each graduating class, 1802 through 1976, purchasing a panel and filling all the available space (windows in memory of earlier classes were sponsored by classes graduating 100 years later). The new Cadet Chapel inspired even more giving: Arthur Gerhard donated a baptismal font in memory of his father, William Gerhard, Class of 1869; and the Class of 1885 initiated an effort to purchase a full set of chimes on behalf of the Association. Furthermore, the enthusiasm for the Academy at this time could not be contained to just the annual meeting at West Point. In 1915, more than 100 graduates dined together in Honolulu, Hawaii, sending ``felicitations to those gathered at West Point''; and, in 1916, graduates held large dinners in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Manila to celebrate the anniversary of the Academy's founding. Unfortunately, World War I put a halt on the momentum that had been building for the Association and Long Gray Line during this time. There was no annual meeting in 1917, and the next major milestone of AOG history did not occur until 1922, despite the Association celebrating its 50th anniversary in 1919 (although it did present the chimes to the Cadet Chapel at its annual meeting that year). At the 1922 meeting, William Dykman, Class of 1875, who was elected President of the Association in 1920, introduced several amendments to AOG's Constitution. First, he proposed ``to amplify the statement of the object of the Association.'' This amendment added the phrase ``to promote its [the Military Academy at West Point] welfare and that of its graduates'' to Article II of the Constitution, which is the predecessor of the West Point Association of Graduate's current mission: ``To serve West Point and the Long Gray Line.'' Dykman also suggested revisions to AOG's governance: recommending a Vice President, increasing the Executive Committee from 10 to 30 members (to be appointed by the President), and transferring the appointment of AOG Secretary and Treasurer from the presiding officer at the annual meeting to the President. Dykman's amendments were universally adopted, putting AOG on the path to developing the Board of Trustees governing model that would it later employ throughout the remainder of the century. Dykman's arguably finest contribution to the Association occurred two years earlier, although it took some time to become manifest. In 1920, after he had been elected President, Dykman sought to influence members of graduating classes to join the Association and introduced the idea of associate membership to AOG. In the 1921 Annual Report, Dykman reported that all 17 members of the Class of 1921 (the ``Orioles'') became members. The same was true for the Class of 1922, ``nearly all as life members,'' and more than 80 percent of graduates from successive classes throughout the 1920s joined. According to Dykman's obituary in the 1938 Annual Report, ``This infusion of younger members into the Association of Graduates, for which he was largely responsible, gave the Association new life and new objectives.'' One of those new objectives was ``Alumni Day'' (modeled on ``Graduates' Day,'' proposed 15 years earlier), which was first held on June 11, 1923 and included a wreath-laying ceremony at Thayer Statue, a tradition that continues to this day. From 1925 to 1928, Dykman served as AOG Vice President (the post he recommended three years prior) and then as Chairman of the Board of Trustees until 1935. In 1926, his idea for associate membership was finally approved, allowing those who completed initial summer training and stayed at the Academy long enough to take their first semester's exams to join the AOG. This expansion of membership provided a temporary spike in the Association's revenue (a nearly 45 percent increase in membership fees and annual dues), but a 1927 report by the Finance Committee (of which Dykman was a senior member) showed the need to establish an income stream beyond dues to support the Association. As a result, provisions were made for the establishment of an Endowment Fund, the annual income from which would provide necessary operating funds for the Association in perpetuity. Statements in the report such as, ``If this Association is to fulfill its natural and proper mission and give that measure of support and assistance to the Military Academy which other Colleges and Universities receive from their graduates, it must have an assured income,'' seem to come straight from Dykman, who was a respected New York City lawyer and director of four powerful companies of the day. Returning to his obituary, ``[His] great contribution to the Military Academy and to the Association of Graduates was giving to it a re-birth of interest and imbuing its members with a feeling of respect for the power of the Association in doing many things for West Point which the Academy and the War Department authorities could not well do.'' During its ``re-birth,'' the Association of Graduates gave life to new projects and grew in its duties. The ``Forward'' to the 1929 Annual Report called attention to some of these changes. It stated, ``This issue . . . represents the beginning of an effort upon the part of your Officers and Trustees to present it in a somewhat improved and more attractive form . . . new matter has been introduced, and long lists containing names and addresses of members have been omitted . . . the work of the work of the Association is an event of the first importance, and promises much towards the increased usefulness of the Association in the future.'' The Association was moving toward what Alexander Piper, Class of 1889 and AOG President (1934-36), later called, ``. . . more life and less morgue.'' There was even discussion during this time to ``kill'' publication of graduates' obituaries in the annual report, which comprised approximately 75 percent of each issue, but members ultimately felt this would violate the original mission of the Association: ``. . . to cherish the memories of our Alma Mater,'' particularly through its graduates. In 1930, the Association renewed the publication of the AOG Bulletin, a ``mid-year pamphlet'' designed to keep members ``informed of current matters of interest during the long interval between the publication of [AOG's] annual reports.'' There were four Bulletins issued between December 1900 and April 1905, but then publication mysteriously ceased. One plausible reason is that the earlier Bulletin was published by ``U.S.M.A. Press, West Point, N.Y.'' AOG balance sheets of this period only show expenses for publishing the annual report, which used Seemann & Peters, Printers and Binders of [[Page E643]] Saginaw, Michigan. AOG was able to revive the Bulletin thanks to the support it received from the June 1929 establishment of an Association office at the Academy, manned by an active duty officer who served ``in the capacity of Secretary and Treasurer of the Association of Graduates and as the Officer in Charge of Cullum's Register.'' AOG published four Bulletins between 1930 and 1934. As before, the reason why publication stopped remains a mystery, although its design seemed to influence the annual report, which started publishing reunion summaries in 1935. The Bulletin reappeared one more time in 1941, brought back to inform ``Association members of matters of current West Point interest, particularly since the Military Academy curriculum, always in step with the times, so well meets the demands of the present national emergency.'' The format of this last issue had radically changed from its predecessors. Instead of long treatises regarding ``The Indebtedness of the United States to the Military Academy'' or ``Arthur Sherburne Hardy's Opinion of the West Point Educational System,'' Bulletin No. 9 was written in news sheet style and contained brief reports about current happenings at the Academy (e.g., ``First Class Attends Maneuvers,'' ``Branch Instruction,'' ``Skeet Club,'' reports from academic departments, etc.). A year later in 1942, AOG's Bulletin and the annual report, which had existed for 72 years, merged to form the first issue of Assembly magazine, the periodical publication that would inform graduates for the next 70 years. Innovations to keep AOG relevant to graduates were not only confined to its communication efforts. The final part of the Association's re-birth involved changes to its governance, which were done to make the organization more transparent and accountable to its membership. After accepting Dykman's proposed changes in the early 1920s, AOG elected a President and Vice-President at each annual meeting. The President then appointed an Executive Committee of 30 members, as well as an additional member to serve as Chairman. The Executive Committee made all preparations for the annual meeting, including nominating candidates for the President and Vice President positions, and audited the accounts of the Treasurer. Starting in 1929, the number of Vice Presidents of AOG was increased to five and the Executive Committee became known as the Board of Trustees. Furthermore, the Trustees appointed for that year were equally divided into three classes: one appointed for one year, one appointed for two years, and one appointed for three years. In each successive year, another group of 10 grads were appointed to the Board of Trustees to serve for a term of three years. Then, in 1935, Piper, President at that time, proposed the formation of another body labeled the ``Executive Committee.'' This committee, which consisted of the President and four Trustees (chosen by ballot of the Board), would ``possess and exercise by a majority of its members all the powers and duties of the Board of Trustees,'' when it was not in session. Unfortunately, a year later, learned that the election of this Executive Committee was illegitimate, as it was voted on by proxy, which was a practice prohibited by New York State according to the Association's certificate of incorporation. In correcting this oversight, the Board agreed to sweeping changes in AOG's Constitution and governance. First, Article III, paragraph 2, was amended so that Association members now directly elected Board of Trustee members instead of the President appointing them. Then, paragraph 5 of that Article eliminated the Chairman of the Board position, stating, ``He is not necessary and seldom has any knowledge of the operating affairs of the Association.'' Finally, the By-Laws were amended to eliminate excess Trustees (i.e., the President, the five Vice Presidents, and the USMA Superintendent) and prescribe the duties of the Board, Treasurer, and Secretary. This governance model continued, with some minor tweaks (e.g., increase the size of the Board in 1956 and adding an Executive Vice President in 1972), for the next six decades. After addressing its governance issues, AOG turned its attention to the recurring question of how to fund its operations. While the Endowment Fund started out strong-- Bulletin No. 5 (1930) reported cash and pledge contributions amounting to nearly $55,500 of its $100,000 goal--the Great Depression obviously took its toll. By the mid-1930s, the Association was still approximately $25,000 short of the goal, and the fund's $2,700 yearly interest was not enough to cover AOG's annual expenses ($5,600-$6,000). Although roughly 70 graduates a year were being dropped from the Association's member roll during the height of the Depression for non- payment of annual dues, the Army Athletic Association, which also accepted support from graduates, was able to remain on solid financial footing. Piper was dismayed by this situation, and other AOG leaders called on younger graduates for support (contributions generally came from classes prior to 1930). It took a few more years, but in 1941, Frank McCoy, Class of 1897 and AOG President, reported, ``Our funds have now reached sound, healthy proportions,'' with income exceeding expenditures the preceding year by nearly $8,000. The Association of Graduates entered the World War II era beginning to look like the organization with which many are familiar today. It had started to financially support the Academy, first with the windows in the Cadet Chapel and then in 1939 with furniture for Quarters 100 (the ``Superintendent's Quarters Fund''); it had an effective governance model in which all operational decisions were made by the President and the Executive Committee, who were accountable to the membership, and then carried out by a small staff; and it had replaced the 350-plus-page annual report with the more engaging, less than 50-page ASSEMBLY magazine, published quarterly. The state of the Association was strong enough that in 1942 the Board debated the idea of lowering or eliminating dues. The proposal failed, but it signaled AOG leadership's desire to remove the burden of operating support coming primarily from membership dues. Looking to find a new income stream, the West Point Alumni Foundation was established on December 26, 1945 to solicit advertising for ASSEMBLY and an annual (instead of decennial) Register of Graduates. The foundation's incorporation marks the transition from AOG's second stage of history to its third phase of ``Foundation and Fundraising'' (1946-94), where the Association's fundraising efforts for the Academy increased in importance, and its growth culminated with the opening of its new home, the Herbert Alumni Center. This phase in AOG history will be covered in the summer issue of West Point magazine.'' ____________________