Russell Conwell

邓波儿的第一任校长, Russell Conwell, 是格雷斯浸信会的牧师和天普学院的创始人. The temporary Board of Trustees elected him president of the faculty October 14, 1887, 他的任期到12月6日, 1925, the date of his death. 读一读他著名的“钻石庄园”演讲.

这一页摘自詹姆斯·希尔蒂. Temple University: 125 Years of Service to Philadelphia, the Nation, and the World. 费城:威尼斯赌场网站出版社,2010. 3-5页,7页,9页,11页,13页,17页,18页,25页,45页.

Photograph courtesy of Conwellana-Templana Collection: University Archives

Temple’s founding was principally the work of one man—not a captain of industry, 而是博学的船长, 一个教育企业家,他寻求民主化, 丰富和扩大高等教育的覆盖面.

Russell Herman Conwell’s life story and his aspirations for Temple University resonate with the personal life narratives of Temple University’s students, faculty, staff and alumni. 他和我们大家都有联系. 作为演员,康威尔扮演了许多角色, showman, brilliant orator, journalist and editor, lawyer, minister, educator, 房地产投机商, promoter, 威尼斯赌场网站的企业家和创始人.

Born February 15, 1843, Russell Conwell was reared on a 350-acre hardscrabble subsistence farm in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, 南沃辛顿附近, 离韦斯特菲尔德大约15英里, Mass.

Conwell left home in 1861 to enroll at Yale University, where he planned to study law. To earn money for tuition he worked several jobs near campus but apparently spent only a few months actually enrolled in classes.

内战爆发时, 康韦尔回到了马萨诸塞州, 在那里他证明了自己是一个很有说服力的联盟成员, giving rousing patriotic speeches that made young men enlist on the spot. 招募了一整个公司的志愿者, though only 19, 他被选为队长。, Company F, 马萨诸塞州第46志愿军. 1863年7月,F连在看到轻微的行动后被调离. Conwell re-enlisted in August and was commissioned captain of Company D, Second Regiment, 马萨诸塞重炮.

Returning home, 康韦尔和一位当地律师一起研读法律, entered law school at the University of Albany and earned a bachelor of laws in the spring of 1865.

1876年,他正式投身牧师工作, becoming the full-time pastor of a frail Baptist church in Lexington, Mass.立即使其复苏,并使其在财务上站稳脚跟. 康韦尔于1879年在牛顿神学院被正式任命为牧师.

In November 1882 Russell Conwell accepted the pastorate of the Grace Baptist Church in Philadelphia and moved his family into the parsonage at 2004 N. Park Ave. Conwell’s energy, organizational skills and gifted oratory attracted many new parishioners, and soon there was not enough room to accommodate all who wished to worship at the church and to listen to the brilliant, 娱乐和激励牧师. He had barely arrived before the parishioners were discussing the need to build yet another, larger church.

By the time Conwell arrived in Philadelphia he had gained fame as a lecturer on the Chautauqua circuit, 这是一个旅行帐篷表演,参观了美国中心地带的城镇, 音乐表演, plays, 政治演说和引人入胜的演说, 比如康威尔的“钻石英亩”讲座, part sermon, 部分戏剧朗诵, 部分自传式叙述和总是娱乐. By Conwell’s count he gave the speech 6,152 times, a fact included in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. 不知疲倦地传递谈话风格, 《威尼斯赌场网站》是一个关于教育价值的道德故事, devotion to the Protestant ethic and importance of family and community service.

Conwell’s message had a larger purpose transcending contemporary wisdom. 他强调,通往个人成功的道路主要是教育. Educated persons, in turn, were obligated to serve the less fortunate and to help them realize their full potential. 此外,所有人都有责任满足社会的需要. “我们必须首先知道世界需要什么,” said Conwell, 然后投资自己来满足这种需求, 成功几乎是必然的.” To meet those needs Conwell initially used his church to reach out to all peoples of North Philadelphia—many of them poor and many of them recent immigrants—offering spiritual sustenance, recreation, social life, 经济援助和基本生活技能的指导. Gradually he channeled his energies into meeting what he considered the foremost of those needs, namely education.

1884年的一个周日晚上,查尔斯. Davies, a young printer, approached Conwell to ask for advice on preparing for the ministry. 戴维斯没有钱,也没有受过正规教育. 康威尔主动提出教他. Davies brought along one friend, then six, and Conwell tutored them in his study. 不久之后,这个数字增长到了40. Conwell found volunteer teachers and moved classes from his study into the church basement. Extensive tutorials or short courses continued until the fall of 1887, when Conwell announced from the pulpit the official formation of Temple College and set a formal schedule of classes.

在戴维斯准备的小册子的帮助下, word was sent throughout Center City and the working-class neighborhoods describing Grace Baptist Church and Temple College as within “easy walking distance to factories employing 30,000 workmen” and within a half hour’s ride by horse car from where “180,000名男女工人”被雇用. 第一个月就有200名准学生报名.

On May 14, 1888, Temple College was chartered and incorporated by the state. 其宗旨是“支持教育机构”, 主要是为了工人的利益.” In 1891 the charter was amended to read “primarily for the benefit of Working Men; and for men and women desirous of attending the same.大学目录上写着:“普通学费是免费的。.” Moreover, “no special grade of previous study is at present required for admission, 因为教师的宗旨是帮助任何有抱负的年轻人, 没有特别参考以前的研究.”

天普学院不仅仅是一个地方, more than just a gathering of teachers and students: It was a bold new idea, 转变的概念. “The Temple Idea,” Conwell explained, 是在仁爱的基础上教育男女劳动者吗, at an expense to the students just sufficient to enhance their appreciation of the advantages of the institution.”

第一届毕业典礼于1892年6月举行. Eighteen graduates of Conwell’s class in oratory were awarded the bachelor of oratory. 获得学位的人中有四名女性. 学院还获得了授予荣誉学位的权力, 最早的接受者之一是康威尔, 谁获得了文学博士和法学博士学位.

Temple began its dramatic transformation in 1907 when it incorporated as a university and the next year when the Pennsylvania College and University Council listed Temple as one of the state’s higher-education institutions. 终于被认可为真正的高等教育机构, 威尼斯赌场网站开设了新课程, one heavily influenced by the burgeoning interest in formal training for the new professions, such as education, business and health, and formal training for and licensing of the established professions of law, medicine and dentistry as the appeal of freestanding professional schools vanished.

康维尔于1925年12月6日去世. [He and his wife, Sarah] were buried with full honors in a small courtyard next to Conwell Hall. In 1968 the remains were quietly removed and reburied in a lovely pocket garden in the center of campus, 1967年的礼物,现在叫做创始人花园. The grave lies behind a large bust of Conwell sculpted by Boris Blai.

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