Faculty Minute on the Death of President Woodrow Wilson ’79

The following minute on the death of President Woodrow Wilson ’79 was adopted at a meeting of the University Faculty and was read by Dean Fine at the memorial service for President Wilson:

We, the members of the Faculty of Princeton University, wish to give expression to our sorrow in the death of our former colleague, Woodrow Wilson, and to record with gratitude his distinguished services to the University, as teacher and as President.

He had the choicest gifts of the university professor. In his own special field of study, the science of government, he was a creative thinker of the first rank; and he was a great teacher, discussing the principles of government with the precision of a scientist and with the charm of an orator. He continued his teaching during the entire twenty years of his connection with the Faculty, in spite of the increasing burden of his administrative duties.

As President he gave Princeton a might impulse, strengthening its Faculty, increasing its facilities for research, quickening its intellectual life, and gaining for it the place it now holds among the universities of the land.

We recall with pride that a man whose name has reached to the ends of the earth and is associated forever with the cause of peace was once a member of our body. He has bequeathed to us a lasting memory and an example of devoted and brilliant service.

This was originally published in the February 27, 1924 issue of PAW.