[Marc remarks at this week’s AC Happy Hour in Austin, TX honoring retiring President Steven O’Day]
Thank you to former AC Trustee Holly Mace Massingill and her spouse Gavin for this Carriage House location and their hard work on this event. The price for being awesome is you get roped in a lot, which is what I did with Holly. She is an AC treasure for all of us and certainly for me tonight. My name is Marc, and I’m here to bring you the News of the World.
Have you all ever seen the movie “News of the World?” It is a 2020 movie starring Tom Hanks that is based on a book of the same name written by Paulette Jiles. Jiles was an adopted Texan who lived in San Antonio and sadly passed just last year. The movie was missed by a lot of Americans because it was released during the pandemic year of 2020.
News of the World tells the story of a Texas Civil War veteran who travels from the Red River valley to San Antonio by way of Austin. Along the way, the Hanks character adopts an abandoned girl and tries to get her home. His profession is to read newspapers to locals who are unable to read themselves, allowing them to hear the news of the world from Texas in the 1870s.
In that spirit, I’d like to read a newspaper article to all of you from Texas in the 1870s. This article comes from the Austin American Statesman in 1875. 1875 was a trying year in Austin. The devastation of the Civil War and the failure of Reconstruction were daily realities. The University of Texas and Texas A&M did not yet exist. A yellow fever pandemic not unlike Covid was wreaking havoc on Austin College and forcing a relocation. And Austin, TX was ready. From the 1875 article titled:
“A Great Opportunity for Austin”
“The synod of Texas that assembles [in Austin] tonight will decide the locality of Austin College. This institution of learning will in the long run be worth more than thousands of silver and gold to the community that secures it. Will [Austin] allow some other town to outbid them, and thereby lose a benefit to themselves and their children for generations? The present opportunity is a great one.”
Sadly for Austin, TX, AC President Samuel Luckett did NOT choose Holly’s and my fair city. But Dr. Luckett’s move from pandemic Huntsville to prosperous Sherman did eventually provide, as Dr. Light Cummins has noted, “the firm financial footing” that the school had been desperate to achieve since its founding in 1849.
President Steven O’Day will complete nearly a decade at the helm of Austin College next year, when the school celebrates the 150th anniversary of its 1876 move to Sherman. Like Dr. Luckett, President O’Day had to guide the school through the crisis of a national pandemic. And like Dr. Luckett, President O’Day has led AC to the other side, leaving the school in a much stronger position. For that, we are grateful. And I’m inspired to read my own version of “News of The World.” This, from a completely made-up Marc article titled:
“A Great President for Austin College”
“A Happy Hour in Texas that assembles [in Austin] tonight with AD Michelle Filander, Coach Tony Joe White, Gillian Locke, JR Ohr, Al Krummenacher, and Cece O’Day, will say thank you to Steven O’Day, the retiring President of Austin College. This institution of learning continues to be worth more than thousands of silver and gold to the AC community, thanks to his leadership. Will all Roos gathered here join me in expressing that gratitude for navigating the 2020 pandemic storms and improving the school for future generations? The present opportunity is a great one.”
Thank you Dr. O’Day. And thanks to all of you for letting me bring you the Austin College News of the World.
