Temple University's Diamond
I have been reading a biography about Russell H. Conwell, the founder and first president of Temple University in Philadelphia (the link first has a copy of Conwell's Book Acres of Diamonds, the remainder of the document profiles his inspiring life and lasting work). Ostensibly, I am doing research on a book about college transition and I want to show the power of relationships and Conwell is my model. Privately, I find inspiration beyond writing for the book...I see the power of his life and work and want to do the same...
Conwell was not a Philadelphia native (or Pennsylvanian for that matter). He hailed from Massachusetts yet found recuperative healing and solace in Philadelphia after the Civil War. Once he was better, he returned to Massachusetts and became a Christian and entered the pastorate through the lasting influence of his dear friend Johnnie Ring--who had sacrificed his life in a remarkable act of service to Conwell during a battle between the North and the South (read the biography for the tale; starts on page 50 in the .pdf). For the rest of his life, Conwell endeavored to work 16 hours a day, 8 for his work, and 8 for Johnnie Ring.
I came across a passage on pages 91 and 92...and if you know Philadelphia, not much has changed from when this was written many years ago:
"In spite of all that Dr. Conwell has done, it has been under the thrall of the fact that he went north of Market Street--that fatal fact understood by all who know Philadelphia--and that he made no effort to make friends in Rittenhouse Square. Such considerations seem absurd in this twentieth century, but in Philadelphia they are still potent. Tens of thousands of Philadelphians love him, and he is honored by its greatest men, but there is a class of the pseudocultured who do not know him or appreciate him. And it needs also to be understood that, outside of his own beloved Temple, he would prefer to go to a little church or a little hall and to speak to the forgotten people, in the hope of encouraging and inspiring them and filling them with hopeful glow, rather than to speak to the rich and comfortable."
How like Jesus of him...
Conwell was not a Philadelphia native (or Pennsylvanian for that matter). He hailed from Massachusetts yet found recuperative healing and solace in Philadelphia after the Civil War. Once he was better, he returned to Massachusetts and became a Christian and entered the pastorate through the lasting influence of his dear friend Johnnie Ring--who had sacrificed his life in a remarkable act of service to Conwell during a battle between the North and the South (read the biography for the tale; starts on page 50 in the .pdf). For the rest of his life, Conwell endeavored to work 16 hours a day, 8 for his work, and 8 for Johnnie Ring.
I came across a passage on pages 91 and 92...and if you know Philadelphia, not much has changed from when this was written many years ago:
"In spite of all that Dr. Conwell has done, it has been under the thrall of the fact that he went north of Market Street--that fatal fact understood by all who know Philadelphia--and that he made no effort to make friends in Rittenhouse Square. Such considerations seem absurd in this twentieth century, but in Philadelphia they are still potent. Tens of thousands of Philadelphians love him, and he is honored by its greatest men, but there is a class of the pseudocultured who do not know him or appreciate him. And it needs also to be understood that, outside of his own beloved Temple, he would prefer to go to a little church or a little hall and to speak to the forgotten people, in the hope of encouraging and inspiring them and filling them with hopeful glow, rather than to speak to the rich and comfortable."
How like Jesus of him...
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