OF GREAT THINGS AND ONE MAN

When a man makes far-reaching contributions to human thought, the institution with which he may be associated shares with him the glory of his renown, and grows as he grows. Nowhere could one find a better illustration of this thesis than in the relatively short but epochal association between Professor Whitehead and Harvard.

It is almost unnecessary to repeat the world's praises. His "Principal Mathematica" and "Process and Reality", among other works of contemporary literature that have come from his pen, have made a place for him beside Plato and Aristotle in the hall of philosophical fame. His attack of bifurcation, his "eternal entities", his consumation of a union between science and philosophy--to mention briefly but a few of his mental activities--will always be remembered.

It is rather of that small world of Harvard we would speak. There is no use disguising the very real and personal loss which several generations of Harvard men will experience when they read the announcement of Professor Whitehead's retirement. He is as well and justly celebrated among undergraduates as a great teacher in his "Phil. 3" and "Phil. 3b" as he is in the larger outside world for his "Religion in the Making" and his "Organization of Thought".

They are no mere formal tributes, those that come from his associates. They are deeply felt, and spontaneous in their expression. They are, in a word, appreciations of a man as well as a genius. Without question, his students and associates find much of their admiration based upon the fact that Professor Whitehead teaches no dogma. They are invariably stimulated by his large and embracive theme that the great key to philosophy is individual thinking relating to the world of experience.

When, at the end of the current academic year, Professor Whitehead retires, the loss will be irreparable. There is, of course, much before him as a writer and philosopher. But Harvard students will miss that ignition between mind and mind that his presence and his teaching so very notably gave.

Although there are many fine minds to be found in the contemporary world, Professor Whitehead dwarfs them all. He soars freely in the rarified atmosphere about which most of mankind only dreams. The torch he still holds aloft burns brightly only once in many generations, but it lights the way for succeeding, less creative inheritors, and lives on, as indestructible as philosophy itself.