Dedication of the Vic Powell H’55 Chair
’It’s a great honor for me to recognize Vic Powell, a giant of the Wabash faculty, who, like so many of the professors here, still live in me today. It’s my honor to present this chair—I couldn’t afford to endow a real chair, so this is the Vic Powell Chair of Intelligent and Respectful Conversation. I would like to encourage other alums to honor their professors this way.’
’I just want to tell you all how important Vic thought it was to be in here, starting with the Scarlet Inn when it was in South Hall, with those picnic tables. He thought it was important to meet with colleagues. You found out what students and faculty were thinking about, and that was a very important part of the day. He was proud to be an inn-sitter, and now he’s going to have his own special chair. Thank you, Jon, and all of you.’
Marion enjoys this story Jon Pactor told about Vic and Butch Shearer: ’Butch Shearer and Vic Powell were not of the same political philosophy, both had strong opinions and the ability to express them. One day Vic organized the other guys at the table and said—When Butch comes in here, let’s just say that we agree with him. So whenever Butch said something, they’d say—oh, yeah Butch we agree with you. This went on for about two minutes, and Butch got so frustrated that he left. The point to that story is the camaraderie, the sense of humor, and the fact that people at the table did not expect to agree with each other. The point of the conversation was to hear different points of view. There was a lot of intelligent and respectful conversation; vigorous, but intelligent and respectful.’