The re-burial of Dr. Russell Conwell and his wife Sarah on the grounds of Conwell Hall.
It was at 12 noon on May 11, 1959. The ceremonies included the lunchtime bells of The Baptist Temple mingled with the solemn music of the Diamond Band as a procession of University officials and Conwell's family walked down Broad Street from The Temple to Conwell Hall. They were led by a color guard from the University's R.O.T.C. unit. As the procession entered the fenced-in plot, the band played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic,
" a favorite of Dr. Conwell.
A Temple flag was placed over the flat grave stone which orignally had covered the grave in which Dr. Conwell was buried in Monument Cemetery, across Broad Street. The body of Founder Conwell was laid to rest in the shadow of Conwell Hall, very near the exact spot on which he stood when he broke ground for the building in 1920.
In the center of the photograph is Bishop Fred P. Corson, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Temple University.
He delivered an address at the memorial services for Dr. Conwell.
Bishop Corson said...
We gather today to do honor to Russell Conwell, soldier, lawyer, preacher, educator, Christian. Reverently and gratefully we bring his earthly remains to rest in the midst of his handiwork. It is fitting and appropriate that we should do this, for Temple University is his monument. It is his hand reaching out in perpetual help to the young. It is his mind teaching still the truths which make life better. It is his spirit keeping alive the American traditions of the importance of the indvidual, his trustworthiness to live in freedom, and do what is right and his obligation to make a worthy return to the society which provides him with his opportunity.
Russell Conwell and Temple University attest the truth of the holy words which tell us that "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for though they rest from their labors, their works do follow them."
So with Temple University permanently established on this site of its first campus and recognized by both state and community as a necessary segment in their ever-expanding educational system, we establish this memorial as Russell Conwell's final earthly resting place to be held sacred - a reminder of the past, an encouragement to the present and a pledge to the future.
May its presence here keep fresh in the thoughts of the Temple family the origin of the University, a venture of faith, an expression of Christian service, a humble beginning, an effort to help. Let us never forget the full significance of the fact that had it not been for a clergyman and a church Temple College would never have been born.
May it remind us of the man whose character it projected lest his moulding touch be no longer felt in the University's life; a man who lived a life of achievement in spite of many obstacles, whose success was delayed until his middle life, who left a successful profession in law to follow a calling in the Christian ministry, who chose the hard tasks rather than the easy ones, who learned how, with meager resources, to do great things, whose one ambition was to supply the needs of his fellow man, who determined that "no one should come into his life without being benefited," who with great powers to produce wealth demonstrated the secret of its benefits in the uses he put it to, a man under God whose life is the proof that what is necessary is also possible.
And may this memorial be the assurance of fidelity to the University's educational charter which declares its purpose to be "to admit every person of either sex who cherishes the high resolve of sustaining a career of usefulness and honor. To open to the burdened and circumscribed the doors through which he may, if he will, reach the fields of profitable and influenctial professional life. To enable the working man to double his skill through the helpful suggestions of a cultivated mind. To provide such instruction as shall be best adapted to the higher education of those who are compelled to labor at their trades while engaging in study. To awaken in the character of young men and women a strong and determined ambition to be useful to their fellow man. To cultivate such a taste for the higher and most useful branches of learning as shall compel the students after they have left college to continue to pursue the best and most practical branches of learning to the very hiighest walks of mental and scientific achievement."
The University will be the voice which perpetuates Russell Conwell's message when he said: "If you never hear me again, remember this: that if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are. Greatness...(contracted by Corson) really consists in doing great deeds with little means and the accomplishment of vast purposes from the private ranks of life. And remember this: that the only real poverty is the poverty of the mind."