ave failed
to notice the spontaneous expression of this sense of comradeship
in Miss Pendleton's reference to the faculty."
Rhode Island has twice given a president to Wellesley, for Ellen
Fitz Pendleton was born at Westerly, on August 7, 1864, the daughter
of Enoch Burrowes Pendleton and Mary Ette (Chapman) Pendleton.
In 1882, she entered Wellesley College as a freshman, and since
that date, her connection with her Alma Mater has been unbroken.
Her classmates seem to have recognized her power almost at once,
for in June, 1883, at the end of her freshman year, we find her on
the Tree Day program as delivering an essay on the fern beech;
and she was later invited into the Shakespeare Society, at that
time Wellesley's one and only literary society. In 1886, Miss
Pendleton was graduated with the degree of B.A., and entered the
Department of Mathematics in the autumn of that year as tutor;
in 1888, she was promoted to an instructorship which she held
until 1901, with a leave of absence in 1889 and 1890 for study
at Newnham College, Cambridge, England. In 1891, she received
the degree of M.A. from Wellesley. Her honorary degrees are the
Litt.D. from Brown University in 1911, and the LL.D. from Mt. Holyoke
in 1912. In 1895, she was made Schedule Officer, in charge of
the intricate work involved in arranging and simplifying the
complicated yearly schedule of college class appointments. In
1897, she became secretary of the college and held this position
until 1901, when she was made dean and associate professor of
Mathematics. During Miss Hazard's absences and after Miss Hazard's
resignation in 1910, she served the college as acting president.
The announcement of her election to the presidency was made to
the college on June 9, 1911, by the president of the Board of
Trustees, and the joy with which it was received by faculty, alumna,
and students was as outspoken as it was genuine. And at her
inauguration, many who listened to her clear and simple exposition
of her conception of the function of a college must have rejoiced
anew to feel that Wellesley's ideals of scholarship were committed
to so safe and wise a guardian. Miss Pendleton's ideal cannot
be better expressed than in her own straightforward phrases:
"Happily for both, men and women must work together in the world,
and I venture to say that the function of a college for men is not
essentially different from that of a college for women."
Of the twofold
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