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[[newspaper clipping pasted to ruled paper]] [[centered]][[bold]] THE VIRGINIA REEL [[/bold]] SOUTHERN SEMINARY AND JUNIOR COLLEGE[[/centered]] [[line across page]] Vol. 1, No. 2 Buena Vista, Virginia March, 1949 [[line across page]] [[bold]]Daddy Durham[[/bold]] From A Student [[two column text]] [[start column one]] Even to the comparatively new student at Southern Seminary, Robert Lee Durham, president emeritus, was known, and always will be known in our hearts, as "Daddy" Durham. We remember him best as the distinguished-looking gentleman with a twinkle in his eyes as we talked to him; we remember him at our horse shows, taking an avid interest in them and dressed in faultlessly correct riding habit, from hard-topped derby to shiny brown boots; and we remember Daddy Durham as he sang for us in assembly on his last birthday, with a remarkably good baritone voice for a man of seventy-seven years. Most of our glimpses of him were brief. But despite the brevity, and with little knowledge of his past accomplishments and life, to us Daddy Durham had the air of a man who was gentle and understanding, keenly intelligent, versatile, wise, and sympathetic to all men. The facts of his life bear out our impressions of him. Robert Lee Durham was born in Shelby, North Carolina, in 1870. He attended Trinity College, which is now Duke University, and was graduated in 1891. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Alpha Tau Omega fraternities. After further study of law at Duke University, he began practicing law at Rutherfordton, North Carolina. During the years of his practice, Mr. Durham took a leading part in state Democratic politics, serving as a member of the North Carolina State Democratic Committee from 1894 to 1898 and as a member of the platform committee at the Democratic State Convention in 1906. In the Spanish-American War, Daddy Durham was Captain of Company G, Second North Carolina Infantry. Mr. Durham began his career as an educator when he left the practice of law in [[end column]] [[start column two]] 1909 and accepted a teaching position at Davenport College, in Lenoir, North Carolina. Later on, he was a member of the faculty of Centenary College in Cleveland, Tennessee, and in 1911 he became dean of Martha Washington College, in Abingdon, Virginia. It was in 1919 that Mr. Durham came to Southern Seminary as its owner and president. There were two things that Daddy Durham was especially proud of accomplishing, although to us there seem to be many more equally important, for he was such a versatile man. The first was that he was able to contribute to the unifica- Continued on page 4 [[photograph - Robert Lee Durham]] ^[[(over)]]
