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345 Liberty Avenue
Columbus, Georgia
7 May 1953

Dear Dr. Patterson:

It is my opinion that of all the years of toil you have put in at Tuskegee the present is perhaps that most pressing of all. Thinking this to be true, then it should perhaps be my good judgement to await a more appropriate time to write, maybe some months after your pending transition and readjustment period. However, as I now recall it I last corresponded with you some seven years ago, and it has been more than twelve years since I left Tuskegee and I feel that a few words at this time should be permissible.

First I would like to assure you that although my writing and visits to Tuskegee have been somewhat infrequent, that in itself does not in the least indicate my lack of interest in Tuskegee and its well being. I have through the medium of various Tuskegee publications, the public press, and friends there, kept up in detail with the progress of Tuskegee and your activities in particular. Over the years the matter of closely watching for all of your published photographs has developed into something of a pastime with me. I have been closely observing them to see if I could determine what effects the strain of carrying the heavy work load there was having on you. Gladly I can say that up to the present the change has been almost negliable. However, I did begin to notice a very slight change in one of your pictures that appeared in the Pittsburgh Courier in early 1950, I think it was. The occassion I cannot now recall. When it was my good fortune to see you briefly on Founders Day of this year there was but a little difference in your appearance and that of the new President of Tuskegee that appeared at the Horsebarn early one morning in September 1935 to look over the shipment of new horses that had just come in from Iowa. I am very grateful that you have been able to carry on with the tremendous responsibilities there oversuch a span of time with a minimum of shall I say "Depreciation" to your physical self.

It is needless for me to relate to you my bewilderment upon first learning of your decision to relinquish the presidency of Tuskegee. At first I could not bring myself around to believing it to be true. For a time I was ready to wire my protest to the Trustee Board for whatever it was worth. Truthfully, I have not in a narrow sense, reconciled myself to the idea as yet. However, in a broader sense I have come to the conclusion that we all should be, and I am, thankful that you have steered Tuskegee so ably during the past eighteen years, a period that has seen the entire world go through so many changes, and that although I always think of Tuskegee as a school with a mission unlike any other, it is unfair to ask one person to give to the last in order that I can go about relaxed knowing that the school is in safe hands.

It is true that the future of Tuskegee will become a matter of greater concern to me now. I am prayerful that Divine guidance will be the helper of those responsible for selecting your successor and whosoever is chosen