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[preprinted]
Universal Lite
Insurance company

CAPITAL and SURPLUS over $2,000,000.00

DR. J. E. WALKER, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
A. M. WALKER, SR., PRESIDENT
A. W. WILLIS, SR., FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
B. G. OLIVE, JR., VICE PRESIDENT-SECRETARY
DR. J. W. KELSO, VICE PRESIDENT-MEDICAL DIRECTOR
J. A. SWAYZE, VICE PRESIDENT-ASSISTANT SECRETARY
L. R. TAYLOR, ACTUARY
H. A. GILLIAM, DIRECTOR OF AGENCIES

[[image - drawing of globe and building]
HOME OFFICE: 400 LINDEN AT WELLINGTON
Memphis 1. Tennessee

DR. J. E. WALKER. FOUNDER
[[preprinted]]

MAY 19, 1953
Dr. F. D. Patterson
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama

PERSONAL PLEASE

Dear Dr. Pat:

Since the announcement through the paper of your resignation, I have wanted to write you.  I have hesitated for numerous reasons.  I first decided to wait until someone had been elected to your place before writing you; however, as I continue to read and hear so much about your possible successor, I decided to write you this letter.  I hope that the only one who will see this letter, other than yourself, will be Claude Barnett.  You know, letters about matters at hand in the wrong hands can be construed or interpreted in every way but the writer intended it.  While I care nothing about what might be said about me, personally, when I feel that I am right, occupying the position that I do with my company, in all too many instances, unscrupulous folk will not attack the individual, but will attack the firm he represents.  Therefore, you can understand my reason for being cautious.

First, I want to say this:  When I first heard of your resignation, it was indeed regrettable to me, primarily because of the tremendous job that you have done in carrying Tuskegee to the high plane it has now achieved.  I personally have nothing but the very highest of praise for you and I am sure that there are thousands who will share this opinion with me.  I know, personally, from my own experience in building an institution, what a tremendous price must be paid by its leaders to accomplish such a task.

I well remember the two or three days which you and Mrs Patterson spent in my home with my wife and me, probably the first or second year after you became president of Tuskegee, which has not yet been too many years ago.  I remember how you looked then, and what these intervening years have done to you.  Although you may feel physically all right, these years have made an imprint on you; therefore, however anxious I might be for you to continue at Tuskegee, I realize that after all the job is one that does indeed command every physical and mental faculty that an individual might have in such a way that if he is to succeed as a leader, it is going to make that type of imprint, physically and mentally, and some time make the sacrifice too great.  I concluded that because, and only because, of that one thing, you have done the wisest thing.