Hampden-Sydney College

"One notably absent member of the College community was Lecturer in Government and Foreign Affairs Lt. Col. Rucker Snead ’81 (U.S. Army, Ret.) who passed away on May 3, 2023. Yet though he was physically absent, Col. Snead’s presence was felt throughout the ceremony, from the moment of remembrance at the start of the ceremony, to Andrew Rehak’s memories of Col. Snead’s pep talks as academic advisor to the swim team, to the U.S. Army commissioning ceremony of four new soldiers, whom he mentored as the ROTC advisor over the course of their four years in the program. In a ceremony packed with full circle remembrances, the 2022-23 academic year came to a close right where it started. We were reminded that the duty of becoming and being a good man and a good citizen is never really finished. Though these young men have now moved on from the Hill, their contributions to the College will be eternal, as are the memories of their too-soon-departed brothers like Col. Snead. Such is the legacy of the sons of Hampden-Sydney."

"Brought into being by love of liberty, as Virginians say, Hampden-Sydney has for two centuries provided its graduates with the courage and the insight to be leaders."

"By ancestral interest and right, Hampden-Sydney was his College. He did not seek the position, but made himself available when he was approached about it; he was 69, and had been officially retired for fourteen years. He was willing to help, to serve, but not as a caretaker or Acting President; with the support of every constituency, the Board elected General Wilson President on 30 July 1992. From his office window you can see the Birthplace, the office of Slate Hill Plantation, where a bright young minister led some of his ancestors and their neighbors in founding a little college in the woods."

"...And that, in order to preserve in the minds of the students that sacred love and attachment which they should ever bear to the principles of the present glorious revolution, the greatest care and caution shall be used in electing such professors and masters, to the end that no person shall be so elected unless the uniform tenor of his conduct manifests to the world his sincere affection for the liberty and independence of the United States of America."

"Now, I went to Hampden-Sydney College. Thank you, thank you. Please sit down. And I used to come up here for as much as I could because you had these things back then, I’m not sure what you call them now... girls. We did not have those at Hampden-Sydney. And when I could not find one of those here, I would head over to the White Spot to get a “Grills with” to fill the void in my heart. Literally my cardiologist recently found one lodged in there."

"To you, gentlemen members of the Hampden Sidney Institute, I believe Virginia is indebted for the first example of a voluntary association on a large scale, to promote education—an example which I most earnestly hope will be zealously followed in every part of our widely extended territory, until the great, the vital object, which you so laudably aim to accomplish, shall be fully realized to the utmost extent of your wishes."

"If I have succeeded in my most anxious desire to impress upon your minds the thorough conviction that the principles of morality and religion, indissolubly united, must form the beginning, the middle and the end of all that deserves the name of education, your first, your constant and supreme effort will be to acquire them. Then indeed, you may pursue the usual course of your scholastic studies, not only without danger of mistaking the means for the end, but with incalculable advantages both present and prospective; for all will be made conducive to the great, the eternal purposes for which you were created. Your knowledge of foreign languages and histories will contribute to convince you that there have been and still are nations, kindred and people like yourselves,—with similar wants, passions and capabilities, deserving your sympathy, your regard, your brotherly love,—that national antipathies should have no place in a human bosom—that national wars, except for defence, are national crimes; and that man should consider man his brother, in whatever condition or on whatever spot of the habitable globe he may be found."

"Your mathematics will lead you to the conviction, strong and irresistible as the demonstrative principles and reasonings upon which the whole of this noble science depends, that nothing but a God of all perfect wisdom and love could have endowed you with faculties and powers capable of deriving not only the highest mental gratifications from such a source, but of applying the discoveries which produce these gratifications to an infinite series of the most beneficial purposes. Your chemistry will aid in teaching you that none but a Being infinitely wise and of boundless power and goodness, could possibly have contrived and arranged such a vast multitude of substances, in all their endless variety of combinations and affinities, such an immense world of multiform matter—all as it would seem conducive in some way or other to human comfort, gratification, or high enjoyment. Your philosophy and metaphysics, will draw you irresistibly to a great first cause—the supreme, beneficent, ever bounteous Author of all the objects of our senses, of all the powers and conceptions of our understandings; and will indelibly stamp upon your hearts the sentiments of adoration, love and obedience, as the only proper tribute you could pay to a Being, who, so far as we can comprehend his works, hath made them all subservient, either directly or indirectly, to our own happiness, both in time and eternity. These sciences will bring home to your bosoms and business the vital truth that you have minds of vast powers of comprehension—faculties capable of undefinable expansion; and souls of such godlike energies, aspirations and capacities of enjoyment, as nothing less than a God of all power, wisdom and love, could either have created or bestowed."

"In a word, whatever path you may pursue within the whole circle of scientific and literary research, it will lead you, if under the constant guidance of moral and religious principles, to the possession of the chief good here on earth, and to “ that house above, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." There are indeed no circumstances nor situations in which you can anticipate even the possibility of being placed, unless bereft of all consciousness or sanity of mind, that can exempt you from the obligation of making these principles the chart and compass as it were, by which you are to steer your earthly course."

"Education here is not a matter of mere books and courses. There is a nobler effort than the training of the intellect. The true aim of Hampden-Sydney is to reach the whole man, to send him forth more eager for life than just to make a living. Hampden-Sydney has never been congenial with mass production. The chief concern has always been with the individual. The stream that has gone forth from the institution has not been wide, but it has been deep. The true Hampden-Sydney man holds his own in any company. Such men, often unconsciously even as they smiled at "traditions," have, nevertheless, been powerfully influenced by these same traditions. When, as the years pass, this truth is borne upon them, they pay willing and glad homage to the institution responsible for such an effect in their lives."

"In view of the part played by Hampden-Sydney men in the past wars of the Nation, what they are doing in the present conflict causes no surprise. From the very beginning the call to arms was answered by our faculty, student body, and alumni. Today Hampden-Sydney men in nearly every branch of the service are with the fighting forces all over the world. Some have given their lives; others are wearing decorations for valor. All are doing their best. Each one is held in the high affection and admiration of his Alma Mater."

"Boys always play better when they know the girls are watching."

"Hampden-Sydney has from its beginning been more than an educational institution. It has been that to a high degree, but the school has been ever mindful of and engaged in that type of education which is called Christian. The noble work of so many of her sons in all lines of high endeavor bears eloquent tribute to the results of this type of education. As long as Christian faith remains, the function of such institutions as Hampden-Sydney is necessary."

"Vigorous efforts have been and are being made to instill into the young men the true meaning of liberty, the knowledge that rights without responsibilities are impossible... There is no greater need than fine citizens and no better way to produce them than to teach in our Christian colleges the vital relationship between privileges and duties, rights and responsibilities."

"The number of Hampden-Sydney men who participated in the Spanish-American War is not known. In World War I Hampden-Sydney men enlisted in great numbers. The Memorial Gate bears the names of fourteen Alumni who made the supreme sacrifice. Under Federal Officers the S.A.T.C. was promptly organised at the College, and Army regulations prevailed as they do at present in World War II. According to an incomplete study made of Hampden-Sydney Alumni in World War II the most accurate estimate seems to indicate that thirty-three percent are now engaged in the several branches of the service. With deepest regret and sorrow the College has received the news of the death of eighteen of these valiant sons. Since its inauguration July 1, 1943, the Naval V-12 Program has given partial training to five hundred and fifteen enlisted men. Of these, eighty-two have gone on to Midshipman Schools; twenty-five to Medical Schools; forty-one to other V-12 units; sixty to various Units connected with the fleet; and two to Annapolis. At present the Naval Roster shows two hundred and forty-five aboard. Hampden-Sydney and all of her sons rightly share in the phrase, "well done.""

"We’re not the biggest team in the world, but we’ve got guys that are tough. We’re going to give 100%."

"The last pet-in-dorm incident that I know about involves my own basset hound, who discovered in her youth that in weekends (and exactly how does a basset hound know about Saturday?) fraternity houses were fascinating places. Besides lots of people who would scratch your ears, there were lots of plastic cups on the floor containing a delicious liquid, and just big enough to get your nose down into. Inexplicably, this seemed funny to the people around. Well, in the interests of economy and convenience, they started putting saucers of beer out for her. And she would make the rounds of the fraternity houses, of which at the time there were nine. By the end of the evening she was pretty well tanked, which had an unfortunate effect the next day; I can authoritatively sat you have never seen anything sad if you have never seen a basset hound with a hangover. One snowy evening she wound up at the Akpha Chi Sigma house, where she was well known. These were good friends, and when the party broke up at 1:30 or so, she happily followed a group of three back to fourth-passage Cushing, where they lived on the fourth floor. They weren't paying too much attention until they got in a fourth-floor room and noticed continued wagging. It was too late and snowy to do anything about her, so they just hit the sack and turned out the lights. She curled up on the rug. At about 5 in the morning she felt a strong need to go outside. A very strong need. She nuzzled a hand or two, but nobody was budging. So she began to bay, which somewhat resembles bagpipe music in being both eerie and very loud. In no time, every resident of fourth passage was on the fourth floor, and a vigorious debate was occurring. I was told later that many wanted to throw her out the fourth-floor window immediately, while others wanted somebody (not them) to take her down to the front door. On Monday I was told that the vote for the front door had won 9-8."

"Rucker earned a B.A. in Political Science and French from Hampden-Sydney College, a M.A. in History from Appalachian State University, and a M.A. in National Security and Planning from Command and General Staff College. As a passionate Hampden-Sydney alumnus, he dedicated nearly 20 years to his beloved Hampden-Sydney College, after retiring from the U.S. Army following 23 years of service, Rucker returned to his alma mater in 2004. He led the College's career center for many years before becoming the director of the Wilson Center for Leadership in the Public Interest. Most recently, he served as the associate dean for the College's ROTC program and as a lecturer in the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, where he specialized in national security studies. Rucker was a committed mentor to his students and an active member of both the campus and Farmville communities. Rucker was a respected elder at College Presbyterian Church in Hampden-Sydney, VA, where he served in several ministries. He held leadership positions with organizations such as the United Way of Prince Edward County, the Farmville Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts."

"This is a great school, but to remain great it must continually study itself, and avoid like the plague a spirit of complacency."

"The town has at times extended its close, almost familial, patronage to the other institution of higher education anciently present in Southside: Hampden-Sydney College, lying six miles to the south. Although isolated from the town for part of its history by those six miles of muddy country road, by 1900 Hampden-Sydney had become partner to the mutually supportive relationship between Farmville and higher education. Reporting on a field day that took place on the Hampden-Sydney campus in May of 1903, a writer from Farmville's newspaper observed, "Farmville was there in full force... the teachers and students of the Normal being largely in evidence." Victors among the Hampden-Sydney students were crowned by students from the Normal "with better than laural wreaths": "sweet smiles of approval, hand clasps of delight." The reporter winds up his story with a rousing, "Long live the girls of the Normal and the boys of Hampden-Sydney!" And he- and the town of Farmville- meant it."

"The story of higher education in Farmville thus begins not in the town itself but in the hamlet of Hampden-Sydney. It begins well before the single brick building that constituted the Farmville Female Seminary would open its doors for the first class of students in the year 1843. Some seventy years before this, when Prince Edward County was still frontier land, the Hanover Presbytery began planning for the establishment of an institution of higher learning somewhere east of the Blue Ridge- if a local congregation would provide financial support and a suitable donation of land might be seured. A new, young preacher, Samuel Stanhope Smith, recently graduated from the Presbyterian seminary at Princeton but sent south in hopes of alleviation of a respiratory condition, let it be known that he would be willing to undertake the direction of such an institution. Having received pledges of financial support from the congregations of upper Cumberland and Prince Edward along with offers of several possible sites in the locality, on February 1-3, 1775, the Presbytery called a special meeting at Slate Hill Plantation near Prince Edward Courthouse (now Worsham) to lay the groundwork for the new institution."

"Thus a new college was inaugurated: church-initiated, but managed by an independent board made up largely of secular members of the local gentry class; church-sponsored, but relying for financial suppirt on pledges made locally just before the outbreak of revolution; nondenominational by pronouncement, but later colored in the minds of the members of the new legislature of Virginia as an arm of a church and therefore not eligible for state support; and intended- as Smith said in his first prospectus- "to form good men, and good Citizens" at a time when being a good citizen meant, to many prospective students, going off to fight for the Patriotic cause. It was a beginning, in other words, rife with potential trouble. Yet the college got off to a good start. Quickly it linked itself to the Revolutionary cause. Historian of Hampden-Sydney John Brinkley contends that President John Witherspoon of Princeton probably gave the college its patriotic name. Though a recent immigrant from Scotland, Witherspoon was, in 1775, a member of the Second Continental Congress, which had just chartered a ship named for two activist Englishmen of the seventeenth century; these men were remembered in the name of patriotic organizations in several of the colonies. They were John Hampden, a Member of Parliament who challenged the king's right to levy certain new taxes and whose attemped arrest by Charles I precipitated the English Civil War; and Algernon Sidney (or Sydney, the spelling eventually adopted by the college as late as the 1920s), who fought on the side of Parliament in the Civil War, was convicted of treason under Charles II and was executed, and whose influential Discourses Concerning Government was required reading at Princeton. Smith returned from his Northern tour with three Princeton men, aged 15 through 26, engaged as faculty; a "Princeton woman," Ann Witherspoon, daughter of the president, as his wife; and "Hampden-Sidyney" as the name for the new college."

"The Hampden-Sydney ideal of a gentleman reaches back to the 18th century and to the men of the early Republic who defined their lives by honor, service, public virtue, and personal self-restraint. This is what the College's Founders meant by "good men and good citizens." To form good men and good citizens is still today the mission of Hampden-Sydney College. However, you will not live in the insular world of Hampden-Sydney's Founders. Your world could not be more different from theirs. It is, however, Hampden-Sydney's belief that the characteristics of the 18th-century gentleman are as important today as two hundred years ago. It is your task to prove it."

"Critics say that the book takes a very narrow world view, as if the world were circumscribed by the boundaries of the Hampden-Sydney campus. To Manner Born, To Manners Bred was written for the students of Hampden-Sydney College; whatever other readership it has was unintended. This campus is a little world, and for our students it is their special place for four years. They know, however, that it will not be their world forever, and they are preparing themselves to be "good men and good citizens" as understood in the 18th century and in the 21st century. It is a treasured thing for a youth to have a special place in which to become a man- a beautiful place where honor is a virtue, civility a habit, and learning a goal."

"When you leave the little world of Hampden-Sydney, you will still have much to learn of the diversity of the greater world, of the customs and manners of the many cultures you will encounter and interact with as you make your life and living in a global economy. I hope that your recognition of the value of the traditional social customs as they are practiced in our small community will make you keenly aware of the importance of the traditional social customs of other communities- whether ethnic neighborhoods or nations. I end this epilogue as I have ended others before. You are a Hampden-Sydney Gentleman, and as Cardinal Newman wrote, "It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain.""

"It seems to me from what I have learned that here in these gentle surroundings have been discovered the true functions of a university and its task of sending out into the world not only men of high educational and cultural standards, but men also of vision, of courage, of honesty and decision."

"When a civil war began in the 1640s between the King's forces and the Parliamentary forces, many English religious dissenters joined the anti-royalists. At this time, Virginia's royal governor, William Berkeley, reacted by arbitrarily condemning all Virginia dissenters as similar being seditious anti-royalists; some Tidewater dissenters were banished from Virginia at this time, while others simply moved farther up the James River to areas (in present-day Hanover County) north and west of its fall-line. Some of these "uprooted and transplanted" Piedmont dissenters became the ancestors of the Presbyterian congregation that would later be formed at Hampden-Sydney, Virginia."

"By the mid-1700s the Presbyterians in the middle colonies had grown so impatient with the scarcity of ordained ministers coming to North America from the English and Scottish universities, that they began to train and to verify their own ministers by means of several "home-grown" seminaries which critics derisively called "log colleges" (which were allegedly grossly inferior to the renowned universities of Great Britain). The most prominent of these log colleges was the one which eventually developed into the College of New Jersey, which- following several temporary locations- finally and permanently settled in the village of Princeton. It would be alumni from the "log college movement" who were the first preachers to respond to the pleas which had consistently come from "the remote Parts" of Virginia, and with their missionary labors during the 1750s they laid the foundations for the Hampden-Sydney college and church."

"Truthfully no one knows for certain how the conjoined names of John Hampden and Algernon Sydney came to be attached to this college and its village. For certain, both in 18th century England and in the North American colonies these two protesting patriots' names had come to be attached to disaffected colonial political groups. College historian John Brinkley suggested that the college name was perhaps given to Samuel Stanhope Smith by his patriot father-in-law, the Declaration signer, John Witherspoon, in the spring of 1776, but while this is a very logical guess, it is unsubstantiated in provable fact. We do know, however, that John Witherspoon was an ardent admirer of both men. Hampden had been mortally wounded on Chalgrove Field (near his home) just outside Oxford, England, on 14 June 1643, and he died nearly a week later on 18 June 1643. The political apologist Algernon Sydney had been beheaded at the Tower of London on 7 December 1683. By the time of the American Revolution there were some anti-royalist patriotic groups that were convening in several of the colonies under the name of being "Hampden-Sydney Societies.""

"Keep learning, keep growing. Growing isn’t knowing everything in advance. Growing is stumbling. The day you stop making mistakes is the day you can be sure you’re no longer on the frontier."

"Be good, do good, and you might just get to Hampden-Sydney someday."

"Well, as some of you already know, this is home for me. Hampden-Sydney College has been in my blood since I was a small boy. I am overwhelmed with delight to be here. And I have no particular message other than to note my primary conviction as far as the mission of this College is concerned. It is that the most important person walking the grassy knolls of this campus is the student. He is followed closely, almost lockstep, by the second most important person, the teacher. And the most important event transpiring on this campus is the colloquy between that student and teacher. All else is secondary and supporting. That's the direction in which I'm headed, folks, and I hope you'll be with me."