90 LIFE AND WORK OF DR. A. A. MURPHREE

each year by the President, the appointments being made, as
far as possible, from geographical areas of the state.
 Dr. Murphree was always appreciative of the co-opera-
tion extended the University by the Alumni, and in return re-
ceived their enthusiastic support.
 Ralph Stoutamire, secretary of the Alumni Association, in
discussing the life and work of the late president, declared:
"To thousands of his former students Dr. Murphree was the
greatest man who ever lived. Besides possessing in whole-
some abundance all the qualities of a teacher, the leader and
the executive, he was marvelously endowed with that some-
thing that makes young men find themselves. Many are the
young men who chiefly through his influence and intuitive
understanding at just the critical hour of their lives got their
correct bearings and started out on lives of great service to
their commonwealths, with satisfaction and happiness.
 "To unnumbered hundreds this great man was the greatest
inspiration of their lives. He had the happy faculty not only
of making men find themselves, but also of making men aspire
to the heights. Many students have gone to him in despair,
ready to give up, ready to confess failure, only to catch new
hope and faith in the smile and magnetic handclasp that were
ever ready. Dr. Murphree saved more boys for themselves,
their families, the University and the state than anyone can
ever know. Only one who travels this state, talking with these
hundreds of old men themselves, can have any idea of his
great contribution to Florida's manhood in this particular
respect.
 "Dr. Murphree's influence to those under him to live better
lives can never be accurately estimated. Though his students
live in an atmosphere largely material, his life was to them a
reminder of the moral and the spiritual. He lived whole-
somely and in so doing set a high example to admiring youth.
He trained minds and shaped character.
 "Perhaps his greatest quality was his unconscious ability
to compel those about him to love him. He understood
strength and weakness so admirably and helpfully that men
loved him naturally and lastingly."