150


LIFE AND WORK OF DR. A. A. MURPHREE


 NEVER-FAILING, SOUND GOOD SENSE
23N THE death of Dr. Murphree, Florida has lost one of her best.
STruly, a prince amongst us has fallen. Not only the University
of Florida but the whole country has suffered a grievous loss. As
president of the University of Florida for nearly 20 years he built
up that institution from very small beginnings to one of the great
universities in the country. He also had the deepest interest in all


institutions of higher learning in Florida. Moreover, his interest and
his influence in all problems of education from the rural school to
the University was present in every nook and corner of the state.
 I wish to say, with the deepest appreciation, that the Florida State
College for Women had no better friend than Dr. A. A. Murphree.
And may I add that the warm and intimate personal friendship of
this great and good man will always be one of the choicest treasures
of my memory.
 Dr. Murphree was a man of vision; a man of character; a man
of the finest Christian ideals. But with all his high idealism he had
the happy faculty of a never-failing, sound good sense. He under-
stood life, such as it is. He understood the thinking of the average


citizen. He understood youth; he understood boys. He could sym-
pathize with their joys and their sorrows for in his own heart there
were always present in an effective and living way the choicest char-
acters of youth in their purest and most sacred form. With his heart
always awake to the problems, the longings and the aspirations of
youth, he could inspire the young people of his state with the loftiest
ideals, such as were at all times his own inspirations during the years
of his useful and helpful life.
 Dr. Murphree was one of those rare artists who find the joy of
their life in building the higher life of the spirit into the hearts and
minds of youth. He was one of those choice spirits for whom pos-
terity need not erect monuments of marble or of granite for he has
builded into the hearts of the thousands of youths whose life he has
enriched and ennobled, his own monument finer and greater and more
enduring than any memorial erected by the hand of man.
 The name Albert A. Murphree is written "in letters of light in


the Book of Life."


-PRESIDENT EDWARD CONRADI.