Arcadia University Magazine

To the Arcadia and Beaver Alumni Community

A common element shared by many members of this close-knit University community—from students, alumni, faculty, staff, families, friends, and Trustees—is a passion for Beaver College and Arcadia University. This passion has driven, and will continue to drive, the history of this great institution.

The primary goal of the Board of Trustees now is identifying and installing the next president of Arcadia University. Since January, the Presidential Search Committee, representing Trustees current and past, faculty, staff, alumni, administration, and students, has been working with Diversified Search in a thorough, collaborative process. After vetting and evaluating nominees, we have decided to schedule finalist interviews when faculty and students return to campus at the start of the 2017-18 academic year. We are fully confident that this process will yield the most effective finalists for the position, and ultimately lead to Arcadia’s next president.

While the University continues its extensive search process, Hank Brown, former president of the University of Colorado and U.S. Senator, will serve as Interim President, effective July 1. Since leaving the Senate in 1996, Brown has served as president of the University of Northern Colorado and president of the University of Colorado. The Board selected Brown for this position due to his exceptional experience in higher education and his proven leadership ability and looks forward to working with him.

The University is pleased to announce the appointment of Alison (Aaron) Madsen ’85 as new Chair of the Board of Trustees. Last October, Dr. Charles Lentz ’03M assumed the role of Board Chair for the remainder of the 2016-17 academic year. The Board offers its deepest thanks to Dr. Lentz, who will return to his role as Trustee, for the leadership he provided this past year. We are excited to work with Board Chair Madsen, who has served as a Trustee since 2009. The Board is also happy to report that the following Trustees will rotate on beginning July 1: Ilene Silver Berman ’74, former Board Chair Lois Haber ’71, ’16H, Margaret Keenan ’14, Robert E. Putney III, Esq., and Kenneth C. Weirman. Lastly, we are thankful for the foundation that has been set by Dr. Nicolette DeVille Christensen and all prior presidents of this great institution, and we will continue to build upon these accomplishments. As always, we are grateful for the support from you, the alumni, faculty, staff, students, friends, and families of Arcadia, for caring so deeply about the University.

—From the Board of Trustees of Arcadia University

In the late 1880s, Rudyard Kipling became a frequent guest of former Beaver College President Dr. Riley T. Taylor and his daughter, Edmonia, whom he met at a dinner party in India. Biographers speculate that Edmonia, a graduate and faculty member of Beaver College, was Kipling’s unrequited love interest, as he often sent her romantic letters and drafts of his writings. 

Beaver, Pennsylvania, served as inspiration for Kipling as well. He documented “the infinite peace of the tiny township” in From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches: Letters of Travel, published in 1900. As a guest of the Taylors, Kipling wrote “The Man Who Would Be King,” using John Dravo—a major benefactor of Beaver College and president of the College’s Board of Trustees—as his muse for the character Daniel Dravot. 

While staying in a Beaver College dormitory during the summer of 1889, Kipling is also reputed to have introduced badminton to students on campus.