Friends messenger [1930]

              s Messenger
HC5
Vol. XXXIX, No. 12
GREENSBORO, N. C, SEPTEMBER, 1930
MARY MENDENHALL HOBBS MR
Walter  W.  Haviland
Mary Mendenhall Hobbs, during the last half cen- With the passing of Marylltendenhall Hobbs,
tury  an  outstanding  figure  among the  women  of  the feel that an integral part of the college has gone. We
Society of Friends, died at her home at Guilford College, have a sense of loneliness and loss when one who has
North Carolina, on Seventh Month 20th, in her seventy- contributed so much to the culture, the strength, and the
th,
ghth year. She was a nati
daughter of Dr. Nereu
time a teacher in  Have
'e of North  Carolin
Mendenhall, who '
•ford
and
ife of the c" period of o
-orked i
College, and for a number of
years was head of the New Garden Boarding School which later
developed into Guilford College.
Her formal education was received at New Garden Boarding
School, and at the Howland School
on Cayuga Lake, New York.
Here she was a schoolmate of M.
Carey Thomas, who later became
President of Bryn Mawr College.
After teaching for a few years,
she was married to Lewis Lyndon
Hobbs, a eeacher at New Garden,
who later became President of
Guilford College. She worked
shoulder to shoulder with her
husband and deserves the deepest
gratitude for her service, especially
in behalf of the education of girls
without sufficient funds to finance
their own education. The greatest
concern of her life was probably
the education of capable and ambitious girls who saw no way,
through their own resources, to the education for which
they longed. Largely because of her pioneer work in the
interest of higher education for women in her state, the
University of North Carolina conferred upon her, in
1921, the degree of Doctor of Literature. Until prevented by physical infirmities in her later years, she was
in much demand as a speaker both at educational and
religious meetings. Though she was never recognized as
a minister, she was regarded not only in her own Yearly
Meeting, but also in the Council of the Five-Years Meeting, as one upon whose broad shoulders dependence could
always be placed. Though connected with the so-called
"progressive"' element among Friends, her sympathies
and preferences were with the traditional and conservative ways of the Society. (Continued on fage two)
<3 longer with us. During the
with the college we have
nder the stimulating influence of Mary Mendenhall
Hobbs. Although during recent
years she was rarely able to attend
any of our meetings or social occasions, the knowledge that she
was observing our work and was
taking a  real  interest  in  it  gave
.nfidence
Probably   the
sense   of
MARY MENDENHALL HOBBS
ost distinctive
lary Mendenhall Hobbs has made to Guilford
College is the idea of New Garden Hall. This building, with its
co-operative housekeeping, its comradeship in the struggle for a finer
and better foundation for a life
of love and service and its fellowship in actual noble living, are
only some very splendid and tangible results of a much greater
vision that she had for the young
women of North Carolina. Although she was always intensely
interested in Guilford College,"" needs of her time and her grasp of
the eternal issues of life swept her out beyond the confines of any one institution into the stream of the life
of her beloved Society of Friends.
Coming into active life at the close of that awful
period of the Civil War, she was thrust into its poverty
and surrounded by its entailed ignorance. She looked
out upon a native state that offered almost no opportunities for the higher education of its young women. It was,
indeed, a situation to try men and women of the finest
fiber, and to put their faith to the severest test. Only a
prophet could see a great future to a society, so badly
wrecked and so terribly handicapped. But being in a real
sense a prophet, and at the same time possessing such
unusual qualities of mind and character, she threw her-
- insight i