forestry school in the United States. - ScholarsArchive at Oregon ...

The Beginnings 19
Greeley
Wheeler kept hoping he could get William B. Greeley3' to head the
work. He did riot succeed. This is revealed by the following excerpts from the
Greeley papers32 which also indicate the direction both Wheeler and Greeley
thought forestry education should take.
On May 22, 1909, Greeley noted in his diary, "Wrote President Wheeler
of the University of California again declining instructorship in forestry."
On August 4 of the same year Wheeler wrote to Greeley: "Two men
prominent in your profession have recently told me that you ought unquestionably
to accept the headship of our department of forestry, and that
it was impossible that you could have understood the importance of the
position when you declined.. . . I have offered the position to no one but
yourself. . . We are prepared to build up here a first-rate forestry department.
I should wish to begin with one man and an assistant and expect him
to spend his first year looking the ground over and shaping up the department;
that is, he would not be expected during the first year to give: more
than a minimum of instruction. In the seco:nd place I should expect and
desire him under any circumstances to spend at least one-half his time in
the field. He could possibly maintain some connection with the [Forest]
service. I desire the work to be so organized here that all students will spend
at least one-half their time in the field. We wish to make an arrangement
whereby our students can, with or without pay, serve under the government
from the beginning for a period of months each year. The salary I should
offer you for the first year would be thirty-six hundred dollars. . . . I do not
see how you can avoid giving the matter at least very serious consideration.
It seems to me to involve for you a matter of plain duty. The University of
California ought to be naturally the place where the best forestry school of
the West should be maintained."
Greeley's answer, dated August 16, contained the following passage:
"... Insofar as the salary and the other essential features of this position
are concerned, I could not ask for a more generous offer or for a more
attractive opportunity to develop a strong school of Forestry under what
appear to me to be practically ideal conditions. After careful consideration,
however, I regret that I must again decline your offer. . . In my j udgement,
H. H. Chapman of the Yale Forest School is the strongest available man...
If you wish a man of less academic and more practical experience, I suggest
that you consider Dr. Judson F. Clark of Vancouver, British Columbia...
Dr. Clark is a splendid instructor and a man of keenly wide awake and aggressive
personality. . . . I believe he is admirahly fitted for the position. .
Fourteen months later, on October 18, 1910, Wheeler once more wrote
to Greeley: "We have never yet put our School of Forestry into form; in
fact, I have not offered the headship in it to anyone but yourself. Are you
still disposed to remain in the Forestry Service? If so, whom would you
mention as the man we ought in first line to consider for our head? The
8tWilliam Buckhout Greeley was a prominent member of the stodent body and member of the debating
team during Wheeler's first two years as president at Berkeley and one of four student speakers at his own
graduation on May 15, 1901. Mis subject was entitled "The historical spirit in practical politics." He received
a Bachelor of Letters from the College of Social Sciences and honorable mention for distinguished scholarship.
"°Greeley Papers, University of Oregon, Eugene.