I shall carry this to my grave

Poor Prexy. What a way to end his college career.

Ohio State was a rather small and struggling university when President William Oxley Thompson first arrived; by the time he retired 26 years later at the age of 70, the university student enrollment had grown nearly ten times.

William Oxley Thompson

Affectionately known as Prexy, he came to Ohio State in 1899, serving as university president O.S.U. until 1925. Thompson’s name is still known around the O.S.U. campus at today. 

The main library at Ohio State is named in his honor, with a large statue of him in front of the main entrance, and students still rub his bust in the library for good luck during finals week. What is not often known is that President William Oxley Thompson was also an ordained Christian minister, serving as a Presbyterian pastor.

The poisonings devastated him.

"We are very much distressed about it," President W. O. Thompson declared. "We bow our heads with regret and sorrow. I shall carry this to my grave as one of the greatest disasters of my lifetime." 

I suspect that the poisonings were one of the reasons why Prexy announced his decision to retire on Wednesday, May 20, 1925.

William Oxley Thompson, President of Ohio State University, desires to resign, it was announced Wednesday. Mr. Thompson's wish was voiced at a meeting of the Board of Trustees last Saturday, but announcement on it was withheld until Wednesday. Dr. Thompson himself made the announcement. Dr. Thompson's resignation will be presented formally to the board shortly after the June commencement.

Because of their admiration for President Thompson, the classes of 1923, 1925, 1926, and 1928 resolved to create a “life-sized” figure of the president to stand on the west end of the Oval in front of the library bearing his name.

The sculptor, Erwin Frey, an Ohio native and faculty member in the Department of Fine Arts, was a well-known sculptor at the time. It took 16 months to complete and was first done in clay and then cast in bronze. Frey was given $13,000 for the statue, including the supplies.

President Thompson sat for the sculpture, and was very pleased with Frey’s work, calling it worthy of high praise. Thompson wrote in his July 1930 column of The Ohio State University Monthly:

“Nothing in my long experience has moved me more profoundly than this evidence of esteem and good will which the cooperative effort of four classes has expressed.”

Thompson was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1926. He died on Dec. 9, 1933 and is buried in Columbus.

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