From "The History and Genealogy of the Shimer Family in America," by Allen R. Shimer, Vol. VI, 1946
WILLIAM ALLISON SHIMER
BY DOROTHY E. BLAIR
(The author was Dr. Shimer's colleague for more than ten years in the national office of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and is now Director of Public Relations at Marietta College.)
WILLIAM ALLISON SHIMER'S inauguration on October 20th, 1945 as President of Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio, has brought wide public attention to one who was elected vice-president of the Shimer Family Reunion Association in 1930. He is a descendant of one of "the three brothers"- Daniel, the line coming down through James, William (1804-1861), who moved into western Virginia, George W., and Elbridge Ellsworth Shimer (see Vol. III, page 347).
He is still called "Willie" by the folk in Calhoun County, West Virginia, where he was born May 17th, 1894, in a hillside farmhouse. His father, "E. E.," or "Elza," as his neighbors knew him affectionately, was one of thirteen children, whose mother lived to the age of 96. Ellsworth E. Shimer was greatly interested in genealogy and supplied much data to Allen R. Shimer for his invaluable record. He was a versatile man, trying his hand successfully as a merchant, farmer, salesman, undertaker, justice of the peace, and school teacher.
One of "Willie's" earliest memories is riding to school double on horseback behind the teacher, his father. Later, when he requested his father's permission to go to Parkersburg to study telegraphy, his father replied, "No, I'd rather you wouldn't. I want you to go further than the study of telegraphy will take you. I stopped my education once and never got started again. I don't like to think of your doing that, too." That remark, showing that his father wanted something better for his son than he had got for himself, gave an inspiration that has now carried the son to a college presidency.
William Shimer's mother was an Elliott from near Marietta. She died after a long illness when this son was only ten and his brother and two sisters even younger. His shoulders of necessity carried many responsibilities from his early boyhood, which, plus his father's and maternal grandparent's interest in his education, explain the years of hard work that have brought him to this recent honor.
While clerking in his father's store and post office at Smithville, West Virginia, he established a small printing business, was elected superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School at 16, studied in a summer school, passed the state teacher's examination, and taught a year in charge of a country school - all before his seventeenth birthday. He has taught in Sunday Schools ever since this time.
He did not go to high school because it was twelve miles of red mud roads distant, but after teaching a second country school he studied two years at Glenville State Teacher's College, graduating in 1914.
With only $50 in hand William Shimer set out in September 1914 for Boston and Harvard College. By preparing his own meals in a fireless cooker (against university rules), which he made and hid in his trunk; by washing windows, tutoring, and by taking on various other jobs; and by scholarship aid he earned expenses and received the A. B. cum laude degree in 1917, one year ahead of his class. He was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa, highest national scholastic honor.
That fall he started for Mesopotamia to do ambulance work with the British troops, was held in France by an injury, returned and volunteered for Naval Officer training school. Released from military duty soon after the armistice, he enrolled in the Harvard School of Theology, but after one term accepted a position in 1919 at Rochester, NY., as a Y.M.C.A. secretary for work with students.
In 1920 he married Edith Richmond of Boston. They now have two children, Adair, a Lieutenant (jg) in Waves, and Eliot R., a staff sergeant with General Patton's Army in Germany.
In 1922 William Shimer received an M. A. degree in religion and education from the University of Rochester and then returned to Harvard University for further graduate study in philosophy and psychology, receiving a second M. A. in 1924 and a Ph. D. in 1925 with a Harvard fellowship for a year of study and travel in Europe.
While at Harvard he held for two years each the offices of president of the Graduate Schools Society and of the Harvard Philosophy Club. Returning from France in 1926, he accepted a position as instructor of philosophy at the Ohio State University, where he remained four years and was advanced to the rank of assistant professor. During that time he was for three years chairman of the philosophy and psychology section of the Ohio College Association.
In 1930 William Shimer went to New York City as national executive secretary of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. In this capacity he traveled in all but one of the states of the Union, visited nearly 300 colleges and universities, founded and edited two magazines, The American Scholar and The Key Reporter. He also promoted many activities, including a series of Phi Beta Kappa dinners, one of which was attended by 3100 persons, the second largest dinner ever held in New York City. He taught an adult class in Harry Emerson Fosdick's Riverside Church for more than ten years, and became acquainted with many of the world's great men. In 1938 he was awarded the honorary LL.D. degree by George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Turning more definitely toward college administration in 1940, he held the position for three years of Dean of the Faculty and John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He served also as chairman of the administrative committee of the World's Sunday School Association and as a member of the International Council of Religious Education.
In 1943 William Shimer again volunteered for Naval duty. He was commissioned a lieutenant and sent to serve as Commanding Officer of the Navy V-12 Unit at Emory and Henry College in southwest Virginia. After release from active duty, he was directing a financial campaign with Marts & Lundy, Inc., in New York City for the American Mission to Lepers when elected on February 14th, 1945, to the presidency of Marietta College.
His articles have appeared in The Monist, The Personalist, The International Journal of Ethics, and several other periodicals. He has delivered hundreds of addresses in all parts of the country, and holds membership in the American Philosophical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of University Professors, Rotary, the American Legion, the Harvard Club of New York, and other organizations.
Marietta College had suffered greatly from the depression and the war. The enthusiasm manifest at the inauguration and the spirit of cooperation and confidence developed in the first six months of William Allison Shimer's presidency, gives promise that the future of this fine old college (founded in 1835) will make the Shimers in America increasingly proud of of their name and the service rendered by those who bear it.
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