University of Virginia Library

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION TO PRESIDENT NEWCOMB

President Darden presented to the Board the following resolution adopted on 4 May 1954 by
the National Association of State Universities, meeting at Salt Lake City Utah

John Lloyd Newcomb, second president of the University of Virginia, died in Charlottesville
on February 22 after a brief illness. He was seventy-two years old at the time of his death

"Newk", as he was known to his intimates, was a man of incisive mind and rare personal charm.
His administration was marked by a steady growth in all departments of the University, even during
the times of economic depression, and in the troubled war years his guidance was sure. More than
fifty years of unbroken association with the University had given him a knowledge of its history
wider than that of any other member of the academic community, and although he had retired from the
Presidency in 1947 his counsel was sought regularly up to the time of his death

He shunned the limelight and was not an orator in the usual sense, he had few superiors,
however, in the ability to analyze a problem and present the arguments pro and con clearly,
concisely and persuasively. His fund of anecdotes made him the centre of attraction in social
gatherings

There can be no doubt that he was fiercely loyal to the University of Virginia, there can
be no doubt that the University is grieved that he is gone

The Board resolved that this tribute to the memory of John Lloyd Newcomb be spread upon the
minutes of the Board, and that the Secretary be directed to convey a copy of the Resolution to
Mr. Newcomb's sister, Mrs. Hunter Gates