“I shall devote myself to the instruction of the youth…Our hope is that no sacrifices in this noble cause will be lost, and that we shall enjoy the privilege of seeing our institution realize the expectations of its patrons and the friendly public…Our purpose is never to rest while Wabash College shall lack any advantages for the student, which are offered by the highest class of American colleges.” - Elihu W. Baldwin, First President, Inaugurated July 13, 1836
“Whoever exerts an influence here, exerts an influence upon many individuals and upon great interests elsewhere. Whoever communicates any portion of his opinions or his character to young men here, communicates them to all after ages.” - Charles White, Second President, Inaugurated July 19, 1841
“I address myself to the alumni of this College. You are our joy and our crown. As you go out among men, we ask you to remember this College, as the mother who bore you. Speak of her sometimes in those terms of fondness which shall be so grateful to her ear and so potent in the esteem of society, as ‘our College,’ as ‘Old Wabash’…showing that you would rather lose the music of your own tongues that to forget Alma Mater.” - Joseph Ferrand Tuttle, Third President, Inaugurated July 24, 1862
“So, this hour, grateful for the Wabash of the past…we together – students, teachers, trustees, alumni, friends of the College – together we pledge ourselves to the Wabash of today, to the Wabash of tomorrow.” - George Stockton Burroughs, Fourth President, Inaugurated June 21, 1893
“The historic college is built upon the idea that its work is to educate men. Not simply to educate the intellect nor to train the hand or the eye or any other fractional part, but to educate the man himself. The work of the old-fashioned college is to lay the foundation for a complete manhood. Its aim is not to make specialists, but to make men.” - William Patterson Kane, Fifth President, Inaugurated February 22, 1900
In assuming the duties of President of Wabash College I am not unmindful that humility most of all becomes me. When one has in mind the five presidents who were here and are not, it does not yet seem quite credible that one like myself is the sixth…One can only beg that he may not be altogether unworthy of his predecessors.” - George Lewes Mackintosh, Sixth President, Inaugurated June 12, 1907
“It is essential…that the whole problem of individualizing education be kept in the foreground in the shaping of educational policies, in the administration of college affairs, and in the instruction of students. These, then, are the opportunities that our predecessors have handed down to us. May we in turn keep the faith and assist those whom we admit to our institution in their intellectual development; may we inspire them to right living; may we encourage them to search for the truth and reveal to them the significance of the message…that the truth shall make them free.” - Louis Bertram Hopkins, Seventh President, Inaugurated December 3, 1926:
“Every day at Wabash should be regarded as an important day…full of the realization that here are citizens in the making…In its student body is the life blood of any school. For students it was founded – for students it should live…Friends of Wabash, let us join together this day…in a new pledge of cooperation and in a new dedication of effort for a stronger, more powerful, more effective Wabash.” - Frank Hugh Sparks, Eighth President, Inaugurated October 25, 1941:
“There is a poetic quality about such a college. Its poe