Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – I know this is hard to believe, but three weeks from today the campus community will already be in the midst of the activities that are part of graduation weekend. Earlier this week, as College Marshal, I approved the schedule of commencement activities that will be sent to all active and retired faculty. As the Class of 2012 prepares to become [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – Last Monday I had a memorable experience. My cousin Kathleen Harvatt Moore and her husband, Richard Moore, brought their grandson Zac and a friend, Jordan Campbell, to visit Lynchburg College. It was but one stop on the regular junior year college campus tour, but a very special one. Zac’s great-grandfather Julius James Harvatt—my uncle Jim—was a member of the Class of [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – There is a tiny cottage, white with blue trim, located just beyond the borders of our campus which once stood where a narrow driveway gives access to the rear of the Knight-Capron Library. Thus its history is certainly intertwined with that of the college. When the Intermont Hotel—later the Westover Hotel—was built in 1890 a number of cottages of varying sizes [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – Last week I received a pamphlet through campus mail entitled Faculty Options for Handling Academic Integrity Violations. Reading it brought back some very unpleasant memories. When I first joined the faculty I dutifully resolved to inform the proper authorities of any violations of the honor code, and while I have been fortunate in having only a few infractions in my various [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – All during the dark cold days of January and the uncertain weather in February both faculty and students dream of semester break and escape—either from the daily routine of preparing for classes and grading papers, or from Lynchburg College and Central Virginia. Some fortunate members of the faculty were able to travel to faraway places, but most of us stayed at [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – As I begin this column a reporter on the local television channel is listing the number of power failures which have already occurred in the Lynchburg area as a result of the seven and a half inches of snow that have fallen during the first real storm of the winter of 2011-2012. By the time this edition of The Critograph appears [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor – In July 1875, Josephus Hopwood arrived in Buffalo Institute, Tennessee to assume the leadership of the struggling school, which had been founded shortly after the Civil War ended. Three years later the Hopwoods reopened the college with a new faculty and a new curriculum. In 1881 it would receive a new name, Milligan College. It honored Robert Milligan, the teacher who [...]

Dr. Clifton W. Potter Jr., LC History Professor - I am fascinated by the whole concept of desktop publishing, but I neither understand how it works nor do I believe that I shall ever be able to conquer it because as I master one program, another one replaces it and I begin again. As I try to grapple with the concepts of desktop publishing I cannot help but remember how [...]

Clifton W. Potter Jr., Ph.D., LC History Professor – Last week I noticed a flyer on a bulletin board at my church announcing the first annual “Darwin Week in Lynchburg.” One of our own professors, Dr. Neal Sumerlin will be one of the speakers during this interesting event. However, my thoughts immediately turned to the past and how the study of evolution helped change Lynchburg College forever. When the Hopwoods [...]

Clifton W. Potter Jr., Ph.D., LC History Professor - Josephus Hopwood and Sarah Eleanor LaRue were wed on August 19, 1874. They had planned a honeymoon trip to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, but instead, they decided to devote the first weeks of their married life to getting ready for the new school year. Until her death almost sixty years later, Mrs. Hopwood was as dedicated to education as her husband. A [...]