2020 Founders Day Remarks

January 21, 2020

We celebrate Founders Day and gather for Convocation, by direction of the Board of Trustees, on or near the birthday of Robert E. Lee, who served as our university’s president from 1865 to 1870.

On this occasion, we reflect upon the people whose vision, leadership, and hard work gave rise to this university, in which we take pride and to which we now devote our own energy.  We reflect upon the purposes and the values that abide as the common thread connecting the members of this community across decades and centuries during which so much else has changed.  And we reflect upon our motto -- non incautus futuri, not unmindful of the future -- which expresses our commitment to honor the past, not from a desire to remain frozen in time, but rather as a source of inspiration to direct our own efforts for the benefit of those who will follow us in the decades and centuries to come.

At the heart of Washington and Lee University lies the conviction that the future is best served by education.  From that conviction grows the communal ethos to devote ourselves to cultivating the considerable potential of our students, so that they in turn may contribute powerfully to making the world a better place.  The two men for whom our school is named exemplified this ethos in their own words and deeds, as have thousands of other individuals who have sustained the quality, character, and success of this university over the 270 years of its existence.

The paintings behind me portray Washington and Lee as they were when they made their direct and transformative contributions to this institution.  J. Reid painted Lee in 1866, shortly after he became the president of Washington College.  Gilbert Stuart’s image of George Washington was painted near the end of his second term as the President of the United States, in 1796.  That is the very same year in which he made his generous gift to Liberty Hall Academy.

These portraits remind us not only of the men they depict, and of their integral connections to this university, but also of the importance of our work, and of our commitment to serving the public good.  George Washington invested in this particular school because he believed that the success of the nation depended upon there being quality education on the frontier.  The Blue Ridge mountains were the frontier, and we were the first institution of higher education to the west of those mountains.  George Washington’s investment in us was a deliberate investment in the future of the United States.  Sixty-nine years later, with the nation in tatters after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee accepted the presidency of Washington College because it offered him a chance to contribute to rebuilding the newly re-United States.  Putting this small, struggling college on a path to becoming an outstanding, modern university was Lee’s primary contribution to the future of the country.

We continue to serve the public good.  Our mission commits us to providing a liberal arts education that prepares our students for lives of responsible leadership, service to others, and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society.  The investments of time, resources, and love that our faculty and staff make in these young people are paid forward by the positive differences that so many of our students — and especially those who are here tonight as initiates of Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society — make on our campus and in our community.

The work we are doing with respect to our institutional history reflects this same commitment to advancing our educational mission for the sake of the greater good.  We are determined to teach and present our history, and all of its entanglements with the history of America, as well as we possibly can, for the benefit of everyone at W&L and the wider public.

The leader of these efforts is Dr. Lynn Rainville, our inaugural Director of Institutional History.  She is charged with developing projects — in collaboration with faculty, staff, students, and alumni — that engage the community with the full scope of our history.  She will spearhead the development of a museum devoted to the history of Washington and Lee and its many connections to American history.  And she will pursue partnerships with other historical sites around the region that share our goal of providing public education of the highest quality and can help us realize the full potential of W&L’s campus, buildings, and collections.

Dr. Rainville was selected after a highly competitive national search, during which she impressed us with her wide-ranging curiosity, dedication to meticulous research, and enthusiasm for exploring the many and varied stories that comprise our history.  Since beginning her work on July 1st, Lynn’s expertise and energy have been evident to everyone who has met with her or heard one of the dozens of presentations she has given to classroom audiences, alumni groups, and community organizations.

Dr. Rainville is a public historian and anthropologist with a B.A. in anthropology and history from Dartmouth College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology and archaeology from the University of Michigan.  She brings to W&L more than two decades of experience in higher education, having taught at Sweet Briar, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth, and the University of Michigan.  At Sweet Briar, she also directed the Tusculum Institute for Virginia history and historic preservation and served as dean of the college. 

Dr. Rainville has written four books on Virginia history, ranging from the role of Virginians in World War I to the history of African-American cemeteries in the Commonwealth.  Her most recent book, on the history of Sweet Briar, is entitled “Invisible Founders:  How Two Centuries of African American Families Transformed a Plantation into a College.”

Last fall when the Chronicle of Education interviewed Lynn about her appointment to our new position, they asked about the challenge of addressing what the Chronicle termed “complicated histories.”  She replied, with characteristic wisdom:  “People can always have different perspectives, but we can come to a sense of common facts that lend themselves to different interpretations, but that are based in evidence.”  Lynn brings that evidence-based approach to everything she does and we are fortunate to have her at Washington and Lee.

The title of her talk tonight is “Untold Stories of Founders, Leaders, Other Visionaries at W&L.” Please join me in welcoming our first Director of Institutional History, Dr. Lynn Rainville.