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Kansas State Historical Society Topeka, Ks.
Daily Hansan
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Wednesday, March 31, 1954
51st Year, No. 119
Dean Lawson Dies
Waggoner Plans July 1 Arrival At University
DEAN PAUL B. LAWSON
Associate Dean George R. Waggoner of the School of Arts and Sciences at Indiana university, was appointed to fill Dean Lawson's position last fall. Reached in Bloomington this morning, Dean Waggoner said he had no plans of coming to Lawrence before Thursday, July 1, the date he originally was scheduled to take over.
Dean Waggoner said he received word of Dean Lawson's death at a conference today from Raymond Nichols, executive secretary of the University.
Dean Waggoner said Mr. Nichols told him that Gilbert Ulmer, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will carry on the duties of the College office until July 1. Dean Waggoner said he would be unable to assume his position here any earlier because of his present duties, and that he "had no official connection with the University at this time."
Prehistoric Spanish Art Described by Speaker
Weather
March will end tonight on the same chill note of its arrival 31 days ago. State weatherman Tom
weatherman Tom Arnold noted the similarity b u't also pointed out a sharp difference. A cold front has just left Kansas, zipping on down in n to southern Texas. As March arrived it was so
companied by not one cold front but two of them.
"Spain was civilized before any other country in the world in one sense—art," Dr. Rhys Carpenter, chairman of the classical archaeology department at Bryn Mawr college, said in an illustrated Humanities lecture last night in Fraser theater.
Cave paintings in caves in Spain and Portugal are believed to have been made around 10,000 B.C., during the ice age, and very fine ani-
An Editorial
He Comforted KU Family By Thoughtful Messages
The University today feels acutely the loss of a great leader and a most devoted worker. Dean Lawson's cordial, jovial, inspiring sense will be missed, but his spirit and his example of tireless devotion to the best interests of the University will continue to inspire students and faculty to strive in like manner.
One way in which he tried to encourage the faculty to achieve the highest standards was his frequent mimeographed "College Communications" bulletin. In it, besides reciting and explaining various University regulations, he passed along bits of educational philosophy, quotations from great men, and suggestions for self-improvement.
The last communication he prepared at the end of 1952-53 closed with the following expression of thanks. As we ponder the tremendous contribution he himself has made to the University, this expression of thanks—written by him to his helpers—now seems a most fitting and eloquent expression of our eternal indebtedness to him:
For the faithfulness and devotion to your daily tasks which you have shown throughout the year.
WE THANK YOU!
For the large amount of research accomplished by so many of you.
of you. For your evident interest in improving your courses and your teaching.
For the excellence of your work both in and out of the class- room.
For your attitudes of helpfulness to your students.
For your generous cooperation with your colleagues and the administrative officers.
For your spirit which makes the University of Kansas one of the happiest and finest of universities.
Animals such as deer and bison are drawn with great care for fine detail, with spears in many of them. They are believed to have been drawn by these people to familiarize themselves with the animal so that they would know the best place to aim their javelins for the kill, he said.
mals were drawn on the roofs of the caves," he said.
Rock shelter art also is found over a large part of Spain, he said. Pictures have been drawn on rock overhangings and the face of the cliffs. The pictures are just a maze of lines at first glance, but on careful examination, very finely drawn animals can be detected, Dr. Carpenter said.
In one picture a man appears to be holding a horse by a rope. The question is, "Is it really a rope and is it really a horse?" Dr. Carpenter asked. If so, the Spaniards domesticated animals "centuries before we thought animals had been domesticated," he said.
The rock shelter art proves to archaeologists, he said, that Spain has become considerably warmer during this period than it was earlier when men lived far back in caves.
Pictures drawn the same way, of spidery figures, have been found in the heart of the Sahara desert and in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Dr. Carpenter said it has been proved positively that the same people drew them, meaning that the rock shelter artists came to Spain at the approximate date of 5.000 B.C.
Dr. Carpenter said the theory is that the Sahara desert was becoming uninhabitable about this time and that its people scattered in all directions seeking a better climate in which to live.
Planned to Leave Position on July 1
Dr. Paul Bowen Lawson, 65, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University since 1934 and a faculty member since 1916, died at about 11:15 p.m. yesterday at Watkins hospital. He was to retire as dean July 1.
He suffered an attack of coronary thrombosis about three weeks ago and has been in the hospital since. He suffered a similar attack in February 1948.
Career at KU For Lawson Began in '16
Dr. Paul B. Lawson, who died unexpectedly last night at Watkins hospital probably was as versatile a man as the University has had in its history.
By STAN HAMILTON
He started from the lowest possible position, an instructor, and rose in 18 years to the deanship of the largest school in the University.
The 65-year-old educator, who was widely sought as a banquet speaker and for about 25 years delivered regular Sunday sermons at the West Side Presbyterian church here, began at the University in 1916 as an entomology instructor and graduate student.
In 1917 he received his master's degree from KU and in 1919 earned his Ph.D. degree. In 1920 he was advanced to the rank of assistant professor, and a year later rose to an associate professor.
In 1922 he was named assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and also was promoted to professor. In 1929 he became associate dean and in 1933, when Dean Joseph C. Brandt died, was named acting dean. He was chosen dean the following year.
During these years he also was acting chairman of the departments of entomology, German, Latin, and Greek.
He was a member of the Entomology Society of America, and for 15 years was editor of the Kansas Entomology Journal. He also belonged to the Lawrence Kiwanis club, the Kansas Academy of Science, the Kansas Entomological society, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, and Alpha KappaLambda social fraternity.
"I have had a good time as dean," he said when he announced his retirement, "but I shall be glad just to devote my time to teaching. I love to teach but have never taught exactly as I want to, and think I could if I had the time."
Required by University rules to retire at the age of 65, Dr. Lawson on Nov. 11, 1953, announced his retirement and said he would continue to teach entomology until 1959, at which time he would reach the mandatory retirement age of 70.
He was granted a 1-year sabbatical leave of absence by the Board of Regents and was to have taken a world-wide trip with Mrs. Lawson.
He said he and Mrs. Lawson planatn
the rest of their lives in Lawrence.
The couple had planned to spend about half of the trip in India, where he was born and lived the first 15 years of his life. They were to leave New York July 9. Beyond that no definite plans had been made.
In his years at the University, Dr. Lawson was known as one who would tolerate almost anything but laziness.
The Rev. A. John Anderson will conduct funeral services at 3 p.m. tomorrow at the First Presbyterian church, 901 Vermont st. Burial will be in Oak Hill cemetery.
Friends may call at the Rumsey Funeral home until noon tomorrow.
The family requests that no flowers be sent. Instead, they suggest that contributions be made to scholarship or endowment funds.
He was born Aug. 18, 1888, in Sitapur, India, where his parents were Methodist missionaries.
Lawson Worked On KU Budget
He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the Kansas Academy of Science, the Kansss Entomological society, the Lawrence Kiwanis club, and Alpha Kappa Lambda social fraternity. He was a member of the West Side Presbyterian church here and taught Sunday school classes there many years.
He was graduated from an Oberlin, Ohio, high school in 1905. He received his B.S. degree in 1909 at John Fletcher, Iowa, college, and his M.S. degree in 1917 at KU. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 1919 at the University.
An important administrative duty performed by Dean Lawson was his service on the central budget committee which determines needs of departments, schools, bureaus, and other divisions of the University.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Lawson of the home, 2215 Vermont st.; two daughters, Mrs. P. F. Meigs, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Mrs. Charles E. Smith, San Antonica, Texas; two sisters, Mrs. Ellen Stafford and Mrs. Felix Sadowski, both of Concord, Calif.; three brothers, James H. Lawson, Concord, Calif; Will Lawson, Oakland, Calif., and Theodore Lawson, Piermont, Calif.; two grandsons, and two granddaughters.
Every year for about six weeks during February and March, the committee meets daily to hear requests of chairmen of departments and of other administrative officers for funds for salaries of faculty and staff members, for equipment and supplies, for secretarial and custodial help, and for other costs of maintaining the various services.
This year Dean George B. Smith is chairman. Other members, beside Dean Lawson, are Dean John H. Nelson and Raymond Nichols, executive secretary of the University, Dean Lawson has served on the committee every year since he became Dean of the College in 1934.
Because of his membership on this committee and because of his position as dean, he has had an important part in the selection and appointment of many members of the faculty and in their promotion in rank and office.