164 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
When I was at the head of the Normal University of New Mexico 
and he was president of the Board of Regents, he gave me this admonition: 
“ Mr. Hewett, see that no deserving student ever leaves this institution for lack 
of funds. Always let me know about such cases.” I am venturing to tell some 
things about Mr. Springer that have not been told in public before. These were 
the things that gave him his greatest pleasure outside of his family life. 
His home was a sacred precinct that some of us have been privileged to 
enter. Among the greatest of his successes, shared by a wise and beautiful wife 
and mother, has been the rearing of a remarkable family. Two things stand 
out in my mind as I recall what I have seen of his family life — the solicitous 
care for the opportunities of every son and daughter, and the veneration in which 
he always held his forebears. He is the son of a great father, whose memory he 
holds in profound reverence. He is one of those who believe that 
“ Whatever is Man in the sons of men, 
Whatever is staunch and true, 
We draw from our sires, and their sires again. 
And mothers of mothers who mated when 
The world and its heart were new.” 
We could speak long of the qualities that have endeared Mr. Springer to 
so many. He is all that has been claimed for him tonight, and something greater 
still. In the mind of every one of you who knows him well, he stands out as 
the incomparable gentleman. He has reached that highest of all distinctions 
through his interest in and practice of the finer things of life: The things in 
which he has taken deepest interest, science, art, music, education, public wel- 
fare, the good name of his state, the destiny of our country, which he has always 
staunchly held must be achieved on the lines laid down by the founders of our 
great republic, make for nobility. It is the highest possible ideal of the citizen — 
nobility in public and private life. 
The friends of Mr. Springer have felt that at this time, when he has reached 
the fullness of life and is still with us, they would like to do something that 
would stand as an enduring contribution from them to this state in honor of its 
great citizen. In the olden times, men honored not only their soldiers and states- 
men, but their scholars and all who contributed to the greatness of the state. 
It seemed to the friends of Mr. Springer that it would be a worthy thing to 
present some imperishable gift that would stand forever as a tribute to him, in 
this temple of art which he helped so much to create, in this institution which 
he has from its beginning enriched with his broad spirit and wise counsel, in 
this ancient capital which has felt in so many ways the beneficence of his pres- 
ence, and in this great state of New Mexico, which he has helped to ennoble by 
his active, creative life, and which he has always cherished and acknowledged 
his obligations to as the place of his early opportunities. 
