Learn local lore, Cornell historian Earle says in ‘Last Lecture’

A stone fireplace in Willard Straight Hall's Memorial Room is engraved with advice, including "treat all women with chivalry" and "keep your mind open." The words are from a letter Willard Straight, Class of 1901, wrote to his youngest son after enlisting in the Army during World War I.

His son went on to become a publisher, arts administrator, speechwriter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a confessed spy for Russia. And in his will, the elder Straight instructed his wife to use his estate to make Cornell "a more human place," leading to the construction of Willard Straight Hall, a student activity hub since 1925.

"We learned all that just by being curious about an inscription on a stone fireplace," said Corey Ryan Earle '07, a principal gifts associate with Alumni Affairs and Development and the university's longtime unofficial historian, in his "Last Lecture," Dec. 4 in Uris Hall Auditorium. "Think about all the countless stories around this campus, around wherever you are, if you just noticed them. Stop and read the plaques and signs. Everywhere has a story."

Earle's talk marked the return of a tradition dating back to at least 1995, but paused since 2020 due to the pandemic. The Last Lecture series, organized by a senior honor society, invites a respected staff member or professor to give a lecture as if it were their final one.

Mandi Kurtz '25, a member of the Last Lecture student group, said the honor society selected Earle as this semester's speaker because his class is often full, and they wanted to make his insights more accessible.

"I think it's really special that he went to Cornell and was in our shoes," Kurtz said. "Hearing from someone who is a successful lecturer here, we can use that to have hope for our future careers and how we can make a positive impact in our communities after our time spent at Cornell."

Earle, who teaches AMST 2001: The First American University - a popular one-credit course on Cornell lore - shared stories about historic campus landmarks and the life lessons he's learned from studying the past.

One of those landmarks is a J-shaped bench across from Willard Straight Hall on Ho Plaza. It honors Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the first Black Greek-letter organization in the U.S., founded at Cornell in 1906. The bench is shaped like the letter J to honor the seven founders of Alpha, known as the seven jewels.

"I think that giving a lecture as if it's your last is a great opportunity for faculty or staff to get outside their comfort zone and reflect on what they think is important," said group member Avery Look '25. "By letting them speak on what matters most to them, that's a really powerful message to students to think about their own values and recognize that your interests and passions can go beyond just what you're studying here."

Earle highlighted several other notable campus landmarks, including Clara Dickson Hall, named for the mother of Andrew Dickson White, Cornell's co-founder and first president; two stone markers on East Avenue commemorating local farmer John Ostrander's donation of elm trees to the campus; and Hu Shih residence hall, named after a 1914 graduate who, as a second-year student, helped collect 300 books about China for the university library. That collection has since grown into one of the largest and most significant Asia collections in North America.

Learning about local history can increase place attachment, civic engagement and social trust, Earle said. People with high "place attachment" have better and more extended relationships with neighbors and greater trust in others, he said, while being more likely to take action to protect their community and become civically engaged.

"These all sound like pretty good things to me," Earle said. "I think they address some of the critical issues we face as a society today: isolation, depression, lack of empathy, lack of community, decline in civic engagement. I think they can all connect back to our sense of place. Knowing a place, both the good and the bad, helps us belong."

Laura Gallup is a communications lead for Student and Campus Life.

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