On April 21, 2006, the Department of History dedicated the Horace Samuel Merrill Room in memory of Sam Merrill, a legendary scholar and teacher who taught history at the University of Maryland from 1946 to 1980. More than seventy UMD alumni, spouses, and faculty turned out for this special occasion, including Mrs. Marion Merrill, the widow of Sam Merrill, who travelled from her home in Delaware for this occasion. The speakers included Marion Merrill; Dr. Gary Gerstle, Chair of the Department of History; Dr. Wayne Cole, Professor Emeritus and former colleague of Sam Merrill; Dr. Donald Ritchie, Associate Historian of the U.S. Senate and former student of Sam Merrill; Dr. Daryle Williams, Director of Graduate Studies; and Ms. Dorothy Spencer, a student entering the Maryland Ph.D. program and the first recipient of the Horace Samuel Merrill Award. Former students of Sam Merrill came from as far away as South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, and Ohio to partake of this occasion.
All agreed that the second floor of Francis Scott Key Hall never looked so good. The highlights of the evening included the speeches in honor Sam Merrill; Marion Merrill cutting the ribbon to the Merrill Room; the conversations among alumni who had not seen each other in a long time; and the mass visit of the alumni to their old, and now transformed, graduate student haunt on the third floor.
The Merrill Room is at the center of Department activity, constantly in use for seminars, committee meetings, lunches with visiting scholars, graduate student exams, and Ph.D. defenses. We are delighted that this busy room has now become such a handsome one as well. One wall of the room is lined with bookcases, which now hold a substantial part of Sam Merrill's collection as well as the written work of current and past faculty members and graduate students in the Department. If you are an alumnus of Maryland's Department of History, we urge you to send us copies of your books (if you have not already done so) so that we can add them to the display.
A special thanks to Don Ritchie for spearheading the fundraising campaign to dedicate the room, and to the generosity of Marion Merrill and the many alumni who made it possible for us to meet and then exceed our fundraising goals in only six months. All the funds from the campaign have been put in an endowed fund. The income from the fund will be used exclusively to make an annual Horace Samuel Merrill Award to a deserving graduate student.
Those who still wish to contribute to the Merrill Fund, and enhance our ability to support our excellent graduate students, may do so by writing a check to
University of Maryland - College Park Foundation, designating the check to be added to the Merrill Fund, and sending the check to Ms. Courtenay Lanier, Assistant to the Chair, Department of History, 2115 Francis Scott Key Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 20742.
Please take a moment to glance at the pictures from the dedication that appear below.
