auditor; Frederic Quinn '20, as secretary and treasurer; and Professor H.M. Royal, as faculty
advisor.
By February 20, 1920, the fraternity was fully organized, and in operation in the
Henderson House at 20 Leroy Street. Two years later, it moved to its present location at 30
Elm. When in 1922 negotiations were completed for the purchase of this residence, many
townspeople were skeptical of the group's ability to handle so large a financial obligation, but
Lambda proved this skepticism to be unjustified by meeting its obligations so promptly that the
dire predictions soon turned to praise.
Through the years its members have participated actively in extracurricular activities,
and frequently have gone outside the College to donate baskets of food to the needy at
Christmas. Several times after the war, they adopted needy war orphans and acted as a
collective foster parent. It remained a local for 41 years until October 1960, when it allied with
the national fraternity, Delta Upsilon.
New Building.
To serve as a foundry with room for tools and shop for 25 men and forges, a
new structure named Sutherland Hall, after the instructor, Archie Sutherland, was erected
behind the main building. Joining the faculty as instructor of shop work, Archie Ephraim
Sutherland, one-time mayor of Potsdam, provided a valuable lesson in the education of
Clarkson students—to complete one's work to the best of one's ability.
Born in West Stockholm in 1860, he grew up in the Potsdam area, and joined Clarkson
in 1907 as a fireman after working for the C.W. Leete Machine Company on Fall Island for 21
years. After five years as a fireman, he joined the engineering department as an instructor in
shop work. "Old Archie," as he was called, taught students to weld with a forge, anvil, and
hammer, and only a pinch of borax for flux. They made chains, shaping and welding them link
by link. If Archie could break a link with his hammer on his anvil, it meant rebuilding the
broken link back at the forge in order to get at least a "P" in the course along with a lot of
burned hands, scorched shirts, and singed pants.
An annex, added in 1922, was later used by WNTC, the campus radio station, as
broadcasting studios until it was demolished in 1980. In the 1940s that 90 x 30 foot building
was used for chemical engineering, and later by the maintenance staff. The chemistry
department used it as an annex until the new Science Center was completed in 1971, when it
again was used as a maintenance building until it was demolished 10 years later.
Hockey.
Three members of the Class of 1923 aroused enough interest on the campus to begin a
hockey program. W.C.A. Johnson, F.J. Hart, and C.B. Sanford began the Clarkson Hockey
Association in 1919, independent of the regular Athletic Association, and hockey came to
Clarkson.
Tuition Increase.
The College found it necessary to raise tuition beginning in fall 1919. The
Bulletin
explains the reasons.
The four years which a young man spends in an engineering college are, possibly, the most critical of his
career, and it is essential that the means at his disposal for acquiring the necessary education be of the best. The
College fees are only 20 to 25 percent of the total cost of an education, and an increase of a half in tuition
represents only about 10 percent increase in the total cost. The decided increase in the cost of supplies for the
shops and laboratories has made the ordinary funds of such maintenance insufficient and there can be no hesitation
in deciding to continue to provide the best instruction even at some increase in cost to the student.
