Master Architect, Cass Gilbert, a letter to the fraternity: June 25, 1924, Volume 5, Number 9, Part 2

A little over a week ago at the 63rd National Convention of Alpha Rho Chi, we inaugurated our newest Master Architect, Robert Ivy, FAIA.

This issue of The Archi, our 2nd Master Architect, Cass Gilbert wrote a letter to our membership upon his elevation to the same position. This is what he said:

June 10, 1924
Dear Brother Tousley:

Your letter of June 3rd reached me on the 6th instant, but I have been under such pressure since then that I have been unable to answer it.

I have been intending to write to you in response to the verbal request which you made after the initiation banquet and also to write a special letter of appreciation of the honor which Alpha Rho Chi has conferred upon me.

I must ask you to accept a very brief expression of the cordial feeling which I have in my heart, for the simple reason that the day has worn along so far that it would be impossible for me to get a letter of any length into the mail tonight, and I note from your letter that if the letter is mailed tonight it will reach you in time for the press of the June issue. I must therefore, as I have said, limit this letter to a very few lines.

I cannot undertake to re-state what I said at the banquet, the talk there was very intimate and from the heart. I recall laying down a few general propositions that we should always keep in mind that our first duty was loyalty to our country; we should take part in its real interests and in its up-building, and that we should so conduct ourselves in our professional lives that we should deserve the support and recognition of the public and be entitled to the confidence of our clients. I recall emphasizing the great importance of the Alpha Rho Chi as a Fraternity which upholds the highest ideals of personal life, of purity of thought and of high-minded professional endeavor. I also recall appealing to those present to maintain standards of purity in design as well as purity of thought.

I most cordially welcome the fellowship into which i have been admitted.

I regard it as one of the greatest honors that has come to me, for the confidence expressed in me by the young men who form Alpha Rho Chi means more to me than I can tell you.

Please give my most cordial greetings to the Fraternity, and believe me

Very sincerely yours,

CASS GILBERT