Asahel Clark Kendrick, the young cousin of Nathaniel Kendrick, who had taught both Greek and Latin since 1831 was relieved of the latter by Richardson in 1839. Free now to concentrate on Greek, his “first linguistic and scholarly love,” he published a grammar two years later. Though he had a competent knowledge of modern European tongues as well as those of the Old Testament, it was as a student and teacher of Greek that he made his name. He found language study an effective means of broadening the general culture of his students and his keen, versatile, and poetic mind made the Iliad and Odyssey, as studied in his Classrooms, living portrayals of real people. Like his friend and colleague, Raymond, he must have had considerable influence in polishing and refining the tastes and manners of the boys who sat under him.
As was true of so many other college presidents of the pre-Civil War period, Nathaniel Kendrick was the balance wheel responsible for the smooth functioning of the entire mechanism. His very presence penetrated every phase of the Institution’s activity. He continued to teach theology; but as his administrative duties increased, he “gave less attention to instruction and turned over routine academic matters to his faculty of younger men under the chairmanship of Professor Maginnis. In December, 1844, on his way down the Hill, he fell on a patch of ice and received a severe spinal injury which confined him to his home most of the time until his death four years later. Though forced to give up his teaching completely, he carried on much of the business of the Education Society from his sickroom. Students who watched with him during the long and sleepless nights and all others who had contact with him in this period of excruciating pain testified to his unabated devotion to the Institution’ and his calm reliance on the comforts of his religious faith.
In carrying the teaching load which a growing enrollment made heavier, the faculty was aided by eleven recent graduates of the collegiate department and several student assistants. Known as, “tutors” or “assistant teachers,” they seem to have met classes in Greek, mathematics, or whatever subject they were qualified to handle. Most of them served only a year or two until they finished the theological course. George Ripley Bliss, Class of 1838, who was a tutor in Greek, 1840-44, was so well thought of that he won highly Battering resolutions of appreciation from both students and faculty when he left. He subsequently had a notable career as a professor at Bucknell and
