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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE Willard S. Paul (1894-1966) President of the College from 1956 to 1961. of the College could expect to be presented with complaints from the alumni and church constituencies. Meanwhile, the new president, who had not sought the position in the first place, retained his denominational loyalty while upholding the principles espoused by his Lutheran predecessors. To those who argued that Paul was neither an educator nor a successful parish pastor, John Rice could not reply that the trustees had once offered the presidency to a general from the War of 1812 or the Civil War. What he could and did say was that the trustees hoped the new president, partly because of his many associations beyond the traditional College constituency, would attract large new sums of money to Gettysburg. Then, with a stronger financial base, in less than a decade, the trustees would choose an educator to move the College forward academically. To almost all of those who worked with him, W.S. Paul, as he usually wrote his name, was simply the General. That is what he was called in the minutes of the first meeting of the curriculum committee in the fall of 1956. Short of stature, self-confident, almost cocky, and determined, Paul was a highly intelligent person with a 78