The Red and Black

Issue date: 7/17/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy University of Georgia Donors Bill and Ann Whatley of the Atlanta area pose with the new sundial they are donating to the University. The sundial will replace the old sundial that has been missing from its pedestal in front of the Chapel on North Campus since 1971. [Click to enlarge]

The family of J. Howard Neisler will preserve history when it donates a sundial to the University in an August ceremony.

"Honoring the memory of J. Howard Neisler and trying to do what he would have liked to be seen accomplished would probably be at the top of the list of reasons for this endeavor," said John H.N. Whatley, grandson of Neisler, who helped search for a sundial designer.

Neisler, a past University class president, presented a sundial on behalf of his graduating class in 1908, which disappeared in 1971, according to a University news release.

His family will place another, created by Tony Moss of Bedlington, England, atop the marble pedestal in front of the Chapel.

Neisler's class placed the original sundial at this location to remember Toombs Oak, a legendary tree which had fully collapsed that year.

Civil War general, Georgia senator and expelled University student Robert Toombs allegedly delivered a disrupting commencement speech under the tree to his graduating class.

In his original speech presenting the sundial, Neisler said, "This year the class of 1908 will leave as its testimonial a sundial. It selects this as a symbol that, as the dial's pointer traces the sun's course from its rise to its setting, so shall the memory of the University ever exert a beneficent influence on us throughout our whole lives. And may this sundial never mark the time when our love for the University will have grown cold, or our services in her behalf have ceased to be a pleasant and a sacred duty."

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