School shocked by sudden death of Prof. J. E. Layton
Joseph Edward Layton, Professor of History, Iowa State Teachers College, of the Social Science Department, died January 7, 1926. He became suddenly ill in the morning and collapsed while standing at the telephone calling a physician and did not have time to open the house to admit the physician, his family, wife (Marguerite Cadwallder, M. Di., 1911, B. A., 1912, I. S. T. C.) and two children, being in Waterloo visiting Mrs. Layton's parents, Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Cadwallader. The illness was due to a cerebral hemorrhage and he passed away at 3:00 P. M.
He began employment at Cedar Falls in September 1922 and had been in regular service every term since, being in charge of his classes the day before his death. He was a graduate of the Indiana State Normal School, held an A. B. degree from Indiana University and an A. M. from the University of Chicago and all residence work completed for a Ph. D. at the University of Chicago.
His educational work has been: Principal of the High School, Winamac, Indiana; Superintendent of Schools, Attica, Indiana; Assistant in History, Indiana University; Instructor in Americanization, Kent, Ohio; Head of the Department of History and Government, State Normal College, Kent, Ohio; Professor of Social Science, Iowa State Teachers College, Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Copyright College Eye, January 13, 1926, page 1.
J. E. Layton: an appreciation
Our friend and brother faculty member, Professor Joseph Edward Layton, has just died. He came here in 1922 from Kent, Ohio, and for four tears the students and faculty have had the benefits of his able teaching, his wise counsel, his mature judgment, and broad scholarship. His death is a distinct loss to this college; we are all the poorer for his going.
A good teacher is like a tree, he develops slowly, and comes only from strong seed and by the slow nurture of time. Most of us had not yet learned to know Professor Layton. His was not a militant personality which compelled immediate acquaintance. Rather was he shy and retiring, masking his fine qualities of mind and heart under a not easily penetrable reserve. With his reserve, also went a subtle humor or manner of expression which sometimes made people uncomfortable in his presence. But we who had learned to know him, who had penetrated the armor of his modesty, knew him as a very human fellow, as a man's man.
Edward Layton loved the common people. Through his knowledge of history and politics and the science of government, he saw clearly the deep, unsolved riddle of social justice, and what he saw often saddened him. Yet he was riot embittered by what he saw. Boldly he criticized the social order, and those whom he believed responsible, but his criticisms were always discerning and constructive. He was fearless in his judgments, hated sham and hypocrisy, wanted to know and hear the truth, and give it freely when he spoke. Because men in high places said certain things, he did not thus necessarily accept them as the truth. He read widely in his chosen field and evaluated what he read in the careful balance of his common sense.
He died at fifty-eight. One day he met his classes as usual, on the next he was stricken and dead. His going was untimely, and we miss him. But he died as we believe he would have wished to die, in full vigor. "Not the final flickering of a feeble flame", but as if he had unwittingly left open Life's uncertain portal, and the passing wind of Death "had snuffed out the full strong light."
The members of the Men's Faculty Club of the Iowa State Teachers College herewith express their deepest sympathy to his wife in her hour of sorrow. They stand ready to aid her in any way in which they may be of service.
By the Committee.
Copyright College Eye, January 27, 1926, page 5.