Walter “Buster” Brown III of Greensboro, N.C., hadn’t attended a family reunion in years, but he persuaded his father to attend one of the gatherings just months before the elder Brown’s death.
Shortly after attending the reunion, Buster Brown received an envelope in the mail from a long, lost relative who had also attended.
“I had no idea what it was,” Brown said, “but the note inside said something like, ‘I thought this was something you’d like to have.'”
Enclosed was a well preserved grade report from the 1894 fall semester at Elon for Walter Brown, Buster Brown’s grandfather. The report card included handwritten marks for Brown in Latin, English and algebra. The form also included spaces for other categories such as “book-keeping” and deportment.
President William Long’s name was printed at the bottom of the form. But Long retired in June 1894 and new forms evidently were not printed before new president William Staley took over. So Staley crossed out Long’s name and signed his own name at the bottom with the date, Jan. 15, 1895.
Walter Brown graduated from Elon in 1899, and took additional classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he enrolled in 1902. Brown went on to become superintendent of the Lexington, N.C., schools before returning to Burlington, where he started Brown Hosiery Mill.