Warren Merrill Steele
Steele Takes First, As Usual
Warren Steele was a first-class scholar and a first class athlete who graduated from Acadia University in 1902. After attending Amherst High School and Horton Academy, Steele entered Acadia where he soon became a leader. He was a member of the rugby football team in an era when there was no intercollegiate league, but there were games with teams such as those from Dalhousie University of Halifax and Mt Allison of Sackville, New Brunswick that would later become league rivals.
He was a star on the track; in the interclass track and field competition of 1901, as the Athenaeum explained: “Steele ‘02 in his usual way won the medal for first place [as high point scorer]....” In fact, he was first in the 100 yard dash, the running broad jump, the pole vault, the 220 yard dash, and the 120 yard hurdles. He was second in the 440 yard run and third in the high jump.
Steele was on the college hockey team, which in 1902, played town teams from the Valley. Although injured in a game against Canning, Steele was a standout for Acadia in a game at Yarmouth on 17 February and in the return game scored both goals in a 5-2 loss. He was also a member of the baseball team. In a game with the Crescents of Halifax in May 1901, Acadia’s baseball team won 6-1; they also won a game with the Halifax YMCA later the same month.
Steele was selected to give the graduation valedictory address in 1902. “When Mr Steele, the orator and brilliant writer of the class and college came to the platform...we expected something and were not disappointed. Mr Steele’s effort [is] regarded as evidence of scholarship and power of thought.” After graduation, he went to Yale University, where he received an MA in 1904, and became a Professor of Philosophy at Furnman University of Greenville, South Carolina. During that period, he wrote and published a number of articles in scholarly journals and gave lectures on philosophy. His health failed, and he moved to Colorado in 1908 in an effort to recover. He died there in 1910.
(Acadia Athenaeum, June 1901, 319; June 1902, 337)
