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The Generals Redoubt alumni organization held a Founders Day celebration at The Georges event center last Friday evening, reviving a long tradition at Washington and Lee University.
This group, in addition to the observance here in Lexington, is also planning similar events in various parts of the country for alumni this year.
Generals Redoubt President Thomas P. Rideout told 75 persons attending the event that Founders Day was started at then Washington College in 1870 upon the death of college president Robert E. Lee to honor both George Washington and Lee. Washington had donated shares in the James River Canal Company that financially saved the college when it was known as Liberty Hall in the late 1700s.
Rideout noted that Founders Day had continued to be observed annually until recently.
In 2020, with the death of George Floyd and riots that followed across the country, the faculty recommended the name of the university be changed. In 2021, the trustees voted to retain the name but changed the name of Lee Chapel to University Chapel; discontinued Founders Day; and removed pictures of Lee and Wa\\ton from diplomas.
In addition, Rideout noted, the university has since removed all historical plaques and paintings from the chapel.
The Generals Redoubt recently purchased the Fancy Hill mansion and buildings to be the new headquarters for the organization and they also held an open house at Fancy Hill on Saturday afternoon. An audio-visual history of Fancy Hill by Kamron Spivey was presented at both events.
Rideout told the attendees at the open house that the organization seeks to promote free speech, true viewpoint diversity and academic freedom in the tradition of the modern university Robert E. Lee helped to establish at the school that became a model for other colleges and universities.
He noted that Lee turned down offers of employment that would have been very financially rewarding to instead accept a job as president of a college with only four teachers and about 40 students. But in just five years he had increased the number of teachers to 40 and enrollment to over 400 students from both North and South to make it one of the largest colleges in the country at the time of his death.
