The Origins of the Feast . . .
Founder’s Day began informally in the kind act of Archbishop Alexander Christie who chose to celebrate his name’s day by spending time with the community of students on the Bluff at the school he so strongly supported and with which he powerfully identified himself. And so in the Columbiad, the University periodical of 1903, there is this note:
Called ‘Founder’s Day’ already in 1904, and celebrated even in the absence of the Archbishop in 1905, the Columbiad of 1906 hails the day as an institution.
In 1907 the day of assembly as opened with the recitation of an Ode to Archbishop Christie, a student composition of 113 lines, over seven stanzas. Prudentially not repeated here.