This is the bust of Eli Lilly that stands in the Lilly Library halfway up the steps to the second floor and the Goodrich Room where the Board of Trustees meets. I was doing some research in the library yesterday (never fear, I was looking up running shoes in Runners World, not Plato) and it struck me that it would be extremely interesting to know what Eli would be thinking in this day and economy.
Eli Lilly was the lone non-graduate in the Board of Trustees that President Sparks assembled. In his book Wabash On My Mind, Byron Trippet describes Lilly as the "quietest, most modest member of the board…" He also goes on to say that Mr. Lilly was the "most important single benefactor of Wabash in its history".
Wonder what El, known as the "EF Hutton" in his days as a Trustee, would say today about the state of our economy?
