The True Gentleman

Editoiral Note from MHEF's Exec. Vice President:This passage struck me as not only applicable to "Gentlemen" but also "Gentlewomen" and that the traits aspired to in this statement are the basis for outstanding leadership and mentoring. The True Gentleman The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make thepoor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who ishimself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of hisown possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows hisword; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man withwhom honor is sacred and virtue safe. History of The True GentlemanThe In the 1970s, Phoenix editor Joe Walt discovered that "The True Gentleman" was also printed in a manual used at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and that its author was John Walter Wayland. It turns out that many years ago The Baltimore Sun conducted a competition for the best definition of a true gentleman. John Walter Wayland's submission was the winner. Thus it was printed in the Baltimore newspaper and was repeated in many publications. The True Gentleman is the mission of members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.