Gourmet & President

Indiana University waited a year for Paul Vories McNutt to decide whether he wanted to be its president. Once dean of its law school, later Governor of Indiana, now High Commissioner to the Philippines, but still Indiana's political boss, Paul McNutt is looking for the best road to the U. S. Presidency. Last fortnight, after he had talked to the university trustees (his appointees) and President Roosevelt, he made his decision. Back he flew to the Philippines to keep in active touch with politics. Last week Indiana University appointed as president Paul McNutt's jovial friend, Herman B (for nothing, and without a period) Wells, 35, youngest president of a State university.

Rolypoly "Hermie" Wells (5 ft. 7 in. and 228 Ib.) had been holding the chair for Paul McNutt since old Dr. William Lowe Bryan retired last year. On the serious side, he is an economist who has made studies of Indiana's financial institutions, has written a new State banking law, was dean for two years of the university's business school. He is a good friend of Utilityman Wendell Lewis Willkie. But the campus knows him best as a jolly, convivial gourmet, and a Rabelaisian storyteller. His chief crony is Sam Gabriel, who runs a haberdashery shop across the street from the president's office. They roar about Bloomington in a bright blue touring car with the top down, in summer repair to a cabin in Brown County for merrymaking. For exercise Hermie Wells wields a paddle on initiates in the Sphinx Club, waddles around the campus, rides horseback, takes sunbaths.

Indiana, one of the oldest State universities (118 years), calls itself the "mother of college presidents" because it has produced some 70 of them, including Swarthmore's famed Frank Aydelotte. Hermie Wells is the latest to be added to the list.

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