Clippinger Admits to Being “Well Acquainted” With Satan by Alan Borer

Walter G. Clippinger, president of Otterbein from 1909 to 1939, endured many headaches and trials during his long tenure. Fundraising, student and faculty recruitment, World War 1, and the Great Depression all came across his desk. A much smaller institution in the teens, twenties, and thirties, Otterbein and its presidency forced Clippinger to deal with minor issues, such as doling out college catalogs, that his successors would pass off to support staff.

Take for example his involvement in an art project. Wilma Adams (class of 1919), a student working towards a Bachelor of Fine Arts, had been asked to create art illustrating “imps,” or little devils. The exact context of the project is unknown, but when “Prexy” replied to Miss Adams, Clippinger had his tongue firmly in cheek – we hope!

I like very much both your conception and the art work of the little imps. Just one slight objection. Obviously, you are not as well acquainted with his Majesty’s Satanic form as I am. Probably the imp of discouragement has never annoyed you. My impression is that the devil has horns and hoofs.[i]

President Clippinger was a devout minister of the United Brethren Church. However, he also grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and was doubtless familiar with the horns and hoofs of sheep and goats. Nearby were the Pennsylvania Dutch and their braucherei, or witchcraft. I do not know enough about theology and its history to say whether a turn of the last century minister would have believed in a literal devil of that description.

But Clippinger’s rare flash of humor in the letter reveals less about the paranormal than it does about his private stresses and failures. Notoriously serious and tight-lipped, President Clippinger rarely spoke of his troubles out loud. He understood that a major part of his job was projecting Otterbein’s image to the public. The college was approaching its 75th anniversary and Clippinger was trying to raise a half-million-dollar endowment. No wonder that he conflated the stress of his position with the powers of Hades!

Thus it is no surprise that Clippinger described himself as being well acquainted with His Satanic Majesty. Stress can take devilish forms, after all. Fortunately for the President, and for Otterbein, the devil, in this case, was a metaphor for the cares and trials of an overworked man.

-Alan Borer

[i] Walter G. Clippinger to Wilma Adams, Westerville, Ohio, February 19, 1918, Presidents Papers, Box 104, Otterbein University Archives.