When an ENN reporter in the fall of 2016 asked him how he wanted to be remembered, Dr. Danieley’s response was nonhesitant:
“I don’t need anybody to brag on what I did or anything else. If they say I did the best I could, that suits me alright.”
So, to honor the man who was central to transforming the community we love, we will attempt to do just that here: Dr. D, you did the best anybody could ever do.
Dr. Danieley’s job was not easy. When he assumed the presidency in 1957, he didn’t take the position for personal benefit.
He assumed leadership over a school that had overdue federal loans and weak infrastructure. Echoing what Verona Daniels-Danieley, his late wife, famously said when he agreed to the job: Poor Earl.
But in face of challenge, he did the best he could. Always.
He did his best to become a teacher. Even when his journey was interrupted when his mother forced him to return to Elon to run the family farm and work part-time for the federal government.
He did his best to devote his time to the most meaningful activities — even if that meant leaving his Dean of College position at Elon for a year to do postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins University.
He did his best to make Elon more inclusive. He founded the women’s athletic program at Elon. He was pivotal in working toward racial equality on campus when Eugene Perry ’69 became the first African-American student to earn an Elon degree.
Despite being more than 90-years-old, he did his best to sit in brutally hot weather during move-in days, welcoming students into Danieley.
He couldn’t sit outside the whole time, but he did his best to for as long as he could. And he loved it.
As a community, we must take his commitment to do the best we can do — especially in the face of hardship and make the community even better.
Dr. Danieley did the best anybody could do. And we are a better community because of it.