Vincit Qui Patitur: A Latin motto

I am a third-generation Wesleyan alumnus, and my 50th reunion is coming up this June.

In the late 1940s, Daniel Woodhead, Jr. ’34 (my father), John Baird ’38 (of Baird & Warner) and a couple of other alumni created the University shield that you see today. It hangs proudly in the gothic, cathedral-like dining hall of the University Club of Chicago, along with a host of other college shields.

The majority of these college shields have Latin mottos: Harvard has “Veritas,” Yale has “Lux et Veritas,” etc.

In the 1990s, I proposed that the Latin motto, “Vincit Qui Patitur” (he/she conquers who perseveres), be adopted and added to the Wesleyan shield—with the motto underneath and “Wesleyan University” across the top. The proposal was stonewalled by the administration, for what reason I do not know, because several University alumni thought that it was a good idea.

To borrow from an old college song, a shield without a Latin motto is like “a ship without a sail, a kite without a tail, a boat without a rudder.”

I wonder what the University students of today think of this idea—to propose that “Vincit Qui Patitur” be adopted and added to the Wesleyan shield? This motto is unique; no other school, to my knowledge, has it. And it is a motto that serves one well throughout life—to not be discouraged when the going gets rough, but to persevere through to success.

It would be great to see this motto picked up and promoted by the students—if they think that it is a worthy, meaningful idea.