ELIZABETH HATCH PALMER
1865 - 1920
By the death of Elizabeth Hatch Palmer the Faculty
of Vassar College has lost a member whose service
has extended over a period of twenty years, and by
this minute the Faculty aims to record its apprecia-
tion of the work that she has accomplished.
The selfsame qualities that made Professor Palmer so
successful as a teacher were manifest in her work as
a member of the Faculty - a broad and deep humanity,
a high ideal of scholarship, a scrupulous honesty
towards herself and others, a sense of balance and
justice made constructive through untiring energy
and a sincere loyalty to the best interests of the
College. She possessed in an unusual degree the
capacity for detail combined with a sane opinion of
its value and a notable gift for administration, which
made her a valuable member of the important committees
on which she served, particularly the Comittees on
Petitions and Elections, on Intercollegiate Relations
and on Admission.
Professor Palmer was no mere laudator temporis acti
either in the greater world without or in the little
world of the college, but a vital personality who saw
clearly the essential connection between the past and
the present. She possessed something of the ancient
Roman virtus, something of Roman reverence and
dignity, quickened by a sympathy which made her a
loyal friend and a reasonable fellow-worker.
To the College as a whole her death is a very real
loss, but to her colleagues who enjoyed the privileges
of a long association her honored memory will live as
an eternal possession.
Grace H. Macurdy
Ida C. Thallon
J. Leverett Moore
VII - S2