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Title: Macmahon, Edna Cers, 1901-1983 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Griffen, Clyde, Glasse, John, Marshall, Natalie
Description
Date: May 8, 1984
Text: / ,’i y / epRfOgQVg t 5'-0,‘, 9 X‘ \i_ . v48 At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May ninth, nineteen hundred and eighty—four, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted; Edna Cers Macmahon, Professor Emeritus of Economics was born 9 February 27, 1901 in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of John William and V Alvia Julia Lischmann Cers. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child and she grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Edna began her long career of...
Show more/ ,’i y / epRfOgQVg t 5'-0,‘, 9 X‘ \i_ . v48 At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May ninth, nineteen hundred and eighty—four, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted; Edna Cers Macmahon, Professor Emeritus of Economics was born 9 February 27, 1901 in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of John William and V Alvia Julia Lischmann Cers. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a child and she grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Edna began her long career of community service by sharing with neighboring farmers helpful information from her careful reading of agricultural bulletins. A favorite teacher persuaded her to change her original plan of going to a normal school; instead, she entered Radcliffe at age l6, working her way through college. A seminar with Frederick Jackson Turner inspired her life-long fascination with the influence of the frontier and of geographic mobility upon American history. At age 20 Edna began graduate work at Bryn Mawr On the Susan B. Anthony scholarship. The next summer, in 1922, she met her d d. . future Vassar colleague, Margaret MYBPS» when they b°th le 1S°“SSl°n ' d t Br Mawr. groups at the School for Women Workers in Industry hel a yn ' Ph'l d l hia when they learned that Y°u"8 "°men °n Strlke at a 1 a e P _ - ' 11 they decided Clothing factcry were being arrested illega Y» . - - ‘ themselves arrested at to provide publicity bY getting -2- the strike site. With support from a young male friend from an Old Philadelphia family, they began interviewing the strikers On the picket line. The police hustled them off to the city jail where they briefly sharéd a Qell next ta a young woman who called out cheerfully: "What are you in for? shoplifting?" The venture ended with a double standard in sentencing which left them furious; their male friend was fined, but the future Vassar economists were let off with nothing but an admonition. In 1923 Columbia University appointed Edna as the first woman to hold its Gilder Research Fellowship. At Columbia she studied under Wesley Clark Mitchell, pioneer institutional economist, whose course on economic theory provided the framework for her thinking about economics. From her studies with Mitchell and with two other famous institutionalists, Thorstein Veblen and John R. Commons, she drew the lesson that economists should be critics and shapers of the societies they study. In 1924 she accepted a fellowship from the newly-founded Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government, an experiment in studying at the intersection of theory and public policy. She received her Ph.D. in 1930 with a doctoral thesis on labor injunctions. While working toward her doctorate, she investigated child labor in Maryland and Delaware canneries for the Children's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor. She also worked for the District of Columbia Consumers‘ League in 1926 as it brought pressure for the enforcement of District laws on maximum hours for women. In 1927, while employed by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, she began a study of immigrae tion which continued subsequently for the Council on Foreign Relations. But with teaching her long—term goal, she was glad in 1929 to become an _3_ inst - G ructor of economics at Hunter College. In that Year Edna married Arth P ' ' ur Ihlttler Ma°mah°n» then associate professor and subsequently Eaton pr°feSS°r °f Publi¢ administration a t Columbia University They had two chil ' dreni Gail» now livin ' g in Austria wh h ' ~ ere er husband is a diplomat, and Alan, now a physigigt at the University of Texas. During their childhood, the family lived in Croton where Edna helped run a cooperative school inspired by what remains durable in John Dewey's theories of education. She also ran an annual plant sale for the school notable for the stream of varied advice that accompanied her sales as she visualized each purchaser's plot, its probable disadvantages of soil or shade, and the owner's probable lack of time or knowledge. In later years members of the Vassar community would benefit from Edna's advice on gardening and from the well—developed aesthetic imagination which informed it. That imagination could be seen in the gardens and houses she arranged, and especially in the beloved cottage at Lake Awosting with its wonderful relating of domestic comforts, works of craftsmanship, and the natural beauty of the setting. While still at Croton in the late l93Os, Edna began to travel for research and for consulting assignments. In 1941-42 she served as Director of Research for the Division of Minimum Wage and Women ln h d d Industry of the New York State Department of Labor and also ea 8 . . . O . . . Off‘ f Price the EcQnQmlCS unit in the Consumer Division of the lce 0 Administration. Ed . . d the Vassar fagulty in 19142. At that time the Vassar na ]Oln8 . . - d . t Qf a joint department, economics an economics department was par -u_ sociology, which would shortly become the economics, sociology, and anthropology department-—B.S.A. Edna found the philosophy of the department to her liking. Abstract theory was not for her——she always regarded economic problems in the context of the overall problems facing a society. She described the introductory course in an article for the Alumnae magazine in l9H9: The teaching of economics at Vassar has always been directed, rather deliberately, toward a broad understanding of the economy as a whole, and to analysis and discussion of the major economic issues which confront our society. The introductory course, in particular, frankly aims to equip students to exercise their responsibility as citizens intelligently rather than to provide a mastery of economic principles. This does not mean that theory is neglected, but that it is constantly taught in relation to concrete problems to which it is applicable. The emphasis necessi- tates a continuous search for ways of making theory a more practicable tool in the analysis of current problems. Under Edna's influence the department introduced an introductory interdisciplinary course for the joint department, a course which flouished for a number of years. Economists, sociologists, and anthropologists together prepared the year—long introductory course and a required senior seminar. Students majored in one discipline. _5_ Edna's Special fields -'th' - wi in economics reflected her philosophy- consumer economics ' Amerwo ' ' 0 _ an economic histor ' Y» economic development. Her students were ' - - » ln the Vassar tradition, encoura ged to go to the original sources and th 9 ese sources were often Opepatin ' - - 8 lnstitutions in the community Field tri ‘ - ps to farms and factories were a re gular Part of Economics lO5 and Poughkeepsie residents were surveyed on a variety of topics. In the mid l96Os Edna worked with other faculty in the development of an interdisciplinary course on the river and its impact on those living around it. Her participation in the course was inspired by her long observation of the Hudson and her concern for it before "ecology" became a popular term. A late colleague said he always wanted to follow Edna around with a tape recorder for she was a veritable fountain of ideas. But she was interested primarily in people and in doing. Although she published several journal articles, she never found enough time for her own research, especially for her study of Poughkeepsie shoemakers which was in advance of its time in methodology. Her tracing of craftsmen over time through census and city directories anticipated by more than a decade the historical social mobility studies which became important in the 1960s and 70s. Edna retired from Vassar in 1966, but continued her teaching in the . . . H l d extensive State University of New York for three years er a rea y V _ . . ' sed. She had been activity in the community beyond the College lncrea t t f Dutohess Community College from its founding in 1957, a rus ee o _ _ . - ' d in its formative period. playing 3 ma]OP role in setting policy ur 8 ard for seventeen YEBPS, until 197a‘ She served on the BO ’”!‘\$4'- ~ 161 In government, she served on the Advisory Committee to the Consumer Counsel to the Governor of New York and, in Dutchess County, on its comittees on tax policy and on economic opportunity. Politically, she was an active member of the League of Women Voters and of both the Vassar Democratic Club and the Dutchess County Women's Democratic Club. She delivered countless addresses to community groups, ranging from the Dutchess County Council on World Affairs to the Newcomers’ Home Bueau Club, from the Anti-Defamation League to the YWCA, and from the Poughkeepsie Business and Professional Women's Club to the Dutchess County Grange Tax Comittee. The topics of these talks expressed the range of her concerns: consumer economics, anti-poverty programs, county planning for water and land development, integration and quality in education, and travels with her husband in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Also expressive of her concerns was her membership in the Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting. Bowdoin Park, on Poughkeepsie's bank of the Hudson, is an abiding embodiment of Edna Macmahon's care for the land and for the people of the place where she lived for nearly three decades. There, the Edna Maemahon Trail for the study of nature commemorates her leadership in reclaiming an abandoned waterfront for the use of the community. In 1978 Edna moved to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where she died on July 2%, 1983. \hntHal\h¢dlhnl\Qnin,\inIIl1l|\0@ll0II ‘A hnnbllho. muuuuuwuaumn-nmqgquq. luv-¢a\hnrabltl\y\olnbl1lanIpIo¢u\|uqq_|.@§ wwvh. tiwwbvlcw. mvvollwhaumualnauducn Ilnhattawoodtdltlno. !alt\lnba&—0Q\Qqﬂﬂ|p Dhﬂonlqnn QlI.1t1tohlothoIQ0lIUOl|ﬂOIlOd_l»ﬂﬁ onnnltyocvtoonlactlnnltajohugottnruﬂqnnlcilq honnnounoa Inopocthlly Ulﬂtﬂ, cub tum. Quinn <¥~i':- 3%” *5,
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Title: Griffin, Charles Carroll, 1902-1976 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Olsen, Donald, Campbell, Mildred, Clark, Evalyn, Havelock, Christine, Marquez, Antonio
Description
Date: [After 1976]
Text: dl l Jl»).L»7' ,.Ll' f , 5 '4‘; ’-'Yé§ _‘ V 1.; 7 ' ‘ . ,1,-" 1"‘ fl < i . > V .;!r;_?=¢\- v R ,§§, At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held November seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Charles Carroll Griffin was born on May 24, 1902, in Tokyo, where his father was Professor of Economics at the Imperial University. His family returned to the United States in 1913, settling in...
Show moredl l Jl»).L»7' ,.Ll' f , 5 '4‘; ’-'Yé§ _‘ V 1.; 7 ' ‘ . ,1,-" 1"‘ fl < i . > V .;!r;_?=¢\- v R ,§§, At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held November seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Charles Carroll Griffin was born on May 24, 1902, in Tokyo, where his father was Professor of Economics at the Imperial University. His family returned to the United States in 1913, settling in Westboro, Massachusetts. Charles attended Harvard, receiving his B.A. in 1922. Then, seeking horizons beyond the academic, he was off to South America for seven years, two in Argentina and five in Uruguay,'in the employ of the National Cement Company. He returned home with an interest in Hispanic American culture and a knowledge of the Spanish language that were to last him the rest of his life. Beginning graduate work at Columbia, he also served as an instructor in Spanish there in 1930. His next venture the following year was as a Research Associate of the Library of Congress, to go to Madrid, where, enrolling at the Centro de Es- tudios Hist6ricos~~at that time perhaps the most significant concentration of liberal intellectuals in the Republic—-he supervised the transcription of historical documents in the Archives of Seville and Valladolid. The next year he was again at Columbia where in 1933 he was awarded the M.A. Nineteen thirty- four brought two important personal events: marriage to Jessica Frances Jones, a graduate of Reed College, and the acceptance of an instructorship in history at Vassar. The early forties brought a period of great concern in the United States for closer relations with Latin America. Men who knew the field were in demand, and Charles Griffin was ready to supply the need. In 1940 he went as exchange professor to the Universidad Central in Caracas, Venezuela, the first United States citizen to serve under the program set up by the Buenos Aires Convention for International Cultural Relations. A letter written later by the Director of the university to our ambassador pointed out that "Dr. Griffin's lectures W€re the first ever given in a school of higher learning in Venezuela . . . regarding the discovery, the conquest and the colonization of North America.” An article in a Venezuelan magazine in 1941 characterized him not as the typical "fat, red—faced North American", but as an aristocratic Castilian: until one heard his "slight Anglo—Saxon accent", one might have mistaken the tall, slender professor for a resident of Burgos or Segovia in a play by Lope de Vega or Calderbn. It might have added, "or a portrait by El Greco." Charles came back to Vassar in 1941, as associate professor; but was off again in February 1943 to the State Department in Washington, where he served as Assistant Chief of the Division of Liaison and Research in the Office of American Republics Affairs. He returned to Vassar in 1944, this time to a full- professorship. Charles served as visiting professor at many places including Columbia, Oé» _, r. I. C, -2- Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Wisconsin, and at the Universidad de Chile. But happily for Vassar he always returned here where his own course in South American history had entered the curriculum, a break—through in the tradition that most history offerings should deal with our European background and the United States. For years it was traditional that every member of the department should teach the one introductory course offered, a survey of European civilization. Charles later regaled his younger colleagues with accountsci'his struggles to cope with "all those popes and emperors." Although most of his teaching at Vassar was in United States political and diplomatic history, his scholarly work lay entirely in Latin America. At in- tervals he represented the United States as forwarder of pan-American affairs, in Chile in 1950 and in Ecuador in 1959, in l962 at the Salzburg Seminar on American Civilization, and as delegate to the Conference on Contemporary Latin American History at Bordeaux. He published four books on Latin American history (one with a Spanish translation, one written in Spanish and published in Ca- racas), and was contributing author to five others. (A selective bibliography is appended to this Minute.) In addition he contributed articles to practical- ly all the scholarly periodicals in his field, and also to the more general historical journals. His last major scholarly achievement was as editor-in- chief of Latin America: A Guide to Historical Literature (1971), the first inclusive bibliography in that field. His place as leader among Latin American historians was recognized first by appointment to the Board of Editors of the Hispanig American Historical Review, and as Managing Editor from 1950 to 1954. In 1970 the Conference on Latin American History gave Charles its "Distinguished Service Award", in the form of a handsome plaque which, characteristically, he kept trying to hide from view. Few of his colleagues or students at Vassar were aware of the extent of his scholarly activities or of his international reputation. "Charles is such a modest chap," wrote his chairman on one occasion, "that it is only when one digs it out of him that it becomes evident" how extensive his achievements and honors were. Self—doubt, humility, and an awareness of his own frailties made him wonderfully understanding of the anxieties of others, and made him the best of all people to turn to for sympathetic advice. Countless colleagues, friends, and students could say, with Sarah Gibson Blanding, ". . . when things got really tough I could always talk with Charles and knew without any doubt I was getting the best and most unbiased opinion possible. Of all my colleagues I counted on him the most." At Vassar Charles served four terms as chairman of the history department. For the last two years before his retirement in 1967 he was first Acting Dean of Faculty and then Dean of Faculty. He felt a deep commitment to the local community outside the college, and took an active part in politics. Among other activities he served on the Dutchess County Committee of the Democratic Party and as Director of the Dutchess County Council on world Affairs. In 1968 he became the first Executive Director of the Associated Colleges of the Mid-Hudson Area, and from 1968 to 1970 served on the Board of Trustees of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of Marist College, and in 1969 became secretary of the Board. But it was as a member of this faculty that we knew Charles best. For him, loyalty to Vassar was no mere catch—phrase, but involved him in genuine financial, ///“ / /:>8 I3? and perhaps even professional sacrifice. He turned a deaf ear to offers to return to the State Department at a salary far above anything Vassar could give him. He did the same to other attractive offers from the Rockefeller Foundation, Stanford, U.C.L.A., and Cornell because, to quote a letter from his chairman to President Blanding, "of his interest in working at an institu- tion in which he believed as heartily as he does believe in what we try to do at Vassar." In February 1950 Miss Blanding wrote him while he was Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, enclosing a new contract, saying, "I hope like fury you are going to feel like signing. We have missed you and . . . have kept our fingers crossed wondering if Wisconsin was going to wean you away from us. As you can see, we have jumped your salary . . . which I am sure is not as much as Wisconsin could pay you [in fact, Vassar's new offer was only two-thirds what Wisconsin was paying him], but is all we can stretch at the moment." Charles happily accepted the economic sacrifice and returned to Vassar. He, of course, would not have called it a sacrifice. He had abundant ex- perience of great universities, and none of them gave him the intense intellectual and emotional satisfactions that Vassar did: students who delighted in and responded to his broad-ranging intellect and provocative, questioning teaching; colleagues who could be waylaid for speculative discussion or riotous argument; department, comittee, and faculty meetings in which he could observe the wit and cantankerousness, wisdom and perversity, mental agility and abnormal psy- chology of his colleagues. He took affectionate delight in displays of insti- tutional absurdity and human folly, which Vassar offered in prodigal abundance. Charles never forgot what it had been like to be a young, inexperienced instructor, ”. . . Newer and younger [faculty] members . . . instinctively feel him to be their friend,” his chairman once wrote. One of them later recalled: "I first knew Charles at a crucial time in my life—-at the beginning of my career. He quickly became for me a kind of mentor, such as I had never in graduate school . . . By watching him in action in faculty meetings . . . talking to him at faculty tea, or simply chatting with him on an evening . . . I got some idea of what it meant to be a scholar, a teacher, and a man of integrity. Charles and I had our differences--we really were not very much alike——but his example for me was central to my life." Charles came to Vassar at a time when, as he recalled three decades later, "the college . . . was more self—contained than it is today." The Vassar comunity dominated the social as well as the professional lives of a large proportion of the faculty. Depending on their tastes, they used it as a vast salon in which to hammer out their ideas in friendly yet critical company, as a stage on which to develop and display their eccentricities, or a kind of en- counter group in which to express their inner hostilities and aggressions. Charles did his best to maintain the notion of the faculty as an intellectual community even into the fifties and sixties, when outside at“factions, whether professional or personal, were drawing the attention of both zaculty and student body away from the college. It was a mystery how Charles managed to produce the extraordinary bulk of his publications and pursue his professional activities on top of a heavy teach- ing load. For he always seemed to be found in the back parlor of Swift, in the Retreat, or at faculty tea, engaging in anecdote or argument, covering every -4- subject under the sun. ". . . His intellectual curiosity was insatiable, as his fund of knowledge was almost fathomless," one colleague recalls. ". . . What I think of most in connection with him was not just his helpfulness and companionability," writes another, "but those glorious, continuous, shimmering days and nights we all had at Raymond Avenue. That for me was the Golden Age . . . we all belonged to Charles's extensive, amusing, and beautifully domestic- ated world." Charles played an active role in Vassar politics, serving on most major committees, and as president of the local chapter of the A.A.U.P.; in the 1930's he was much involved with the Teachers‘ Union. He firmly believed in maintain- ing the authority of the faculty as a corporate body, and in seeing that the body exercised its powers wisely and responsibly. when Alan Simpson was inau- gurated as President, Charles spoke in the name of the faculty. "The Faculty of Vassar College has never been a placid, harmonious body," he warned the new president. "Because of our nature as questioners, our training as critics, and our diverse associations and interests we are likely to provide opposition as well as support to your endeavours." Charles spoke often in faculty meetings, and one never could be sure in advance what stand he was going to take on an issue. while his commitment to basic principles—-academic freedom, faculty power, individual liberties--never faltered, he embodied the definition of an intellectual as one who is continual- ly and systematically questioning his own opinions. He belonged to no camp, and voted and acted as his conscience and intellect directed. Impressive as he was in faculty meeting, Charles was at his best in a small group, late at night. He delighted in the varieties of human nature, the in- tricacies of thought, and the techniques of politics. But above all he loved conversation. For him, as for Dr. Johnson, conversation offered the best alle- viation for the pain of existence. It was his chief joy, a means of adding to his stock of knowledge, of encountering new ideas--the more subversive and he- terodox the better--and of savouring the pleasures of articulate sociability. Of colleagues in other disciplines he could ask a simple, sincere, and yet so basic a question that one found oneself rethinking ideas long taken for granted. Charles was a moderate historical relativist, for whom the conviction that absolute certainty was an imposible ideal was.not a depressing, but an ex- hilarating belief. For he enjoyed the process of debate more than he cared about the outcome. But while pragmatic and flexible in his approach both to questions of historical truth and educational policy, he never abandoned his moral convictions for the sake of expediency. Intensely sensitive to personal attaﬁksv he 8¢ted a¢¢0rdin9 to his conscience as chairman, as dean, and as individual, never swerving from what he was convinced was his duty for the sake of popularity or a quiet life. President Simpson has summed up the qualities for which we loved Charles: "A dearer man we never knew--gentleman, scholar, wit. I never saw him without thinking of the motto of New College, Oxford——‘Manners makyth man‘. He was . . . a model of good sense, good-heartedness, and fidelity. when I asked him for help he always replied that he would do anything for Vassar—-and did so." -5- Respectfully submitted, ,\ ..1 . _ Donald Olsen, Chairman Q ’ ), ~c , / _.' / ¢ , ‘ _,, 1',‘ /{/,» . .' / \ , , / I '/’-»»1,‘(-"// ~ ,.“/ ~" rt 4, , j M " .>~'L, ( J‘.-1, Mildred Cani'pbe 11 .'/ I 22,,/;j£, J Evalyn Clark ..-/c’. " - - ‘" ,-‘W. V \ A/~" ' - ~ / Christine Havelock A 1./1. ‘:1/1 4 Antonio Marquez / /0 /// _6_ ¢v'¢~€¥¢z»/>1 C-_C, > Bibliographical Note His publications include The United States and the Disruption of the §panish Empire, 1810-1822 (1937), Latin America T1944); The National Period in the History of the New World (1961, with Spanish translation in 1962), and Los Temaspsociales y Economicos de la Epoca de la Independencia (published in Caracas in 1961). He edited and contributed to Concerning Latin American Cu1tur§_(l940), and contributed chapters to Ensayos sobre la Historia del Nuevo Mundo (Mexico, 1951), a commemorative volume in honor of Emeterio Santovenia (Habana, 1958), Conocimento z_desconocimento en las Americas (1958), to vol. XI of the new edition of the Cambridge Modern History on Latin America, 1870-1900 (1961), and to A.P. Whitaker, ed., Latin America and the Enlightenment (1961). In addition he contri- buted articles to the Hispanic American Historical Review, the Haryland Historical Magazine, the IntereAmerican Quarterly, Revista de Historia de America, Boletin de la Academia de Historia (Caracas), Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, and the Vene- zuelan RevistafNaciona1 de Cultura. His last major scholarly achievement was to edit the bibliographical volume, commissioned by the Library of Congress, Latin ‘ America: A Guide to Historical Literature (1971). 17 I W ' 7 " 'J—.
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Title: Raymond, John H., 1814-1878 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: [unknown]
Description
Date: [After 1878]
Text: JOHN H . rmvmowo 181a - 1878 At the first meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College after the death of our late honored President, John H. Raymond, we record a brief statement of his work in this College, and an expression, altogether inadequate, of the love we have for his memorye We appreciate, as others cannot, the unceasing toil, the perplexity, the solicitude, the many discouragements which attended his heroic and successful endeavor to secure for this College its present eminence among...
Show moreJOHN H . rmvmowo 181a - 1878 At the first meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College after the death of our late honored President, John H. Raymond, we record a brief statement of his work in this College, and an expression, altogether inadequate, of the love we have for his memorye We appreciate, as others cannot, the unceasing toil, the perplexity, the solicitude, the many discouragements which attended his heroic and successful endeavor to secure for this College its present eminence among educational institu- tions. We appreciate, as others cannot, the complica- tions of the problem given to him for solution at the time of his election to his office. At the outset, there was a Board of Trustees having the heartiest interest in this work, but pre- senting many shades of opinion on educational questions. And the Faculty, organized under peculiar limitations needed time and trial to give it experience and strength. And the demand made by the public upon this College in its earlier years, insisting that students sent hither should be trained to the accomplishments of the fashionable world rather than to the earnestness of the scholar, was a demand that he resisted with an unfaltering, a religious con- stancy, and defeated utterly, so that under his leadership a victory, complete, enduring, has been gained for the higher education of women. Beset by the ill-advised and persistent appeal of the parents of our students, with no pioneers to guide him, President Raymond cautiously and safely led this College through the wilderness of its first years. We know what his thoughtfulness has accomplished in the improvement of all the appointments and properties of the College, in securing for it the respect of educated people, in winning for it the loyalty of students, and in organizing a happy domestic regime. But these achievements made by devotion to the duties of his office, though they have commanded expressions of public JOHN H. RAYMOND (Continued) admiration, still seem to us to fade in comparison with the result he attained in promoting the steady growth of our educational work. Comparing the Scheme of Instruction" published in our first catalogue, with the clear and well adjusted cur- riculum now followed by our students we see the traces of his most difficult work, and his brightest success. While others point to his temperament, or to his scholarship, or to his literary and oratorical skill as the secret of his power in this College, we, recognizing all these qualities in him, point to his rare gift for organization as his prime endowment - a gift blending with comprehensiveness of plan a conscientious zeal for the performance of smallest details. This endowment made it possible for him to watch every interest related to his office, and insured the uninterrupted progress of Vassar College under his administration. We remind ourselves that our late President himself grew to loftier ideas under the discipline of his work. Each new success inspired him with grander hopes, to more intense endeavor. He led the way to broader freedom in the discipline of the College; and in presiding over our legislative deliberations, he had come to be the most advanced among us in demanding an unfaltering respect for the womanliness of our students. Always considerate of the weariness of his fellow- workers, he gave himself no rest. In recalling what he has done for Vassar College, we pay our reverent re- spect to his industry, to his fidelity, to his sacrifice of self, to his wisdom, which have laid our foundations so secure that no adversity, not even his death, can overturn them. He was modest, he was honest, he was cautious, he was patient, he was just, he was devout, he was faithful in all things. He was eminent, and he was eminently good, He is dead, but his work survives, I - 391-393
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Title: Baldwin, James Fosdick, 1871-1950 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Griffin, Charles, Miller, John, Campbell, Mildred
Description
Date: [After 1950]
Text: JAMES FOSDICK BALDWIN 1871 - 1950 James Fosdick Baldwin was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1871. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Thurs- day, Qctober the fifth, 1950. During forty-four of the seventy-nine intervening years, he was a member of the Vassar College faculty in the department of history. Hence it is to a fellow gildsman of long service that we now pay respect and honor. As Mr. Baldwin, setting about his most recent task of writing a history of the college in its modern era...
Show moreJAMES FOSDICK BALDWIN 1871 - 1950 James Fosdick Baldwin was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1871. He died in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Thurs- day, Qctober the fifth, 1950. During forty-four of the seventy-nine intervening years, he was a member of the Vassar College faculty in the department of history. Hence it is to a fellow gildsman of long service that we now pay respect and honor. As Mr. Baldwin, setting about his most recent task of writing a history of the college in its modern era, sifted with trained eye and hand the boxes and volumes that constitute the college archives, - Presidents' cor- respondence, faculty minutes, committee reports, reports of departmental chairmen, and old files of the Miscellan News that recounted gala skits of Founder's Day, Ee must often have run across his own name and his own handwriting, for he had a zest for life and was ever an active partic- ipant in all that was going on about him. His courses in English history introduced him to large numbers of stu- dents and his circle of friends and acquaintances among alumnae was wide. His interest in every part of the col- lege was marked, - one could mention for instance certain of our library treasures, rare for a college of this size that are here because of his scholarly discernment and his initiative. Engrossing as was the campus to him, however, Mr. Baldwin did not forget that there were pleasures and obligations outside of it, that he was a resident of the town of Poughkeepsie, a citizen of Dutchess County and of his state and nation. He took a lively interest in public affairs to which his approach was that of a humanitarian and a liberal. Better also than some of us, he was able to transfer the field of his specialized interests to the scene at hand. Hence the student of constitutional origins in a distant age and place found ways of making Dutchess County origins exciting to his friends and fel- low townsmen. He held office repeatedly in the Dutchess C t Hi t ri i t ° l f i oun y s o cal Soc e y, and in 9h2 was o fic ally honored with the title, Dutchess Count Historian. Other community activities enlisted His support. His lifelong interest in music, found expression in his work as an organist in one of Poughkeepsie's churches, a post which he filled for years. After his retirement many of these interests were continued. Indeed, there was true gallantry in the way Jmnes Baldwin set about to explore Q 28 JAMES FOSDICK BALDWIN (Continued) the resources within himself in order to make his retirement a period both useful and happy. And it was a source of pleasure to his friends that neither old_ age nor adversity dulled his salty wit nor dimmed the twinkle in his eye. But beyond these memories left with friends and assoc- iates, James Fosdick Baldwin in his early manhood created a more lasting memorial through his contribu- tion to historical scholarship in a highly selective field, that of the Ehglish Medieval Constitution. His book on the Kin 's Council in En land Durin the Middle A es published §n Uxford In I§I§ was Hailed By scholarly journals on both sides of the Atlantic as charting new ground and superseding previous treatments of the sub- ject. It led to his election at once to membership in the Royal Historical Society, and gave him a place among the best scholars in the field in his own country. Even now after almost forty years it still remains a recognized authority. Hence, as Poughkeepsie notes the passing ofia good citizen and neighbor, and Vassar Col- lege a friend and colleague, medieval historians in both Europe and America record the passing of a respected member of their fraternity, the author of The King's Council. Charles Griffin John Miller Mildred Campbell XIII - 1&3
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Title: Richardson, Sophia F., 1855-1916 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Reed, Amy L., Underhill, Adelaide
Description
Date: [After 1916]
Text: SOPHIA F. RICHARDSON 1855 - 1916 The Faculty wish to record their sorrow at the death on February 2, 1916, of Sophia F. Richardson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Miss Richardson, who was graduated from Vassar in 1879 and who re- turned as instructor in 1886, had almost completed thirty years of devoted service to her college. She literally gave her life to teaching and to study for the sake of teaching, using her many talents and employing her times of rest solely for the benefit of her...
Show moreSOPHIA F. RICHARDSON 1855 - 1916 The Faculty wish to record their sorrow at the death on February 2, 1916, of Sophia F. Richardson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Miss Richardson, who was graduated from Vassar in 1879 and who re- turned as instructor in 1886, had almost completed thirty years of devoted service to her college. She literally gave her life to teaching and to study for the sake of teaching, using her many talents and employing her times of rest solely for the benefit of her profession. Her work was character- ized by definiteness and originality of teaching method and by the mental and moral energy of the response which she secured from her students. While her great reserve confined her friendships to a small circle, those who knew her well received the highest inspiration from her exquisite appreciation of the fine things of life, her singleness of pur- pose, and her essentially Christian character. By her death the college loses a rare personality, a teacher of long and successful experience, and a faithful friend. Amy L. Reed Adelaide Underhill VI - 97
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Title: MacColl, Mary, 1874-1941 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Sague, Mary, Monnier, Mathilde
Description
Date: [After 1941]
Text: 1 J \ 4 1 x MARY MacCOLL 1877+ - l9lpl The Faculty of Vassar College with deep regret records the death of Mary MacColl on February lh, l9hl. For the past twenty-five years her life was wholly devoted to the well being of the college which she served in the triple capacity of teacher, resident, and active member of the community. Fro the time of her graduation from Vassar she was as- sociated with educational work, first as a teacher at Stratford, Connecticut; later, when a graduate student...
Show more1 J \ 4 1 x MARY MacCOLL 1877+ - l9lpl The Faculty of Vassar College with deep regret records the death of Mary MacColl on February lh, l9hl. For the past twenty-five years her life was wholly devoted to the well being of the college which she served in the triple capacity of teacher, resident, and active member of the community. Fro the time of her graduation from Vassar she was as- sociated with educational work, first as a teacher at Stratford, Connecticut; later, when a graduate student at Columbia University, as secretary in a Barnard College dormitory. Having been granted the degree of Master of Arts in 191S,sshe returned to Vassar in February 1916. As Associate Warden and Resident she was an untir- ing and valued liaison officer between the students, the parents, and the Faculty. With patience, human understanding, unfailing tact, and sound judgment, she gave herself gladly and.generously to the ad- justing of the problems forever arising in a complex comunity. These same gifts were brought to bear on her duties as social head of the Vassar Nurses Train— ing Camp in 1918 and for the Vassar Summer Institute of Euthenics from 1926 to 193h. Guests, alumnae, members of the college pay grateful tribute to Mary MacColl, hostess of Main Building, for her ever kindly, gracious hospitality. Her as- sociates in Poughkeepsie and in Dutchess County too pay tribute to her, for her well-known constructive interest in civic affairs. For all her friends the regret for her going will always be tempered by gratitude for having known her gay kindly wit, her loyal gallant spirit. Mary Sague Mathilde Monnier x-211;
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Title: Ellery, Eloise, 1874-1958 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Barbour, Violet, Elson, Ruth Miller, Ross, James Bruce
Description
Date: [After 1958]
Text: stores ELLERY 187k - 1958 At the time of her retirement in 1939, Professor Eloise Ellery had served Vassar College for thirty- nine years and had been associated with it for over fifty. Soon after her graduation from Vassar in the class of 1897 she had been recruited as an assistant in the Department of History by Professor Lucy Maynard Salmon, and on the completion of her graduate studies she returned to Vassar as instructor, rising by successive promotions to the rank of profes- sor in 1916...
Show morestores ELLERY 187k - 1958 At the time of her retirement in 1939, Professor Eloise Ellery had served Vassar College for thirty- nine years and had been associated with it for over fifty. Soon after her graduation from Vassar in the class of 1897 she had been recruited as an assistant in the Department of History by Professor Lucy Maynard Salmon, and on the completion of her graduate studies she returned to Vassar as instructor, rising by successive promotions to the rank of profes- sor in 1916. Her colleagues recognized her fairness and good judgment by electing her to major comittees. From 1910 to 1923 she acted as Faculty Secretary, and from 1923 to 1932 she was Chairman of the Department of History. She filled these posts conscientiously and effectively but the consuming interest in her life was the study and teaching of history, and it was as a teacher that she made a lasting impression upon Vassar College. The factual record of her life is slight. Born in Rochester, N. Y., in l87h, Eloise Ellery was the only child of Frank M. and Mary Alida Alling Ellery. Her paternal grandfather came to America from Yorkshire, England. Her father, a rising member of the business community of Rochester, was to become secretary and later trustee of the Security Trust Company of that city. Miss Ellery attended the Rochester Free Academy and entered Vassar College as a freshman in 1893. Her life-long interest in history was touched off by the teaching of Professor Salmon. On receiving her A. B. degree in 1897, Miss Ellery entered the graduate School of Cornell University. Under the direction of Profes- sor H. Morse Stephens, an authority on the history of the French Revolution, she concentrated on the period of the Convention and chose as her thesis subject the study of a leader of the Gironde, Brissot de Warville. Fellow- ships fran Vassar, from Cornell, and from the Associa- tion of Collegiate Alumnae enabled her to complete work for the doctorate including a year of research in French archives and in the Bibliothdque Nationals. She received the degree of doctor of philosophy from Cornell in 1902. Her only diversion, travel, was closely related to her interest in history. She was a frequent, often solitary, and intrepid traveler in western_Europe. In 1923-2h she joined her father in a trip around the world. This ELOISE ELLERY (Continued) began formidably with a close-up of the Japanese earthquake, though not in the area of greatest danger. In Shanghai, through the cooperation of Sophie Chen Zen, Vassar 1919, Miss Ellery met and talked with prominent leaders of Young China about the liberal reforms their party then hoped to set on foot. When the Saar Valley was the warmest political spot in Europe Miss Ellery went there to obtain first-hand information on that explosive issue. In 1936 she embarked on the Odyssey cruise, visiting historic cities on the Adriatic coast, the Aegean islands, and Asia Minor. She was planning a trip through South America when the second world war intervened. She was fortunate in spending the years of her retire ment near the campus in the homes of devoted friends and colleagues, first with Dean C. Mildred Thompson and later with Dr. Jane N. Baldwin. Her erect figure continued to be a familiar sight to the college com- munity until within a few months of her death. The testimony of alumnae who had the good fortune to study European history under her direction is in striking agreement as to the foundation of her suc- cess as a teacher. Said one who graduated in l9Oh: "Her genuineness was obvious. She was true in her own scholarship and true in her interest in her students--sparing no time or thought to understand their needs and be helpful . . . ." Later, when this same student was Miss Ellery's colleague in the Department of History: "I was struck by E.E.'s abilit to stimulate each student to her best, at whatever grade of ability the student happened to be." Another alumna of the class of l9l2 recalls that there was special life in Miss Ellery's classes. "E.E. had a kind of completeness of range and view of a culture that was fundamental to all the rest of her thinking . . . In discussion there was always freshness, point and light. . . It was especially through the long paper that E.E. drew out and expected to be expressed with thoroughness and polish the whole capacity of every student." Out of this effort came the student‘ realization of "toughness and delight of intellectual adventure." Her quiet assumption that every student would do her best is what most impressed a member of e ELOISE ELLERY (Continued) the class of 1919. To an alumna from the class of '23, she was an inspiring teacher, "not personally or through charm or magnetism, but because she embodied the world of the intellect, "the eager search for and love of knowledge and the utter impartiality and integrity of the true scholar." To a member of the class of 1939, the last year that Miss Ellery taught, the intellectual excitement of her classes is still vividly remembered. Each meeting was a drama that involved every member of the group to the limits of her intellectual ability. The discussion was carefully but unobtrusively guided, within a framework of rigorous standards and respect for the contribution of each student. In the hands of Miss Ellery teaching was truly a creative art. Perhaps the best description of her impact on those she taught is that of a Chinese student: "her special gift is to open people's intellectual box, so to speak, and let its contents flow out in a beautiful abundance." She was an exacting critic, impossible to deceive with simulated learning or irrelevant flights of rhetoric, but endlessly patient with conscientious students, tolerant, witty, and kind. There is no better example of these qualities than her exhortation to a careless student: Miss Blank, "When you hoist, hoist!" The class of 1913 dedicated their Vassarion to her as one “who during our college life, Eas kept before us a high ideal of constructive scholarship." This ideal was pusued not only in the classroom and at the conference table but in a wide variety of activities. Through Miss Ellery's suggestions the great collections of sources available in print for the study of European history were acquired or augmented by the Vassar Library in order that students might have the illuminating experience of observing history as it had unfolded before contemporary eyes. Occasionally a class would stage, after intensive study of the sources, some notable historic incident, as the class in the French Revolution reenacted the Flight to Varennes, using Main Building as the Tuileries, which had in fact served Matthew Vassar's architect as a model. Or a stirring debate in the Estates General or the Convention would be presented with fire and fury in an arena in Rockefeller Hall. As faculty adviser to the Political Association Miss Ellery assisted student officers in organizing a model session of the League of Nations which was attended by some 200 delegates from 29 colleges and universities. mores ELLERY (Continued) Miss Ellery's students continued to be her students after graduation. When they returned to Vassar for reunions, or to enter daughters or even granddaughters they would seek her out to tell her what her teaching had meant to them, the rich record it had made on their thinking and living. Nor had Miss Ellery for- gotten them. To those who were especially in need of counsel and encouragement she wrote long letters mindful of their interests and of the little or big things they would like to hear about. She labored long over her letters to two alumnae living in Communist countries. She knew how eager they must be for news from the free world, but knew also that it must be communicated in a way that would not excite suspicion. She had many friends, yet those who knew her best knew little of the years before she came to Vassar or of her inner life. She had an unassailable dignity and reserve. She appeared duly at parties and meetings and listened with amused tolerance to the small talk of campus intercourse, but she never chattered or gossiped. Her time was carefully hoarded for the long labor of conferences, for reading papers, and for keeping abreast of the literature bearing on her courses. Sunday mornings were devoted to periodical- reading in the Library. Lest this absorption in the art and labor of teaching give the impression that she was stiff, aloof, unsocial, it should be added that she was gracious and cordial in manner. She had in reserve a hoard of witty stories which mellowed with age. Her thoughtfulness in calling on new members of the faculty with assurance of welcome was gratefully appreciated by the newcomers. Her courtesy was unfailing. One of the waitresses at Alumnae House, and one of the nurses at the nursing home where her last days were spent, had exactly the same tribute for her: "She was a lady." Beyond the gates of the college Professor Ellery's standing as a scholar was widely recognized. She expanded her doctoral dissertation into a full-length biography during her early years of teaching. Brissot de Warville a Study in the Histor pof the Hrench Revolution, based on eitensive'§tud§ in French archives, was puhlished in 1915 in a series comemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the college. It is still recognized as authoritative for an under- standing of the role of the Girondin party in the ELOISE ELLEHY (Continued) Convention. But Miss Ellery's heart was in teaching, not in research and writing except as it bore on teaching. During several sumers she attended the Institute of Politics at Williams College. She addressed various organizations on contemporary educational and political issues, and contributed articles and reviews to learned periodicals. From 1925 to 1931 she served as associate on the staff of Current History, her assignment being to provide brie mon y rev ews of political developments in Italy, Spain and Portugal. She was a member of the American Historical Association and in 1915 served on the important General Comittee of that organiza- tion. She was a member of the Vassar chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. In reply to a questionnaire circulated among Vassar alumnae in 1950, Miss Ellery replied to the question whether she would (or would not) choose Vassar if she were entering college then: "Knowing a good deal about Vassar and little of any other college (by per- sonal connection) I am hardly qualified to make any comparative estimate. But after having had an almost unbroken connection with Vassar for over fifty years, I can say that I have always found here an atmosphere of democracy and freedom of speech." This statement may well stand as Miss Ellery's leave- taking 0 Respectfully submitted, Violet Barbour Ruth Miller Elson James Bruce Ross XIV — M47-M50
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Title: Dwight, William Buck, 1833-1906 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Cooley, Le Roy C., Whitney, Mary W., Wylie, Laura J.
Description
Date: [After 1906]
Text: J WILLIAM BUCK DWIGHT 1833 - 1906 The Committee appointed September 2h, to draw up resolutions regarding the death of Professor Dwight presented the following: Whereas: William Buck Dwight, whose death occurred on August 29, 1906, has been identified with Vassar College as Professor of Geology and Mineralogy for twenty-eight years, serving the College with loyalty, enthusiasm and efficiency, and Whereas: by admirable traits of character as an in- structor and as a man, he maintained the...
Show moreJ WILLIAM BUCK DWIGHT 1833 - 1906 The Committee appointed September 2h, to draw up resolutions regarding the death of Professor Dwight presented the following: Whereas: William Buck Dwight, whose death occurred on August 29, 1906, has been identified with Vassar College as Professor of Geology and Mineralogy for twenty-eight years, serving the College with loyalty, enthusiasm and efficiency, and Whereas: by admirable traits of character as an in- structor and as a man, he maintained the trustful respect of his pupils, the sincere regard of his as- sociates, and the confidence of all who have been most deeply interested in the welfare of this in- stitution, therefore Resolved: that we, the Faculty of Vassar College here- by testify our appreciation of the character and work of Professor Dwight and our sorrow for the loss of an honored associate. Resolved also, that a copy of this minute be sent to the family of Professor Dwight, as an assurance of our sincere sympathy in their bereavement. Le Roy C. Cooley Mary W. Whitney Laura J. Wylie K C I IV 376 377
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Title: Riggs, Austin Fox, 1876-1940 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Baldwin, Jane North, Langner, Helen P., Thompson, C. Mildred
Description
Date: [After 1940]
Text: AUSTIN FOX RIGGS 1876 - iauo In the death of Dr. Austen Fox Riggs of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, March 5, l9hO, the Faculty of Vassar College lost a distinguished and helpful colleague. He was appointed Lecturer and Consultant in Mental Hygiene at Vassar in the spring of l92h, and with the cooperation of members of his staff of the Riggs Foundation at Stockbridge he continued to serve in this capacity until his death. Under the direction of Dr. Riggs, Vassar became a pioneer in recognizing...
Show moreAUSTIN FOX RIGGS 1876 - iauo In the death of Dr. Austen Fox Riggs of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, March 5, l9hO, the Faculty of Vassar College lost a distinguished and helpful colleague. He was appointed Lecturer and Consultant in Mental Hygiene at Vassar in the spring of l92h, and with the cooperation of members of his staff of the Riggs Foundation at Stockbridge he continued to serve in this capacity until his death. Under the direction of Dr. Riggs, Vassar became a pioneer in recognizing the importance and even the necessity of psychiatric services in the diagnosis and treatment of problems of young people. Through his skillful aid many of our students who suffered from difficulties of maladjustment, from emotional instability or other disorders of a psychiatric nature received from him diagnosis and constructive rehabilitation. During these years, 192h to l9hO, many members of our college community came under the healing and stimulating guidance of Dr. Riggs, and those of us who were not his patients but his fellow-workers have had continuing benefit from his sane and invigorating attitude towards life and its problems. Dr. Riggs, the son of a physician, was born in Ger- many while his parents were residing abroad. He was graduated from Harvard College and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, and took post-graduate study at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore. He founded and remained until his death the head of the Riggs Foundation in Stock- bridge, established for the free treatment of patients who needed psychiatric care and who were unable to bear the expense. Many members of Vassar College have been privileged to benefit by the treat- ment and care thus afforded by the Riggs Foundation. This is but one tangible expression of the generosity in giving of himself without stint which was the dominating characteristic of Dr. Riggs. His method of thrapy was one which was based pri- marily on regard for the person as a whole, on a philosophy of life which was strongly social, not I 1 1 i ! i 1 I i I ? I AUSTIN FOX RIGGS (Continued) individualistic, and which combined a strictly scientific training with a rarely humane and sym- pathetic understanding of people. His books written for the general public, "Intelligent Living", "Just Nerves" and "Play", are the embodiment of his own rich living and boundless generosity of spirit. We are grateful for what he was and for what he did, and feel a just pride in the distinction he conferred upon Vassar College in associating himself with us. His friends and colleagues at Vassar will long hold him in grateful remembrance. Jane North Baldwin Helen P. Langner C. Mildred Thompson X - 159 l /
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Title: Drake, Durant, 1878-1933 -- Memorial Minute
Date: [After 1933]
Text: DURANT DRAKE 1878 - 1933 After eighteen years of devoted service to Vassar College Durant Drake, Professor of Philosophy, died at the age of fifty-five in the early morning of November twenty-fifth. Always frail in body he at first attached no great significance to the illness that laid him low in the month of October, and even when told that the end was near continued a gallant struggle for recovery. Recognizing at last that death had come to claim him he accepted the inevita- ble with...
Show moreDURANT DRAKE 1878 - 1933 After eighteen years of devoted service to Vassar College Durant Drake, Professor of Philosophy, died at the age of fifty-five in the early morning of November twenty-fifth. Always frail in body he at first attached no great significance to the illness that laid him low in the month of October, and even when told that the end was near continued a gallant struggle for recovery. Recognizing at last that death had come to claim him he accepted the inevita- ble with courage and perfect serenity. Durant Drake was of New England puritan stock. It was in accordance with the traditions of his race that he went first to Boston Latin school and then to Harvard University, winning prizes all along the way and graduating summa ggg laude. A kind fate gave him close touch7FIth eminent scholars in his chosen field and fruitful intercourse with them helped to shape his own ideas into what he himself called the philosophy of a meliorist. "If," he wrote, "there is any keynote that has given a kind of unity to my thinking in diverse fields it is a sense of the needless unhappiness from which men suffer and a pas- sionate longing to do my bit in formulating and dif- fusing a clearer intelligence concerning the art of living." Thus in his teaching he emphasized primarily problems of human conduct, drawing his illustrations fro an extraordinarily wide range of reading. Stimu- lating class discussions were often continued on Sunday afternoons when throughout the year he was at home to his students. Many of those who have gone forth from Vassar will always remember gratefully that beautiful and hospitable home. But it was as a writer that Durant Drake was most widely known. Eminently in his books he realized his "passionate desire" to formulate and diffuse "a clearer intelligence concerning the art of living." Their titles indicate how practical, in the broad sense of th t th i f h f hi ki P e erm, was e a m o muc o s thin ng: ro- blems of Conduct (19110, Problems of Reli ion (1‘§l'6JI 3haII We Btanﬁ B the Church? {I525}, America Faces the Ftture lI§§Z;, The New Horalit (l§23). The re- viewers of these boohs all prhise their lucidity, vigor, forceful and winning style, and persuasive sanity. The same qualities of style appear in his re- cent Invitation to Philoso h . His most abstract thinki was ex res H In hi d d It P1 i N t ng p se n an s_,_§ceL n a ure (1925), where he presents his metaphysical system, DURANT DRAKE (Continued) related to though not derived from the thought of Santayana and Charles Strong. It may truly be said of Durant Drake that his life and work, despite his physical limitations, fulfilled to an extraordinary degree its own high aims. Lucy E. Textor IX - 188 [ /
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Title: Geer, E. Harold, 1886-1957 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Pearson, Donald M., Swain, Barbara, Peirce, John M.
Description
Date: [After 1957]
Text: E. HAROLD GEER 1886 - 1957 It was with genuine regret that we learned during the Christmas season of the sudden death of Profes- sor Emeritus E. Harold Geer at the age of seventy-one years, more than half of which were spent as a member of the Vassar faculty in the Department of Music. Those of us who knew him well respected his musician- ship, and his uncompromisingly high musical standards. He gave unstintingly of his service to the college as a teacher, organist, director of the Vassar...
Show moreE. HAROLD GEER 1886 - 1957 It was with genuine regret that we learned during the Christmas season of the sudden death of Profes- sor Emeritus E. Harold Geer at the age of seventy-one years, more than half of which were spent as a member of the Vassar faculty in the Department of Music. Those of us who knew him well respected his musician- ship, and his uncompromisingly high musical standards. He gave unstintingly of his service to the college as a teacher, organist, director of the Vassar Choir and of the Madrigal Group, and as chairman of the Music Department for a period of years after the resignation of Professor Dickinson from that position. Mr. Geer was born in Tabor, Iowa in 1886. He received the B. A. and M. A. degrees fro Doane College in Nebraska, and a Mus. B. degree from the Oberlin Con- servatory of Music in Ohio. In l9h9 Deane College bestowed upon him an honorary Mus. D. degree. He studied organ and composition with Widor and Gedalge in Paris, organ with T. Tertius Noble and piano with Ernest Hutcheson in this country, and composition and conducting at the Conservatoire Americain de Fontainebleau in France. Before coming to Vassar College Mr. Geer taught at Lake Erie College for Women in Ohio and at Albion Col- lege in Michigan. From 1913 to 1916 he was organist and choir director of the First Congregational Church in Fall River, Massachusetts. In 1916 he came to Vassar College as Assistant Professor of Music and taught here for thirty-six years. After his retire- ment in 1952 he went to Cbatham College in Pittsburgh. Subsequently he served as acting chairman of the Music Department at Hood College in Maryland. Last summer he taught at the Yale Music School in Norfolk, Connecticut. He was a member of the College Music Association, Pi Kappa Lamba and a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists. He edited and arranged over one hundred compositions of choral music for women's voices. He edited the beloved "Peace I Leave with You", originally harmonized by George Coleman Gow for women's voices. He also made an arrangement of this for mixed voices. Mr. Geer was editor of The H al for Collegasand Schools published in 1955 By %€e Yaie University Press and now in use in the Vassar Chapel. His last publication E. HAROLD GEER (Continued) was a book, Or an Registration in Theo and Practice, which came out last mnnth (December, IéE7I. The study of this subject was carried on by Mr. Gear for many years at Vassar College. Grants frm the Salmon Fund aided his research and the publication of the book. Mr. Geer gave organ recitals at the Prague Municipal Auditorium in Czechoslovakia and at York Minster, England. He had numerous appearances in recital in this country, playing programs of organ music in col- leges, universities, civic auditoriums and churches. His Sunday evening organ recitals on the Vassar Campus offered a wide variety of excellent literature skill- fully performed. To many generations of students these programs came to be known as "dark music" since they were performed in the dramatic setting of the dimly lighted chapel. Unquestionably Mr. Geer's primary musical interest at Vassar College was the Choir, which he directed from 1920 to 1952. He devoted scholarly research to the selection of choral material which represented the world's finest settings of sacred texts. The music he introduced ranged in style from the works of English composers in the,Renaissance Period to those of Vaughan Williams and Kodaly in the twentieth century. The insistent emphasis on superior music certainly had a great influence in improving the musical taste of students who sang it and heard it from the days of required chapel to a later time when chapel attendance was no longer obligatory. The music for the regular chapel services and for other programs was meticulously prepared and beautifully performed. Under Mr. Geer's direction the annual program of Christmas music became a tradition at Vassar College and attracted large audiences. To a casual acquaintance Mr. Geer may have seemed to be rather reserved and formal but h was certainly far from that when he conducted performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, "Trial by Jury" on Founder's Day. To those who were intimately associated with him he was a kind and understanding friend and excellent teacher. His perceptions were keen and he possessed a quick sense of humor. He was frank and outspoken, and even those who disagreed with him on policies he favored or with his methods of procedure, never doubted for a moment the sincerity of his convictions. E. HAROLD GEEK (Continued) Socially the Gear home on Raymond Avenue was always a friendly place to visit. The choir parties which Mr. and Mrs. Geer gave each year for choir members and faculty guests and the memorial Geer family Christmas cards, which Mr. Geer designed, will long be remembered. We extend to Mrs. Gear and to his surviving sons and daughter the sympathy of the faculty in their loss and express to them the appreciation of the faculty for professor Geer's long and distinguished service to Vassar College. Donald M. Pearson Barbara Swain John M. Peirce XIV - 375-376
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Title: Fiske, Christabel Forsyth, 1869-1956 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Lockwood, Helen Drusilla, Griffin, Charles, Swain, Barbara
Description
Date: [After 1956]
Text: CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE 1869 - 1956 Every one of us who speaks of Christabel Forsyth Fiske, begins his narrative with, "I shQJ.never forget." She was one of Vassar's great women. Her gallant figure crossed the campus as if under full sail, its course held true by her intense love of learning and her direct sense of life. She wrote a nuber of studies on Old English and German Medieval literatures, English modifications of Teutonic racial concepts, 16th century and romantic...
Show moreCHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE 1869 - 1956 Every one of us who speaks of Christabel Forsyth Fiske, begins his narrative with, "I shQJ.never forget." She was one of Vassar's great women. Her gallant figure crossed the campus as if under full sail, its course held true by her intense love of learning and her direct sense of life. She wrote a nuber of studies on Old English and German Medieval literatures, English modifications of Teutonic racial concepts, 16th century and romantic literature. She was cited by scholars for her knowledge of Milton. She was learned in languages and belonged to organiza- tions devoted to their study: the American Dialect Society, the American Folk Lore Society, the Scan- dinavian Society, the Modern Language Association. Two of hr works give the key to her quality. In her essay,_§Qmel%1Realism in Medieval German Literature in Vassar E9 geval §tu§}es of I§2§ sEe says of Her findings, I I This thread of homespun is but a slender one... Or to change the metaphor - the plain, quaint little figure which in true medieval fashion has gradually become for me the personification of this intimate, homely phase of the German mind, has been very inconspicuous, lost con- tinually among the mystical and romantic per~ sonages thronging fantastically or brilliantly the pages I have read. Such as it is, however, it is more in evidence, I think, than in most other medieval European literatures, and therefore not nly intrinsically interesting, but also from the comparative point of view, at least suggestively significant. In her last book, E ic Su estions in the Ima er of the Waverl Novels, puEIIsEed in I§ED, she searcEed out the Heroic element in Sir Walter Scott because, she says, ... it had been neglected in criticism in favor of the romantic... In the case of a man of Scott's caliber, the impact of him on the average intelligent mind should result in a moderately well-rounded.. conception of him as a great English writer. CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE (Continued) To have this "moderately well—r0unded conception" required merely that one be aware of the relation- ships of one person and all society, nature, the traditions of lanuage and literature, the range from the folk to the aristocrats, from the romantic to the heroic. This search for fullness and balance made her a superb editor. To her Vassar owes the publication of Vassar Medieval Studies and the Vassar Journal of Under- graduate Studies, the most cﬁaracteristic and original w »ness 0 our achievement in the liberal arts that has ever been published. Beyond writiq; her own piece for the Vassar Medieval Studies, sheedited the whole volume. 'tE¥hin th6‘quiet, exaet words of her preface one can see her in action. She speaks of many an illuminating talk with various colleagues whose work while primarily in classical or in modern fields, is in certain aspects of it closely connected with the period here dealt with... They have cooperated with us; and we have thus a book somewhat widely representative of outlook upon the Middle Ages. The departments represented in the book were English, French, German, Folk Lore, History, Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Art, Music. For fourteen years, 1926-l9hO, as she read the papers of Vassar's students submitted for the Vassar Journal d h t er of Under raduate Stu ies, er sure judgmen nev flagged. Every meeting of the Committee of the Journal brought out the flashing sharpness of her critical faculties, and she could always put into a few words the gist of the virtues or weaknesses of an essay. She was always a teacher too while she was editing. She took infinite pains with the students who wrote these essays, especially when she felt the student had capacity to do distinguished work. She was more interested in helping them to develop their gifts than in passing judgment on their work. She insisted on the highest possible standards of writing and research, involving not only scholarship but also sensitive imagination. From 1903-l9hO generations of students came to life in her courses on the history of English literature, her seminar on Milton, her seminar on Language. Her classes CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE (Continued) were rich in scholarship, profound and illumined. Even students whose background was barren and whose idea of a college was dim, caught the light on the past and discovered that Old and Middle English told them about life. "She taught me to write a critical paper," says one of her students thirty years later. ‘So gently too. But I've never forgotten. She so quietly showed me that I needn't say ever thin but I must select. She showed me how to select tﬁe essentials."Patiently, without invading the personal dignity of her students she taught them to write by singling out each one's exact difficulty or possibility. "I know exactly who you are," she said to a freshman who in her paper a few days before had tried to tell the elevated feeling about coming to college that had suddenly dawned on her the sumer before. "Your face belongs to this paper." But when the faces were not alight because the students had not read the books, much less thought about them, she was known to slam her book don: on the desk, announce "I don't think I want to see you today," and walk out of the room. The effect on their work was electric. She was a friend and a presence on the campus. She knew who was devoted and who lived on the surface. When she trusted people, her greeting always invited them to enter a world of justice and truth in which she herself dWG 0 "When did you get the meaning of academic integrity?" she would ask a colleague for she was troubled about her students’ slow recognition of plagiarism. "My brain is seething," she would say. "Do you know the difference between Plato and Neo-Platonism?" Or if she had a great tyranny of today on her mind or the sufferings of the war or the injustices of the Great Depression or the bitter fruit of prejudice, she would seize one who, she knew, cared too and with her eyes severe and flashing, would say, "Will you explain clearly to me in a paragraph what is the meaning of this and what is to be done about it?" Only by chance did one know that behind the darting questions and the seething mind was also the long, generous private list of contributions to many pioneering agencies struggling to right wrongs. It worked the other way too. As you saw her coming out of the library daily, you would ask her about what in CHRISTABEL FORSYTH FISKE (Continued) Scott's imagery she had found today, and there would come clear, sparkling discourse about the workings of his poetical imagination and perhaps his whole plan for the aforestation of Scotland. She was always ready to share the freshness of experience._But like all original and poetic spirits amidst the worldly ones, she was a wayfarer.... Nevertheless the fact that she was going somewhere wonderful inspired the whole college. Her memory today renews our faith in the course. Helen Drusilla Lockwood Charles Griffin Barbara Swain XIV - 127-129
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Title: Lathrop, Edward, 1814-1906 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Leach, Abby, Gow, George Coleman, Kendrick, Georgia Avery, Whitney, Mary W.
Description
Date: [After 1906]
Text: ! 1 1 r 1 EDWARD LATHROP l8lh-1906 The Committee appointed April 6, to draw up resolutions upon the death of Dr. Lathrop presen- ted the followin: Whereas: Dr. Edward Lathrop was one of the Charter Members of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College and for thirty years served as Chairman of the BO9.rd 3 8116. Whereas: During these many years he gave himself to all the interests of the college with marked faithfulness and warm-hearted devotion, and Whereas: He displayed in all these relations...
Show more! 1 1 r 1 EDWARD LATHROP l8lh-1906 The Committee appointed April 6, to draw up resolutions upon the death of Dr. Lathrop presen- ted the followin: Whereas: Dr. Edward Lathrop was one of the Charter Members of the Board of Trustees of Vassar College and for thirty years served as Chairman of the BO9.rd 3 8116. Whereas: During these many years he gave himself to all the interests of the college with marked faithfulness and warm-hearted devotion, and Whereas: He displayed in all these relations a broad-minded sympathy with the highest aims of the college and a liberal and progressive spirit towards the modern Problems of Women's Education, Therefore resolved: That the Faculty of Vassar Col- lege express their profound sense of the great loss they have sustained in his death and their grateful appreciation of his valuable services; That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family of Dr. Lathrop. Abby Leach George Coleman Gov Georgia Avery Kendrick Mary W. Whitney IV - 363
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Title: Dean, Willard L., 1841-1898 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Van Ingen, Henry, Kendrick, Georgia Avery, Ely, Achsah M.
Description
Date: [After 1898]
Text: ‘ I i I > WILLARD L. DEAN lﬁhl - 1898 The Cmittee appointed to draw up resolutions upon the death of Mr. Dean, presented the follow- ing: Whereas: by the death of Willard L. Dean Vassar College has lost an officer whose long and faithful service as its treasurer and kind and obliging spirit as a trustee and friend have endeared him to the officers, alumnae and students of Vassar Col- lege during the greater part of its existence; Therefore, be it resolved that this Faculty express its...
Show more‘ I i I > WILLARD L. DEAN lﬁhl - 1898 The Cmittee appointed to draw up resolutions upon the death of Mr. Dean, presented the follow- ing: Whereas: by the death of Willard L. Dean Vassar College has lost an officer whose long and faithful service as its treasurer and kind and obliging spirit as a trustee and friend have endeared him to the officers, alumnae and students of Vassar Col- lege during the greater part of its existence; Therefore, be it resolved that this Faculty express its sense of personal loss at his death, and extend to his family its sympathy in their affliction. Henry Van Ingen Georgia Avery Kendrick Achsah M. Ely III - 257
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Title: Barbour, Violet, 1884-1968 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Campbell, Mildred, Olsen, Donald, Rappaport, Rhoda
Description
Date: [After 1968]
Text: ,/ 61/ VIOLET BARBOUR 1884 — 1968 Violet Barbour was a member of the department of history at Vassar from 1914 until her retirement in 1950. Those who knew her best remember her for her combination of intellectual toughness and personal delicacy. One of her students has described her as "just slightly Jane Austen, though at the same time New Yorker chic." To her friends she was warmhearted, witty, and stimulating. To everyone she was kind, though her charity towards a person did not...
Show more,/ 61/ VIOLET BARBOUR 1884 — 1968 Violet Barbour was a member of the department of history at Vassar from 1914 until her retirement in 1950. Those who knew her best remember her for her combination of intellectual toughness and personal delicacy. One of her students has described her as "just slightly Jane Austen, though at the same time New Yorker chic." To her friends she was warmhearted, witty, and stimulating. To everyone she was kind, though her charity towards a person did not necessarily extend to his opinions. She had wide interests, ranging from civic matters to sport. To the end of her life she was an ardent baseball fan and would regularly journey with friends to Brooklyn to watch and cheer the Dodgers; reluctantly, she transferred her devotion to the Mets when the Dodgers moved west. But Miss Barbour's overwhelming passion was scholarship. As an undergraduate at Cornell University, her interest centered in history, enriched by the social sciences and literature. Cornell, where she continued through the Ph.D., acknowledged her intellectual prowess with both undergraduate and graduate fellowships. Recognition of this kind was to continue through many years in the form of prizes, awards, and other honors. Her first book, Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams prize by the American Historical Association in 1913, and remains the standard authority on the subject. She was the first woman ever to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, in 1925. B She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in England, and later, when her interest in the seventeenth century broadened to include Dutch history, was given honor- ary membership in the Historische Genootschap, a distinction B rarely granted to foreign scholars. Her Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century, published in 1950, has since, as Miss Barbour herself once put it, acquired "the dignity of paperbackery"; more significantly, it is used to introduce students at the University of Amsterdam to their own economic history. Her many articles in professional journals in America, England, and The Netherlands have made her as well known abroad as she is in this country. Indeed, one of her Vassar colleagues once had difficulty correcting an English scholar who spoke of Violet Barbour as "one of the most distinguished of our English women historians." 6Y7 VIOLET BARBOUR (Continued) Teaching provided a further arena for Miss Barbour's skills. She delighted in intellectual sparring, in challenging and being challenged by her students. Her original mode of expression, personal warmth, and infectious humor found full play in the classroom. She was shy by nature, but lost her shyness when she found herself, as she once remarked, "facing a group of fresh- men more frightened than I was." She was, however, a teacher not for the many, but for the few, though she tried to help the many if they sought her help. For intellectually gifted students, she was the teacher and they remained her friends for life. One has recently recalled the "discussing, pondering, and questioning" that was continually underway in her classes, the "excite- ment," and the "great good humor." Another student, herself a well-known historian, wrote: "Her style was beautiful, her vocabulary also, but always so underplayed that it took a sharp ear to hear what she was saying . . . she was a mistress of irony, but . . . a kindly irony, not the usual sharp and cutting academic skepticism . . . Tough and delicate. You'd think she must be spared, but . . . she never spared you, to your ultimate improvement and growth. I left Vassar knowing how immeasurably I had been changed by her --in every way." Miss Barbour did not talk a great deal in faculty meetings, but strong convictions on important matters would bring her to her feet. Her concern with educational policy was genuine and based on thoughtful study. In connection with our cur- rent re-examination of the curriculum, it may be of interest that in 1925 Violet Barbour was arguing for: "A realiza- tion of the coherence, the dimly seen unity of knowledge, instead of the isolation by which academic departments guard their autonomy. "Scholars," she wrote, "should always be trespassing upon one another, always making peaceful forays into one another's territory to learn what is afoot there and bring the news to astound the folk at home." She believed that "a general plan of education valid for each and all" would always elude, but "if knowledge is not to fall into complete incoherence and our horizons collapse on our heads, the liaisons between studies must be developed and strengthened." VIOLET BARBOUR (Continued) Miss Barbour's broad interests and sympathies found expression in her scholarly work in a discipline which she found neither narrow nor confining. Referring to a piece of her own research, she once wrote: "the project is not one of earth—shaking importance, but it has a great deal of human nature knocking about in it and I find it quite absorbing." Hers was the kind of scholarship which combined imagination, sympathy, and perspective. Mildred Campbell Donald Olsen Rhoda Rappaport
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Title: Bracq, Jean Charlemagne, 1853-1934 -- Memorial Minute
Date: [After 1934]
Text: JEAN CHARLEMAGNE BRACQ In view of the resignation and approaching departure of Dr. Jean Charlemagne Bracq, John Guy Vassar Professor of Modern Languages, we, his fellow members of the Faculty, wish to put on record our appreciation of:- his long and faithful service as head of the French Department; his loyal interest and cooperation in all that pertains to the general development and welfare of the college; and his untiring labors in the world beyond the college bounds to unite more closely...
Show moreJEAN CHARLEMAGNE BRACQ In view of the resignation and approaching departure of Dr. Jean Charlemagne Bracq, John Guy Vassar Professor of Modern Languages, we, his fellow members of the Faculty, wish to put on record our appreciation of:- his long and faithful service as head of the French Department; his loyal interest and cooperation in all that pertains to the general development and welfare of the college; and his untiring labors in the world beyond the college bounds to unite more closely the land of his adoption and the land of his birth. And we would express our hope and desire that in the years of active life still before him, which we trust are many, he may continue to do most effective work, with tongue and pen, in the cause of humanity and of religion. VI - 262-263, 1913
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Title: Lamson, Genieve, 1886-1966 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Conklin, Ruth, Pearson, Homer, Warthin, Scott, Post, C. Gordon
Description
Date: [After 1966]
Text: d%T GENIEVE LAMBON 1886 ~ 1966 In the year 1887, the Constitution of the United States had been in operation for less than a century. Only forty States comprised the Union. Grover Cleveland was President ad Morrison Waite was Chief Justice. David B. Hill was Governor of New York and in his annual message to the Legislature he recommended "the abolition of an unnecessary office." Abroad, Victoria was Queen and the Marquis of Salisbury was her prime mbnister. William I was Emperor of...
Show mored%T GENIEVE LAMBON 1886 ~ 1966 In the year 1887, the Constitution of the United States had been in operation for less than a century. Only forty States comprised the Union. Grover Cleveland was President ad Morrison Waite was Chief Justice. David B. Hill was Governor of New York and in his annual message to the Legislature he recommended "the abolition of an unnecessary office." Abroad, Victoria was Queen and the Marquis of Salisbury was her prime mbnister. William I was Emperor of Germany and Alexander III, Tsar of Russia. . Only twenty-nine years earlier, Charles Darwin had published his Origin_g§ Species. Karl Marx had been dead but four years. And in 1887, that supreme revolutionary, Gottlieb Daimler, was operating for the first time a motor car propelled by a petrol engine. In this same year, in the cool silence of a little Vermont town, in sight of the Braintree Mountains and close by the gentle waters of the Third Branch of the White River, Genieve Lamson was born. Miss Lamson's ancestors settled in Randolph in 1791. They were farmers; and good, solid middleclass citizens; hardy, self- reliant, independent, ad God-fearing. One uncle ran the farm, another became a highly successful hardware merchant. Her father purchased and operated s retail furniture store. As was customary in thee days, he was also the local undertaker and funeral director. Before 1900, Miss Lamson's father invested money in gold mining which turned out to be worthless; so that while he was able to send his oldest child and only son to college, he could not afford to do the same for his three daughters. Armed only with a high-school diploma, Miss Lammon taught for four terms in the rural schools around Randolph. On a Sunday afternoon she would drive her horse and sleigh some miles out to a tiny village where for five days a week she met her charges in a one-room schoolhouse; tended a pot- bellied stove; and gave instruction, not only in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but, by way of MoGuffey, in the virtues of temperace, industry, self-control, stick-to-itive- ness, mercy, and honesty. 36 GEMIEVE LAMON - continued The following Friday afternoon would see her return to Randolph. During the week she would live with e local family. , Miss Lamson spoke occasionally of those drives through deep snows, of the biting winds that carried the flakes against her face, of the crunch of steel runners upon hard-packed snow. Finding that she liked teaching, Miss Lamson attended a normal school in Springfield, Massachusetts, for one year. Then for five years she taught in the Roselle Park, Mew Jersey, high school. Aware of the need for a college education, Miss Lamson ventured even deeper into that great area west of the Hudson River and matriculated at the young University of Chicago. Here, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1920 at the age of thirty-three. After a year of teaching in a private school, Miss Lamson returned to Chicago for a Master's degree. In 1922, she cams to Vassar where she remained until her retirement thirty years later. Miss Lamson was an economic geographer. She was at first associated with the Department of Geology. In 1934 a Depart- ment of Geography was established and Miss Lamson was installed as chairman. This position she held throughout her tenure. Her published works include "Geographic influences in the Early History of Vermont" (1924), "A Study of Agricultural Populations in Selected Vermont Towns" (1931), and parts here and there in the Dutchess Couty Works Progress Admin- istration Guide Book of which project she was the director. Miss Lamson was a delegate to the International Geographical Union Congress in Warsaw, Poland, in 1934, and in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1938. For twenty years, she was head resident in Lathrop House. Miss Lanson also distinguished herself as Editor-in-chief of the Vassar Journal of Undergraduate Studies. Miss Lamson in her "Study of Agricultural Populations in selected Vermont Towns" described the Vermont farmer, and in doing so, described herself. Me is, she wrote, "a person of reserve and a strong sense of privacy. His characteristic independence is based upon an inherent self-respect. He asks V $7 GERIIVE‘LAMBO - continued no 'oddd of society.‘ He will deal generously with the unfortunate, and dispense hospitality to the stranger, with no apologies for the coditions of his hospitality. At the same time he will drive s shrewd bargain and is so thrifty that he has earned the reputation of being ‘close.’ A pro- found conservative, the farmer clings to the established order. Me accepts change cautiously, and only from conviction based on experience. His conservatism," she continued, "expresses itself in his code of morals and religion. There is a good deal of the English Puritan in the Vermont farmer. He has a keen sense of right and wrong, and a straightforward honesty. He respects education. Me appreciates initiative and ability. He has a profound sense of community responsibility." One thing she did not mention. In every Vermonter, buried deep within his soul, is the spirit of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys. This spirit manifested itself in Miss Lamson when she rebelled against the Republicanism of her forefathers, against the Republicanism.of her immediate family, of hr relations to the farthest remove, and of her friends. She flirted with socialism in the images of Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas, and came to rest, finally, in the arms of Franklin D. Roosevelt-~figuratively speaking. when Miss Lamson retired she retuned to the family home in Randolph which in spirit she had never left. She plunged immdiately into the affairs of the community. She was the historian of the Bethany Congregational Church, a trustee of the Vermont Historical Society, a sponsor of the Vermont Symhony Orchestra, and a prominent member of the Randolph Garden Club. Almost to the time of her death she sang in the church choir. A - Last May at the State meeting of the Vermont Division of the American Association of University Women, Miss Lamson was honored by having e national scholarship named for her. Thus, on September 25th, there can to an end a useful life which covered monumental changes in the story of man. True to her backgroud, Miss Lamaon represented the best of tradi- tions; but she had learned a lesson from Lincoln: The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present . . . As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. Ruth Conklin Homer Pearson Scott Warthin Gordon Post, Chairman
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Title: Sasse, Hannah, 1899-1944 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Hofrichter, Ruth J., Milinowski, Marta, Klett, Ada M.
Description
Date: [After 1944]
Text: HANNAH SASSE 1899 - 19bit The life of Hannah Sasse was out off before its peak, an eminence already well in sight. Superficially considered, it was not spectacular. Born in Toledo, Ohio, a city very different in flavor from the pic- turesque Hannoverian village of Hille from which Dr. Otto Sasse brought his bride, Maria Siveke, to Amer- ica in 1898, Hannah Sasse called Toledo her home dur- ing her entire lifetime. On Put-in-Bay Island, famous for Commodore Perry's victory as for his...
Show moreHANNAH SASSE 1899 - 19bit The life of Hannah Sasse was out off before its peak, an eminence already well in sight. Superficially considered, it was not spectacular. Born in Toledo, Ohio, a city very different in flavor from the pic- turesque Hannoverian village of Hille from which Dr. Otto Sasse brought his bride, Maria Siveke, to Amer- ica in 1898, Hannah Sasse called Toledo her home dur- ing her entire lifetime. On Put-in-Bay Island, famous for Commodore Perry's victory as for his words, Dr. Sasse bought a second house for summer relaxation, one that was to become increasingly dear to his family. There it was natural to revert to the simpler ways of Hille tradition, especially since the majority of the island inhabitants were also German, at least by de- scent. German was the language of the house, and so foreign was its atmosphere that one autumn, when the time came to return to Toledo, Hannah Sasse's sister was heard to complain: "Do we have to go back to America?" In Put-in-Bay Hannah Sasse learned to feel at home in and on the water, and surrounded herself with a veritable menagerie of animal friends. From kindergarten to College one school, the Smead School of Toledo took charge of her formal education, a happy choice that brought contact with teachers who allowed her to find wholehearted enjoyment in learning. Mrs. Sasse, herself a child at heart, carefully super- vised the play time of her daughters. Her home became the gathering place for the children of the neighbor- hOOd0 Hanah Sasse entered Vassar College when the first World War was still in eruption. It was character- istic of her that she did not permit antagonism and prejudice to distort her appreciation of whatever she found good in the country of her ancestry as in the country of her birth. Appropriately the subjects upon which her interest crystallized were English and German literature and language. She read with avidity and also wrote. Some of her poems were published in the Vassar Miscellany. Courses with Miss Wylie, Miss Peebles, and Miss Struck intensified her desire to become a teacher. She never forgot that it was Vassar College which pointed out the way in which she could best expand and be of use in the teaching profession. ! HANNAH SASSE (Continued) The invaluable experience of assisting Miss Peebles as research secretary in London and Oxford the year after graduation frdm College in 1921 was followed by two years of teaching Latin and English at the Colonial School for Girls in Washington, D. C. In preparation for a:more rewarding career further study was indicated. Accordingly"Hannah Sasse enrolled in the Graduate School of adcliffe College under Profes- sor John Livingston Lowes, earning her Master's degree in 1925 in the field of English. Before entering upon several years of teaching at the school of her childhood in Toledo she spent two absorbing terms as Miss Wylie's assistant in the Summer School for Workers in Industry at Bryn Mawr College. At this time it became apparent to Professor Marian P. Whitney, then head of the Department of German at Vassar Col- lege, that a person of Hannah Sasse's worth and bi- lingual background would be assured of a successful career in the field of College German. It was she who persuaded her to study for a Doctorate with this change of focus. ' Not long after matriculating at the University of Munich she encountered her first enemy in the form of an illness serious enough to have discouraged all thought of a professional career. Returning to her home she seconded her father's efforts by devoting herself to the battle for health under his wise di- rection. Not until the fall of 1930 was she able to accept an appointment as instructor in the German Department at Vassar College on a half time basis. She had to learn to husband her strength with the help of her alter ego, the car. Some of this faculty will remember a succession of them from the ragged roadster with the flapping side curtains, affectionately called "Der Taugenichts", to the super-deluxe convert- ible Ford coupe, with dachshund Loki, her horizontal shadow, barking from the window, ears flapping in the Windo For four good years Hannah Sasse forged ahead with all enthusiasm. In 193k a new and more threatening ill- ness beset her. This too was faced, and consigned to the past. Again, Hannah Sasse could make plans for acquiring the higher degree demanded by her ambition. In 1936 a special grant for research from the Board of Trustees and later a Faculty Fellowship prepared the i ¥ E 1 i \ i I HANNAH SASSE (Continued) way for two thoroughly happy years spent at the University of Freiburg. She returned to America with the title of Doctor of Philosophy and that of P f t V h Assistant ro essor a assar College, also wit her published thesis on Friedericke Caroline Neuber, Versuch einer Neuwertun . It was Eer Intention one day to write a Biography in English of this impor- tant actress and writer of the late Baroque period. From Europe she brought back memories of quiet work in the little apartment facing the Schwarzwald, of long walks through the fields, of the pleasures of the road as she chugged along in her German car from Freiburg northward to the ocean - and of threatening tremors of war. maturing rapidly as a scholar and a teacher, Hannah Sasse's joy in the subjects she taught was contagious. Enthusiasm and wide interests made her instruction a living 6Xp8PiHlO6 for her students and her influence a constructive element in their lives. More and more her opinion began to count not only in Department matters but in the College at large. $he was a defin- ite person, liking forceful language._ While she was_ at all times ready to consider many sides of a ques- tion, she was never reluctant to take an unpopular stand. In recognition of her qualities as a leader she was appointed Chairman of the Comittee on Pub- lications at the time of the Seventy+Fifth Anniversary of the founding of Vassar College, in l9hD. This meant assuming the responsibility of choosing and publishing in time for the celebration a group of works, including books, music, and the reproduction of a painting, and all this under the unpropitious conditions of wartime. In l9hl Hannah Sasse was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. A second onslaught of illness in 19h3 necessitated an operation from which recovery was temporary. In spite of increasing weakness and discomfort she carried on at her post until within a few weeks of her death on June fifteenth l9hh, and with such success and self-forgetfulness that few of her students were aware that she was critically ill. In Hannah 3asse's death Vassar College has lost one whom it will be difficult to replace. She will be HANNAH SASSE (Continued) generally missed for her outgoing friendliness and helpfulness, her exuberant vitality, her unfailing effort to promote understanding between countries, and her constructive dissatisfaction in striving for the best interests of Vassar College. Her life, though truncated, had completion through the way in which it was lived. With clarity and de- tachment she faced facts and dealt with them. Never admitting the possibility of defeat, she was able to look forward to the future with optimism.to the end and beyond it. Hers was a personality in good equi- librium. Of necessity, and often against her in- clination, she was obliged to observe the law of measure. Strength as well as finances had to be care- fully budgeted. She was efficient but not too meticu- lous; her scholarship was solid yet not pedantic; although thoroughly artistic she was no visionary;her strongly intellectual leanings did not lack the vi- talizing human touch. Already in early years she had discarded fear as a factor in her life. This enabled her to enjoy the present with undivided zest, to live freely and ﬁiolly. Therefore, it is only temporally considered that Hannah Sasse's life can be said to lack completion. The words of that other hero of Put-in-Bay might well be hers: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." Ruth J. Hofrichter Marta Milinowski Ada M. Klett XI - 171-173
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Title: Tonks, Oliver Samuel, 1874-1953 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Barber, Leila C., Howson, J. Howard, Claflin, Agnes R.
Description
Date: [After 1953]
Text: otrvaa samtst TONKS 1874 - 1953 Oliver Samuel Tonks, Professor Emeritus of Art, died on December 25, 1953, one day before his eightieth birthday. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, he took his undergraduate and graduate work at Harvard where, in 1903, he received the first doctorate in Classical Archaeology conferred by Harvard. He was also the first student at Harvard to hold the Charles Eliot Ngrton Fellowship for studies abroad in Archaeology, spending 1901-02 in Greece. He began his long and...
Show moreotrvaa samtst TONKS 1874 - 1953 Oliver Samuel Tonks, Professor Emeritus of Art, died on December 25, 1953, one day before his eightieth birthday. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, he took his undergraduate and graduate work at Harvard where, in 1903, he received the first doctorate in Classical Archaeology conferred by Harvard. He was also the first student at Harvard to hold the Charles Eliot Ngrton Fellowship for studies abroad in Archaeology, spending 1901-02 in Greece. He began his long and fruitful career in teaching, first as an instructor in Greek at the University of Vermont, and then as lecturer in Greek at Columbia University. From 1905 to 1911 he was a member of the department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton. Mr. Tonks came to Vassar in 1911 as Professor of Art and continued as head of the department until his re- tirement in l9hh, after thirty-three years of service. In l9lh he was appointed curator of the Art Gallery installed that year in the newly built Taylor Hall. While studying for his doctorate he had served as assistant curator of Classical Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; and throughout his career he was active in the conduct and development of the Vassar Art Gallery, one of the first of its kind to serve a vital function in a college curriculum. His special interest in Italian painting was a factor in the acquisition in 1917 of the large and important Pratt Collection. Many valuable additions to the Gallery were made subsequently because of his efforts. when Mr. Tonks came to Vassar he was the sole member of the department of Art; upon his retirement, the staff numbered lh including a departmental assistant and an Art Librarian. His appointment established at Vassar the discipline of Art History, a relatively new field of studies at that time. His strong conviction that courses in drawing, painting and sculpture should be an integral part of instruction in art led to the appointment four years later of Professor Chatterton, who reinstated courses in painting that had been among the pioneer features of Matthew Vassar's college under Professor Van Ingen. His generosity of spirit, his deep wisdom and insight continued to sustain the growth and development of the whole curriculum in art. Durtzg his years as head of the department many scholars now s OLIVER SAMUEL TONKS (Continued) distinguished in the field had an opportunity to launch their careers at Vassar - Alfred Barr of the Museum of Modern Art, Hyatt Mayor of the Metropolitan Museum, Henry Russell Hitchcock of the Smith College Art Gallery and John Coolidge new director of the Fogg Museum at Harvard. He also fostered the new departure of adding a course in architectural draughting and design in- augurated by John McAndrew, now professor and director of the gallery at Wellesley. The breadth of his interest was shown in such activities as his service on the managing committee of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, his chairmanship of the cmmittee to select the WPA murals for the Fough- keepsie Postoffice, and his frequent contributions on a wide range of subjects to various periodicals. An article, "The Realism of Gothic Sculpture", appeared in Vassar Mediaeval Studies in 1923, and his Histor of Italian Faintin was pu5lished in 1927. In His lectures and I hi It? Mr. T k ' d f th E li h n s wr ngs on s comman o e ng s language set a distinguished and enviable standard. The venerable phrase "a scholar and a gentleman" could never be more appropriately applied than in this in- stance. He had the true gift of the teacher--of foster- ing and encouraging learning, in his students, his staff, and his own children, and this without a trace of self-importance or professional jealousy. But Mr. Tonks did not confine his interests to the academic life on campus. For many years he was active in the work of Christ Church, as a Vestryman and a member of the editorial board of the Chronicle. Among his par- ticular enjoyments were the meetings of a Poughkeepsie group called "The Club", where papers were read and discussions held on all manner of subjects. This Novem- ber he contributed a paper on Modern Abstract Art. Perhaps no member of our faculty ever commanded more love and affection from his fellows. Although his active association with the College ceased with his retirement, his interest in the community did not diminish. His companionship will be sorely missed by all those who knew him. Leila C. Barber J. Howard Howson Agnes R. Claflin XIII - M33-k3H
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Title: Hutchinson, Ruth Gillette, 1898-1936 -- Memorial Minute
Date: [After 1936]
Text: RUTH GILLETTE HUTCHINSON (MPSQ Arthur Re) 1898 - 1936 The Faculty of Vassar College wish to record at this time their appreciation of the contribution made by Ruth Gillette Hutchinson to the life of the college. Fronrthe time of her entrance into the Department of Economics and Sociology in 1922 she unassumingly but readily met every demand and carried her full share of responsibility. Her good judgment and integrity of purpose won very early the confidence of her stu- dents and colleagues....
Show moreRUTH GILLETTE HUTCHINSON (MPSQ Arthur Re) 1898 - 1936 The Faculty of Vassar College wish to record at this time their appreciation of the contribution made by Ruth Gillette Hutchinson to the life of the college. Fronrthe time of her entrance into the Department of Economics and Sociology in 1922 she unassumingly but readily met every demand and carried her full share of responsibility. Her good judgment and integrity of purpose won very early the confidence of her stu- dents and colleagues. The steady development of these qualities made it possible for her in the year 193k- 1935 to fulfill the duties of the Acting Chairmanship of the Department with dignity and marked success. She pursued the advancement of knowledge,1>oth in her teaching and in her research. Among her publications "State-Administered Locally Shared Taxes‘ is accepted as the authoritative work on this subject. As a genuine scholar, she had an absorbing interest in car- rying forward her research work. She never sacrificed the quality of her teaching, however, always drawing on her own strength in order that her students might acquire in full both the methods and the spirit of real scholarship. Knowing well that intellectual interest is an integral part of the entire life of the students, she won their deepest respect and confidence, through an unusually sympathetic understanding of their life. Her wise counsel was sought and accepted as teacher, Resident and friend. Sensitive balance, gentleness, and clarity, distinguished her human relationships. As a member of the Faculty, whether as individual or as committee meme ber, she gave of herself without limit, always thorough in her consideration and tolerant in her point of view. Ruth Gillette Hutchinson lived a gracious and a gener- ous life. True to herself and to others, she contributed a fineness and a firmness which has permanently enriched the life of Vassar College. Therefore, be it resolved that this minute be placed on the Faculty records, and that copies be sent to her family. RUTH GILLETTE HUTCHINSON (Continued) 1920 A.B. University of Rochester 1921 A.M. Colubia University 1920-21 Courses in New York School of Social Work 1921-22 Federal Reserve Board, Junior Research Assistant 1922-26 Instructor in Economics, Vassar College l92h Marriage 1927-28 American Telephone and Telegraph Company, Economic Statistician March 1928-30 Assistant Professor of Economics, Vassar College 1931 Ph.D. Columbia University 1930-36 Associate Professor of Economics, Vassar College March S, 1936 Death Publications: What's in a College Week? by Ruth Gillette Hutchin- son and Mary Hayward Connard. School and Society. December 18, 1926. 2h:768-72 State-Administered Locall Shared Taxes: Develo ment In the State_EnH_Ioca{“Tax S stems_oT the United States. N. Y. ‘Columbia Uhf%ersity'P¥3ss. I931? I57p. (Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, no. 355.) Taxation of Land Values in Canada by Mabel Newcomer and Ruth G. Hutchinson. The Journal_of Political Economy. April 1932. hU?366J7B Occupations of Vassar Alumnae: a Statistical Summary of a Selected Group, by Mabel Newcomer and Ruth G. Hutchinson. In College Women and the Social Sciences, Essays by er er er ls an s Former Students. N. Y. John Day. 193h. p.309-2h Child Labor Survey of Dutchess County, by Mabel New- cmer and Ruth G. Hutchinson. The American Child vol. VIII, no. 11. November 1926, p. 6. Emily Brown IX - 316-317
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Title: MacCracken, Henry Noble, 1880-1970 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Griffin, Charles C., Linner, Edward R., Mercer, Caroline G.
Description
Date: [After 1970]
Text: 7/ HENRY NOBLE MacCRACKEN 1880 — 1970 In his book of reminiscences, The Hickory Limb, President MacCracken calls the greatest gift to Vassar of his predecessor, President Taylor, "the group of really distinguished teachers he persuaded to come to its comfortable but sparsely furnished chairs." One can hardly define the single greatest gift to the college of President MacCracken himself, let alone describe the complex personality which was expressed in his various benefactions. But...
Show more7/ HENRY NOBLE MacCRACKEN 1880 — 1970 In his book of reminiscences, The Hickory Limb, President MacCracken calls the greatest gift to Vassar of his predecessor, President Taylor, "the group of really distinguished teachers he persuaded to come to its comfortable but sparsely furnished chairs." One can hardly define the single greatest gift to the college of President MacCracken himself, let alone describe the complex personality which was expressed in his various benefactions. But perhaps his overarching achievement here was to foster an academic comunity, one offering freedom, and governed increasingly by its citizens; a community dedicated to academic excellence and giving its students and faculty the opportunity to be, at the highest levels of imagination and critical thought, citizens of the world comunity. For him this was made possible not only by the faculty and the students but by the staff of employees, the Trustees, and the Alumnae. He came to Vassar a young man convinced that men should not govern women, and that the day of the benevolently despotic college president was gone. He discovered upon his arrival that the faculty was already on its way to self-government, and he supported his faculty in this. He had confidence in the increasing maturity of the students; his belief that they should have more say in their own education was reinforced by his study of the new free universitites of Europe after the end of the first world war. It was with his help and encourage- ment that the powers and right of Trustees, faculty, and students were set down in the Academic Statute of 1923, the forerunner of our present governance. He prized scholarship, but he saw it as including far more than a conventional study of the ordinary materials of learning. He found congenial the traditional Vassar emphasis upon the interconnections of the arts and social life, and of theory and practice in all fields; he strengthened this tradition. The college theatre was encouraged. New off-campus studies were set up, as were inter-departmental programs in the sciences and social sciences, some of them forerunners of our present environmental studies. He brought the college and the local community together, for he wanted the students to be, as he said, "citizens of the world, beginning with Poughkeepsie." HENRY NOBLE MacCRACKEN (continued) Good teaching and study were the center of all this. He sought in various ways to help the faculty teach better and to conduct the research and study necessary to this sort of depth and unity in education. Some of his methods were informal. A young instructor might tremble to be invited to join the Dean and the President in a faculty group called Pot Luck, but he had the opportunity to hear papers by his col- leagues in various fields and to contribute his own research. The students too were encouraged to enlarge their views of their situation; President MacCracken reminded them in chapel talks that they belonged to an old company of students going back to the mediaeval universities. During the two world wars that his administration saw, he showed them various ways in which they might serve society, one being by studying. The relationship between American students and teachers he saw as friendship in shared learning. He wrote: "The authority of the older person, based on experience and wider study, need not prevent the shared life, if it is held in reserve as needed, and if teacher and pupil are both of the community of scholars." He founded the Vassar Journal of Undergraduate Studies so that a larger scholarly world might read the works of our youngest scholars. With President MacCracken's belief in community and inter- connection went the conviction —- natural to an American democrat, teacher of Chaucer and Shakespeare, and participant in the drama -- that human variety is a value to be cherished. In the college this meant his diffusion of his sense that all students should have an equal chance to develop, in their own way, whatever power they had. The standards were very high. The rewards were not external, nor was competition presented as the basis of motivation. It was a true kind of academic freedom, as he said and believed: the freedom to gain knowledge and self—respect. Respectfully submitted, Charles C. Griffin Edward R. Linner Caroline G. Mercer I ~_. 1* 1 __
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Title: Furness, Caroline Ellen, 1869-1936 -- Memorial Minute
Date: [After 1936]
Text: CAROLINE ELLEN FURNESS 1869 - 1936 The Faculty of Vassar College records with regret the death on February 9, 1936, of Professor Caro- line Ellen Furness. Miss Furness, a member of the faculty since l89h, has been director of the col- lege observatory since 1915 and in 1916 was appoin- ted Alumnae Maria Mitchell Professor of Astronomy. She was the academic descendant of Maria Mitchell who chose her student, Mary W. Whitney, to be her successor, Miss Whitney in turn choosing Miss Fur- ness to...
Show moreCAROLINE ELLEN FURNESS 1869 - 1936 The Faculty of Vassar College records with regret the death on February 9, 1936, of Professor Caro- line Ellen Furness. Miss Furness, a member of the faculty since l89h, has been director of the col- lege observatory since 1915 and in 1916 was appoin- ted Alumnae Maria Mitchell Professor of Astronomy. She was the academic descendant of Maria Mitchell who chose her student, Mary W. Whitney, to be her successor, Miss Whitney in turn choosing Miss Fur- ness to succeed her. Miss Furness carried on the tradition established by Maria Mitchell and the Vas- sar Observatory continued to make frequent and valuable contributions in the field of astronomy. Under Miss Furness' direction the observatory also took part in cooperative enterprises such as the observation of the total solar eclipse of January 1925. Because of her numerous publications, both scientific and of a general nature, Miss Furness was internationally known and had many friends among astronomers at whose observatories she was always a welcome guest and an enthusiastic co-worker. At the Century of Progress Exposition the judges included her book "An Introduction to Variable Stars" among the best one hundred books written by American women during the last century. The college has lost a loyal, able and devoted alum- na, the faculty one of its most valued and best known members, and the community a generous friend. Edna Carter Mary Landon Sague IX - 311-312
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Title: Baldwin, Jane North, 1876-1975 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Bergeret, Ida Treat, Gooding, Velma, Stevenson, Jean K., Daniels, Elizabeth A.
Description
Date: [After 1975]
Text: 4l”v"'~. _I .4 JAI*l“l NORTH BALDWIN -— 1876-1975 Attachment #1 ; L. At a Meeting of the ‘ Faculty of Vassar College held ' December seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-five, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Dr. Jane North Baldwin lived for ninety-nine full and intense years before she died in Poughkeepsie, New York on May l5th, l975. She was born in Keeseville, New York on February l0, i876, the daughter of George W. Baldwin, who was a professional...
Show more4l”v"'~. _I .4 JAI*l“l NORTH BALDWIN -— 1876-1975 Attachment #1 ; L. At a Meeting of the ‘ Faculty of Vassar College held ' December seventeenth, nineteen hundred and seventy-five, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Dr. Jane North Baldwin lived for ninety-nine full and intense years before she died in Poughkeepsie, New York on May l5th, l975. She was born in Keeseville, New York on February l0, i876, the daughter of George W. Baldwin, who was a professional photographer, and Margaret Hargraves Baldwin. She was one of the early women enrollees and graduates of Cornell University Medical School, taking her M.D. degree in l900. She interned at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in l9Ol-O2 and came to Vassar College as Assistant in Physiology and Assistant Physician in l905-O6. From l905 to i930 she served the college as physician in the department of Health and Hygiene, and in l93O she was promoted to Professor of Hygiene and College Physician, a position she held until her retirement in l9H6 after Al years of service to the college. She is permanently honored by the college infirmary, Baldwin House, which was completed in l9hO and named for her. Dr. Baldwin auspiciously started life in two counties. One day when she was a little girl--so the story goes--her mother took her to New York City from Albany on the dayliner to visit a sick friend in a hospital. Jane Baldwin determined there and then to become a doctor. Although not very much is on record about her preparation for her career in medicine, one presumes that the struggle to get ahead and establish herself in a man's world was no easier for her than for the other women struggling shoulder to shoulder at the beginning of the twentieth century. in accordance with the custom of the time, she entered medical school without attending college but was, however, retroactively adopted as an honorary member of the class of l92l at Vassar. At various times Dr. Baldwin did graduate work--in physiology at the Harvard Medical School in the summer of l905, in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins in l9l6, and at the New York Post Graduate Medical School in i922. She was associated with MIT as a research intern in Public Health in the summer of i935. During her career Dr. Baldwin was on the staff of the Vanderbilt Clinic of Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, where she was an assistant attending physician in endocrinology; and she was also on the courtesy staffs of Vassar Hospital and St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, many times presiding over the emergencies of Vassar students. She played an active role beyond the college in the medical affairs of Dutchess County. A member of the Dutchess County Medical Association and the American Medical Association, she was at various times a vice- president of the then American Student Health Association and president of the then New York State Student Health Association. She was an honorary member of the Women's Medical Association of New York City and of the Visiting Nurses Association of Poughkeepsie In l950 she was honored by the Medical Society of the State of New York, and in l95l by the Dutchess County Medical Society, in Attachment #l Page 2 recognition of her fifty years of the practice of medicine in Wew York State. Dr. Baldwin did not limit her activities to Vassar College in any narrow sense although she served Vassar long and well. She - was a pioneer in local social service work. She was president of the board of directors of Lincoln Center for a time and was active in her retirement in senior citizens groups. She was a director of the Dutchess County Association for Senior Citizens and a A member of the Gay 90's Club, -- one of the few members whose age marked the distinction of the name. g Throughout her career, Dr. Baldwin had a very strong feeling for her vocation. Her efforts to improve the health education and the health service at Vassar resulted in the modern facilities and in the enlightened attitudes characteristic of her administration. The Vassar Alumnae Maqazine of July l, i936 quoted Dr. Baldwin, when asked for the story of her life, as replying that Vassar needed a new infirmary. A new infirmary was finally built at the time of Vassar's 75th Anniversary and named in her honor. ln i933 the doctors‘ offices, previously crowded into the front Southwest wing of Main Building, had moved to the old gym space in Ely which was made vacant by the opening of Kenyon Hall. In the new quarters in Ely there were fourteen consulting and waiting rooms--including a separate one for colds in the head. There were four physicians (including one psychiatrist and one pediatrician) and nine nurses. But Dr. Baldwin was not content with the total situation since she persisted in thinking that the infirmary, a beautiful New England reproduction built in l90l with funds donated by the family of Charles Swift, was badly adapted for desired improvements in infirmary care. As the saying was “Swift Infirmary, quick recovery.“ She pushed, therefore, for the modern facility which was designed by Faulkner and Kingsbury and built and dedicated in l9hO. Dr. Baldwin was friendly, outgoing, concerned, intense, serious and humorous. She was a woman of high moral standards and of great humaneness. She put herselt out for others. in l9H5, (for example) she spent her summer vacation on the staff of Vassar Brothers Hospital in order that a regular staff doctor might be released for rest. A typical Baldwinian act! The Class of l92l, her adopted Alma Mater, officially celebrated her 90th birthday with a banquet. At that dinner the story was told that Henry Noble MacCracken cited Dr. Baldwin for bravery. Dr. Baldwin, he recalled, was the younger assistant in her first years of Dr. Elizabeth Thelberg, her rather more formidable female predecessor, known as Dr. T. One fall year the two of them - Dr. T. and Dr. B. - were,as usual, examining freshmen in the annual initial medical examination lineup. Recording a student's family history, -Dr. Thelberg asked the frightened freshman - "And what was the cause of your grandfather's death? ' - Freshman; He was assassinated. Dr. T.; Good Heavens, child, what did he do? Freshman; He was president--President Garfield. Dr. T.; (turning to Dr. B.) Did you know this? Dr. B.: Of course. Dr Then why didn't you tell me? Dr (quietly): You didn't give me a chance." ED—'l 1 i l l - -t Attachment #l Page 3 Dr. Baldwin's driving became part of the folklore of College Avenue in her later years. All the affectionate residents knew enough to drive to the side of the road and stop when Dr. Baldwin honking her horn as she came, pulled out of her driveway. She was still driving her car with gusto, pleasure, and indiscretion in her nineties. » . . For all generations, Dr. Baldwin has been immortalized in certain Vassar class songs, among them three sung by two members of this Memorial Committee. The first: "Where Oh Where are the Verdant Freshmen?“ . Where oh where are the verdant freshmen? Where oh where are the verdant freshmen? Where oh where are the verdant freshmen? Safe now in their trundle beds. They've gone out from Baldwin's hygiene, They've gone out from Lockwood's English, They've gone out from Dicky's music Safe now in their trundle beds. The second: “The Hygiene Song“, arranged by Martha Alter '25 from words and tune originally composed by the Class of l9l9. Oh we never used to bathe - Till we heard the Doctor rave In the lectures that she gave - How to behave Now we take our daily bath - Even tho we miss our Math. ls; How in the world do you know that? She told us sol ,--T:-:.-.-....~*\ Q... In this case, as in many others, the song was reworked by the ingenious ad-lib inventions of subsequent generations of students, but it did not take too much ingenuity occasionally to substitute Dr. B. for Dr. T. as the song sank deeply into the college's musical folklore. ln l927, then, the song could include: When we heard from Dr. B. Of our ancient pedigree Traced back to the Cambrian Sea Much impressed were we, . Though they say man and baboon are but a minute in a long afternoon How in the world do you know that? She told us so. The post-Darwinian Doctor of hygiene has now become Dr. B.rather than Dr. T. And finally in the song “Matthew Vassar's Generous Heart“ composed by the Class of 1935 to the tune of “It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," we have Dr. B. coming into her own as the original dedicatee of the lines in the second verse: Attachment #l' Page A Matthew Vassar's generous heart Found a brain in every lass, So he made his beer and college here ' h ood of the Freshman class. For t e g “Hygiene, hygiene, hy," said the Freshmen, “Thank you, Dr. B. I know all about the scurvy and the sanitary survey and the inside parts of me.“ Ida Treat Bergeret Velma Gooding Jean K. Stevenson Elizabeth Daniels J M... ..._. M. '\-<
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Title: McConaughy, James Lukens, 1887-1948 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Claflin, Agnes R., Dickinson, George S., Wells, Mary Evelyn
Description
Date: [After 1948]
Text: JAMES LUKENS McCONAUGHY 1887 - l9h8 The Faculty of Vassar College wish to record in their minutes the sorrow and regret they feel upon the death of Governor James L. McConaughy within his term as a trustee of Vassar College. From his range of experience in education, as professor at Bowdoin and Dartmouth Colleges and as president at Knox College and Wesleyan University, he brought keen understanding and sympathy to bear upon his Vassar duties. He never imposed upon the curriculum or...
Show moreJAMES LUKENS McCONAUGHY 1887 - l9h8 The Faculty of Vassar College wish to record in their minutes the sorrow and regret they feel upon the death of Governor James L. McConaughy within his term as a trustee of Vassar College. From his range of experience in education, as professor at Bowdoin and Dartmouth Colleges and as president at Knox College and Wesleyan University, he brought keen understanding and sympathy to bear upon his Vassar duties. He never imposed upon the curriculum or administration any preconceived system or solution, but approached each pro- blem with fresh discrimination and fine judg- ment. Even in this last year when he was so fully occupied with affairs of state as the governor of Connecticut he found time to attend the meetings of the Trustee Committee on Faculty and Studies where his advice and experience were greatly appreciated. The whole Vassar community, as well as the Faculty will feel the loss of his generous services on behalf of the College, and those who had the privilege of knowing and working with him will feel they have lost a valued friend as well. Respectfully submitted, Agnes R. Claflin George S. Dickinson Mary Evelyn Wells XII - 232
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Title: Palmer, Jean Culbert, 1872-1929 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Thompson, C. Mildred, MacColl, Mary, Banfield, Helen S.
Description
Date: [After 1929]
Text: JEAN CULBERT PALMER 1872 - 1929 In the death of Jean Culbert Palmer the Faculty of Vassar College have suffered a grievous loss. To all who knew her she was a friend of warm sympathy, modest in valuing her own achievements, keenly con- cerned for the happiness of those about her. A gracious manner, which was in her the expression of a generous spirit, gave charm to any gathering of which she was a member and lent distinction to her every act. Never too hurried to give ear to those in hnuble,...
Show moreJEAN CULBERT PALMER 1872 - 1929 In the death of Jean Culbert Palmer the Faculty of Vassar College have suffered a grievous loss. To all who knew her she was a friend of warm sympathy, modest in valuing her own achievements, keenly con- cerned for the happiness of those about her. A gracious manner, which was in her the expression of a generous spirit, gave charm to any gathering of which she was a member and lent distinction to her every act. Never too hurried to give ear to those in hnuble, great or small, she was ever ready with wise counsel. We sought her in the sure sense that her kindly sympathy and friendly understanding would not fail. Her buoyancy and gaiety of spirit radiated good cheer and friendliness wherever she went, and her lively sense of humor and zest for life were a source of constant enjoyment to all who came in contact with her. Hers was a true sociability of the spirit, springing from a genuine liking for peo- ple and an unstinted giving out of the treasures of her rich personality. In her keen enjoyment of what might have been tasks or stern duties she made of every day living a fine art. To the last, even through months of painful illness, her vivid personality was never dimed nor did her brave spirit fail. She fought the good fight with the courage and faith that were always hers. As Warden of the College from 1915 to the time of her death on July ll, 1929, she was ever a harmonizer be- tween the older code of courtesy and the newer demands of freedom. She was a unifying force between academic traditions on the one hand, and the interests of social living in its widest sense on the other. We cherish, therefore, her fourteen years of life and work among us as one of the imperishable endowments of Vassar College. G. Mildred Thompson Mary MacC011 Helen S. Banfield VIII - 3h2
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Title: Whitney, Marian Parker, 1861-1946 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Hofrichter, Ruth J., Kitchel, Anna T., Smith, Winifred
Description
Date: [After 1946]
Text: MARIAN PARKER WHITNEY 1861 - 19u6 Marian Parker Whitney, who died at her New Haven home on June 16th, l9h6, in her 86th year, contributed a great deal to the development of Vassar College during her twenty-six years of service. Schooled largely in Europe, a Ph.D. of Yale, she was at home in several foreign languages and cultues and was tireless in bringing students to a broad understandirg of foreign peoples and their literatures. As Head of the German Department from 1905 to 1929 she...
Show moreMARIAN PARKER WHITNEY 1861 - 19u6 Marian Parker Whitney, who died at her New Haven home on June 16th, l9h6, in her 86th year, contributed a great deal to the development of Vassar College during her twenty-six years of service. Schooled largely in Europe, a Ph.D. of Yale, she was at home in several foreign languages and cultues and was tireless in bringing students to a broad understandirg of foreign peoples and their literatures. As Head of the German Department from 1905 to 1929 she introduced new methods of language teaching which became a pattern for other institutions. She built up a strong department, gave many books to the Vassar library and by her text books and journal articles she spread her influence far beyond this campus. As the originator of our first course in Comparative Literature - Contemporary Drama - she helped to break down narrow departmentalism. Through her European contacts as a leader in the woman suffrage movement and as chairman of the Education Committee of the International Council of Wbmen she brought many interesting guests to the college and helped work out foreign exchanes of students and teachers. In all these ways she was a most valuable member of the faculty; more than all, she was a warm, liberal and generous person, eager to make shy young instructors feel at home, constantly helpful to them and to her students, and always a most loyal friend. Ruth J. Hofrichter Anna T. Kitchel Winifred Smith XII - 57
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Title: Saunders, Catharine, 1872-1943 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Haight, Elizabeth Hazelton, Ryberg, Inez
Description
Date: [After 1943]
Text: I CATHARINE SAUNDERS 1872 - 19143 Professor Emeritus Catharine Saunders, who died on January 18, l9h3, had been connected with Vassar College since 1900 and after 1907 worked continu- ously on the teaching staff, a long and honorable service. Her education in preparation for her life-work of teaching was varied and rich. She was a high school student at Belfast, New York, where she was born, took her A.B. degree at Elmira College and her Ph.D. at Columbia University. She studied also for part...
Show moreI CATHARINE SAUNDERS 1872 - 19143 Professor Emeritus Catharine Saunders, who died on January 18, l9h3, had been connected with Vassar College since 1900 and after 1907 worked continu- ously on the teaching staff, a long and honorable service. Her education in preparation for her life-work of teaching was varied and rich. She was a high school student at Belfast, New York, where she was born, took her A.B. degree at Elmira College and her Ph.D. at Columbia University. She studied also for part of a year at the University of Munich, did research at the American Academy in Rome and enriched her background by travel that ranged over Europe from the Roman wall in Northern England to Ancient Troy in Turkey, with much time spent in Italy and Greece. On her last leave in l9h0 she even went to Mexico, Guatemala and.Yucatan to see the remains of the Mayan Civilization. Her research, which was divided between the two main lines of her interest, included studies on "Costume in Roman Comedy", "Masks", "Altars"; and Vergilian Studies of "Cremation and Inhumation in the Aeneid", "Vergil's Primitive Italy" and "The Sources of the Names of Trojan and Latin Heroes in Vergil's Aeneid". All Miss Saunders‘ publications in book form and in periodicals snow her painstaking and exact scholarship, and her imagination in interpretation. In all her writing she was a perfectionist in her weighing of evidence, in her clarity of presentation. These same qualities appeared in her college teaching, but she was able to simplify and illuminate the re- sults of her research for undergraduates in her favorite courses in Roman Comedy, Vergil's Aeneid and Mediaeval and Renaissance Latin. She presented many of her papers to the Classical Journal Club and to the students‘ Classical Society as well as at the meetings of the American Philological Association and in all these her clarity of diction and expression were notable. Miss $aunders gave distinguished and appreciated ser- vice as an alumna trustee to her Alma Mater, Elmira College. On the campus of Vassar she won the devotion » 4 i \ 1 1 GATHARINE SAUNDERS (Continued) of her fellow-residents in Kendrick by her humor, charm, tolerance, and final Stoicism. The students who had the privilege of knowing her enjoyed her friendliness and hospitality. One of her last public serviees for them, was training the actors in a Mediaeval Latin Christmas Play given in the Classical Museum in 19h1 with Professor John Peirce singing a Te Deum after it. Since she died, a young alumna wrote of her: "She was so gentle and such a great lady: she will be greatly missed." Her colleagues join with her stu- dents in offering to her Horace's tribute to her beloved Vergil: "The Muses who rejoice in the country gave her gentleness and geniality," - molle atque facetum. Elizabeth Hazleton Height Inez Ryberg X - 396
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Title: Barber, Lelia, [unknown]-1984 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Askew, Pamela, Carroll, Eugene, Drouilhet, Elizabeth, Hunter, Mary Alice, Murphy, Joan
Description
Date: [after 1984]
Text: All-4i urn!‘ ‘ll Minute for Leila Barber >Leila Cook Barber, who died on December h, l98h, at the of 8l, was a member of the Vassar faculty for 37»years. taught in the Art Department, which she joined in l93l, tH her retirement in I968. Of that generation that in its youth placed more value iod D. I €fl t0 the personally creative than on conformity to professional xy, Leila Barber could and did say of herself: "I am piece. I've never published anything. I have no donlt know why...
Show moreAll-4i urn!‘ ‘ll Minute for Leila Barber >Leila Cook Barber, who died on December h, l98h, at the of 8l, was a member of the Vassar faculty for 37»years. taught in the Art Department, which she joined in l93l, tH her retirement in I968. Of that generation that in its youth placed more value iod D. I €fl t0 the personally creative than on conformity to professional xy, Leila Barber could and did say of herself: "I am piece. I've never published anything. I have no donlt know why they kept me.“- Generations of stu- s, however, and department members, colleagues and col- administrators knew exactly why she was invaluable to College, why it can be said that she has not left her Simply because formalized professional ambition was Leila Barber, this minute, to record her contri- ion to Vassar College must go beyond the framework of academic vita. A phrase often used by Leila to characterize others was bbrm I er and shaker.“ Leila was not a shaker, but she was a r and shaper. And it is the shape of things that she If cared to fashion and foster, or encourage and sup- that became incorporated into the mainstream of learn- enhancing its quality and affirming at the same time values of larger social enterprise. What she gave shape may, perhaps, be traced to her study of philosophy and logy as an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr ﬁollege, from ch she received her B.A. in I925, and to her study of history, begun under the famed Giorgianna Goddard King. earned her M.A. in art history in I928 at Radcliffe, re she did further graduate work until l93l. Related to these fields of study, and what might be d to lie at the heart of Leila Barber's accomplishments ra fundamentally domestic ideal. "Domestic" is not meant the narrow sense here -- not at all implying a channeling energies to private ends -- but signifying that personal where what is within can be ordered and arranged, ex- and controlled, -- to visible effect. It was the from which an inner dynamic of energy radiated out- in many directions: a base from which a response to late surroundings was extended to a critical concern a larger environment -- with working spaces, archi- re and landscape. It was the launching point for a ectory of thought that carried personal compassion into al action -- in her later years to serving meals on ls, to recording for the blind. The domestic core was hstone not only for personal social life, but for Ial responsibility, including her vigilant concern for qual' ' . ' ty of campus life And it was the source of the s reach of her truly liberal point of view which u>forward looking and positive a way embraced every tive idea that could potentially bring about greater -2- understanding, more perceptive knowledge or pleasure, or improved social condition. The operative pattern of her gifts and dedication emerges clearly in her contributions to Vassar College. Part of each summer she worked on student rooming with the College warden, Mrs. Drouilhet; by l9hO she was head resident of Josselyn House; and from i955 on, house- fellow at Josselyn. During the Second World War she helped plan and inaugurate a college system of cooperative living in which household tasks formerly done by maids and white angels were rotated among the students in each dormitory. In addition to getting the work done, this, she thought, brought students of different backgrounds together, and induced a sense of communal responsibility and an active participation in the care for one's environ- ment. She was also chairman of the wartime faculty com- mittee called the Key Center of information at Vassar, which, by appointment of the Office of Education, served as a distribution center for information about the war and postwar problems to six neighboring counties. She represented the Key Center on the Vassar Coordinating Council for War Activities, and served on the council's advisory panel of faculty members who helped students to. choose individual programs of preparation for war service. She also chaired the Emergency Committee, which formu- lated the College defense program. Her committee service for the College, however, en- compassed the entire range of academic process, from visiting schools and talking with prospective students, to the Committee on Student Records, to the Curriculum Committee, to the Board of Residents which advised stu- dents in each house -- lHO in Joss -- to the advising of majors in Art History. She was chairman of the Art De- partment from i965 to i968; and following her retirement, she was briefly Acting Dean of Studies. Her advising, house-fellowing and teaching brought her into touch with an exceptionally wide range of students, with countless of whom she formed enduring friendships. She was master- ful at bringing along the C student; she was a bulwark to those having a difficult time in college, and she was a fearless defender to parents of individual freedom as F. Scott Fitzgerald realized when Leila Barber took him to task for his views concerning the social life of his daughter. In another vein, she was both awe-inspiring and for- midable: formidable in the authority, strength of voice and definitive manner in which she expressed her views; awe-inspiring in her presence, which was stately, ex- ceptional in grandeur and beauty and impeccable in every detail from coif to couture. Today she would be called a"role modelﬂ indeed she inspired a student who saw her 4 ! < I l l -3- alecture last winter to write of her "perfectly seated re,“ finding her "marvelous," and evoking more genera- mm of students than she realized when she wrote, "Perhaps was the child in me that caused the memory of Leila Bar- to become forever crystallized within me." But the phrase "role model," which now verges on empty rgmm is one that Beila Barber would not have used except etiously. Abstraction was not something that experience ted into, but something drawn from it. For this reason, g others, she excelled in the art of teaching. Many hers reach their students; but singular was Leila's le, projection of voice and logically sustained develop- t of analysis and idea. What she said made an indelible ression, and not least because of her invention of Hking, witty and vivid turns of phrase often drawn from commonly shared worlds of food and fashion. Dazzlingly iculate, and lucidly clear, she was able, just in the ling, to raise every work of art that she projected on screen to a higher power, or to consign it to a limbo inferiority where the works of those who misunderstood styles of others seemed rightly to belong. She made history itself a profoundly aesthetic and human--as l as historical-- discipline. k When Leila Barber joined the Art Department, she became third member, teaching twelve l05 conference sections a course in ancient art. It was she who shaped the intro- tory survey course, writing and revising its extensive labus. Printed annually, it was a booklet eagerly t after and cherished by graduate students at other in- tutions long after it ceased to be produced. There was, idly a historical period in the survey course that she not at some time taught herself. She taught American hting as well, and on the advanced level, medieval art iuaiéan Renaissance art from Giotto to Tintoretto beyond, though Tuscan painting of the Fourteenth and teenth Centuries was her special field. With growing ialization in the discipline, no one else in the de- rmwnt could do all that Leila Barber could do, or with intelligence and knowledge that she did it. No one before, and certainly no one has since. Covering the Md, shaping the developing discipline through the curri- lum at Vassar, she was absolutely integral to that llence of teaching and training for which the Vassar Department was so widely renowned in mid-century. A rof the Renaissance Society of America and the Col- Art Association of America, she was well known in art historical world, and it was well known by her. Her shaping of programs extended, moreover, beyond the department. In the Forties, she was a staunch advocate the three-year plan, participating in it. This was an ative arrangement of semesters and of curricular _4_ offerings that enabled students in the war years to gradu- ate in three rather than four years. Part of the raison d'etre of the plan was its potential for encouraging stu- dents to go on to graduate work, to have already launched themselves on a course of advanced study within the canonicm four years. Study in the form of seeing, knowing first hand and re-viewing the works of art that she taught early establishw a regular pattern of summer travel. It was not altogether uneventful. In l936, in Spain with J. B. Ross from the History Department, she was trapped in the bombing of Gran-i ada at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The New York Times photographed them and headlined their ‘Escape by Plane from Rebel Stronghold in Spain.“ They were rescued in a H-seater piloted by the Comte de Sibour, for whom Leila characteristically, held the map that guided them to Tangien In her teaching years she traveled mostly to the Continen including Russia, but especially to Italy; and in the years of her retirement she spent long intervals in Greece and made repeated trips to England.i Although she traveled ex- tensively with undiminished interest in all visible mani- festations of life and civilization, she had a great spiﬂt socially for those enterprises on the local seene, including the League of Women Voters, to whom she gave her enthusiasﬂc support. An alumna who had enjoyed Leila's l05 lectures some years earlier returned to work at Vassar. Still regarding Leila with the awe inspired by their earlier teacher-studan relationship, it was some time before she could stop ad- dressing her as ‘Miss Barber.“ However, in the years ﬁﬂlow-% ing Leila's retirement, they shared many happy times to- gether. These ranged from the concerts and opera workshops in Skinner, and the Drama Department productions, to Honi Cole and his tap-dancing troupe in concert at the Bardavon. Leila's great capacity for enjoying a variety of experi- ences, and her witty comments on the proceedings, made these evenings and many another outing to museums in Williamstown and New Haven a delight. A strong and loyal supporter of the arts in Pough- keepsie, Leila Barber could be seen at virtually every im- portant cultural event. After her retirement she regularly attended concerts, plays and lectures at Vassar and at the Bardavon. She was a major supporter of the Bardavon and a patron of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic. A great film buff, she became the first member of the Bardavon Film So- ciety. She also supported Vassar's Friends of the Art Ga lery and Barrett House. With her unfailing enthusiasm for budding talent, she never missed an audition for the Young Artists Competition, and she played a vital part in guiding a local student play- t,l l l l I 1 l i i J 1 ’ l l 4 4 l 1 l l l 1 l ti fl l 1 § f l I 1 I l l 4 $ l '1 J l x l ! ii i 1 l 1 i l l I _ 1 l 1 .4 E 1 1 i l i -5- roduction, "Mass Appeal " Her personal involvement the arts was boundless No wonder she was heard to "It makes me weary to think of all I shall have done weeks from now." nt, Bill C. Davis, in creating his successful Broad- a ' .' ' D For all that she did do for the College and Art De- fl. af l * ent, art history and the community, we are deeply u . " Respectfully submitted, Pamela»Askew Eugene Carroll Elizabeth Drouilhet Mary Alice Hunter Joan Murphy \ l I l l I l 1 l l l § l v l ll ll | l M w l l J ll ill 7‘! ii !. i l 4 I I 1 I l P l F
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Title: Moulton, Charles William, 1859-1924 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Mills, Herbert E., Macleod, Annie Louise, Landon, Mary Louise
Description
Date: [After 1924]
Text: CHARLES WILLIAM moumou 1859 - 1921; Again it becomes a sad necessity for the Faculty of Vassar College to note in its minutes the death of one of its oldest and most respected members. Charles William Moulton, Doctor of Philosophy of Johns Hopkins University, came to Vassar College in 1892 as Associate Professor of Chemistry. In l89h he was raised to the rank of Professor of Chemistry and served as head of the department until his death on September 13, 192k. His tenure had therefore covered...
Show moreCHARLES WILLIAM moumou 1859 - 1921; Again it becomes a sad necessity for the Faculty of Vassar College to note in its minutes the death of one of its oldest and most respected members. Charles William Moulton, Doctor of Philosophy of Johns Hopkins University, came to Vassar College in 1892 as Associate Professor of Chemistry. In l89h he was raised to the rank of Professor of Chemistry and served as head of the department until his death on September 13, 192k. His tenure had therefore covered the entire history of Chemistry as a sepa- rate department in this college and there can be no more fitting memorial to his ability and faithful- ness than the organization and fine standards which he had developed. He was a scientist in the best sense of the word, searching for the truth. He had great capacity for investigation and his scientific curiosity suggested constantly new subjects for investigation. This quality of mind together with his practical inge- nuity resulted in novel and valuable methods of lecture demonstration. Those best qualified to judge believe that he could have added greatly to positive knowledge had he devoted himself to research. But he quite willingly sacrificed in large degree this possibility for that which had the greater call -- teaching, the building up of his department organiza tion and the study of college educational problems. His ability as a practical man of affairs was dis- played in the planning and construction of Sanders Memorial Laboratory. Every part of this building testifies to his practical ingenuity and his far- sightedness. His constant attention and thoughtful- ness made it perhaps one of the best planned, most workable and best equipped chemical laboratories in the United States. Indeed many of those who have gone fr it to work elsewhere have called it the best they had known. Due to his care it was built with great economy. At one time or another he had served with conspicu- ous and unusual effectiveness on most of the commit- tees of the Faculty and helped to establish many of its present standards and working procedures. But he did not confine his connection with the college to A 33 CHARBES WILLIAM MOULTON (Continued) departmental and faculty duties. He was for some years a member of the college faculty-student orches- tra and was a constant participant in student fes- tivities. One of his most cherished avocations was the study of birds and out of door life he had always enjoyed. The breadth of his interests was revealed in his skill in woodworking and other craftmanship, and in the great pleasure he found in his later years in reading French and Spanish. He cmbined in remarkable degree two great qualifica- tions of the teacher -- constant insistence on high standards and thoroughness; and the.ability to stimu- late not only in the scholarly minded but in the average undergraduate genuine and lasting interest in science and intellectual interests. His name will endure in the list of great teachers and constructive organizers who have made Vassar College what it is. Herbert E. Mills Annie Louise Macleod Mary Louise Landon VIII — k7
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Title: Moore, John Leverett, 1849-1926 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Thelberg, Elizabeth B., Mills, Herbert E., Haight, Elizabeth Hazelton
Description
Date: [After 1926]
Text: JOHN LEVERETT MOORE l8h9 - 1926 In the death of Professor Emeritus John Leverett Moore, the faculty of Vassar College has lost a loyal and distinguished colleague. Throughout his thirty-two years of work here, Mr. Moore stood con- spicuously for three things: sympathetic under- standing of the undergraduate's point of view, sin- cere and helpful cooperation with his co-workers and unswerving fealty to his own high ideals of scholarship. His unostentatious labor is recorded in the minutes...
Show moreJOHN LEVERETT MOORE l8h9 - 1926 In the death of Professor Emeritus John Leverett Moore, the faculty of Vassar College has lost a loyal and distinguished colleague. Throughout his thirty-two years of work here, Mr. Moore stood con- spicuously for three things: sympathetic under- standing of the undergraduate's point of view, sin- cere and helpful cooperation with his co-workers and unswerving fealty to his own high ideals of scholarship. His unostentatious labor is recorded in the minutes of comittees on which he served and in the content of the classical library and the museum which he established. His more subtle and undefinable contribution to the annals of Vassar is the prestige gained from having associated with the college during so long a period a professor eminent and respected in American cir- cles of classical scholars. His work lives on through the gratitude of the students he encouraged the friendship of his friends, and the devotion of his department. Elizabeth B. Thelberg Herbert E. Mills Elizabeth Hazelton Haight VIII - 1h?
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Title: Reed, Amy Louise, 1872-1949 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Belding, Ellinor, Sague, Mary Landon, Sandison, Helen E.
Description
Date: [After 1949]
Text: < My y AMY LOUISE REED November 22, 1872 - January 2h, l9h9 Wisdom and humanity are the qualities that must always be associated with the name of Amy Reed by all who knew her. Throughout her long service as an active member of the faculty of Vassar College colleagues and students alike relied on her judgment, for it was always sound and given with the understanding of a large minded, large souled woman. Even in retirement she made friends among the younger and newer members of the...
Show more< My y AMY LOUISE REED November 22, 1872 - January 2h, l9h9 Wisdom and humanity are the qualities that must always be associated with the name of Amy Reed by all who knew her. Throughout her long service as an active member of the faculty of Vassar College colleagues and students alike relied on her judgment, for it was always sound and given with the understanding of a large minded, large souled woman. Even in retirement she made friends among the younger and newer members of the community who, like her older friends, found themselves turning to her for advice and for friendship. Her services to the faculty were incalculable. When discussions in faculty meeting were straying to non- essentials or into apparently insoluble oppositions she would rise and bring them back to commonsense and co- hesion with words at once downright, simple and full of humor. The faculty committees on which she worked, always actively, are almost the total roster of our com- mittees. She gave vital service to all the activities of the campus community and to many in town. Her connection with Vassar goes back to 1888, when she entered as a freshman; and, except for two years of graduate study at Yale,.it was continuous after l9Oh, when she became an instructor in the English Department. As a younger associate of Professor Laura Wylie, whose great leadership she followed with comprehension and sturdy independence, she herself became one of the form- ative elements in English teaching here. Her mark is on the thinking of the Vassar English department today; and her sane and liberal ideas have influenced many a teacher elsewhere through her constructive work in such organizations as the School and College Conference on English. She left her characteristic impress on the Library also. Though without professional training for the post, she was appointed head librarian in 1910, because of her rich and humane knowledge of books. During her eleven years in this position her broad vision of long-range problems set a pattern that has remained valid. Her searching, critical concept of the place of the library in a liberal arts college insured vitality to the work in her time and has provided a stimulus to the library staff, even to the present day. 3 F 4 1 ? I AMY LOUISE REED (Continued) She directed faculty plays in the old days, and she herself walked the stage, the very figure of her "great Dr. Johnson". Her chairmanship of the fif- tieth anniversary celebration was a vast practical and educational achievement; this occasion marked the inauguration of President MacCracken, who always recognized her as in a sense "the dean of us all". She composed the pageant of the Canterbury Pilgrims, one of the most memorable of Vassar's outdoor theatre pro- ductions. Sometimes in leisure hours she wrote mem- ories of her girlhood in the New York of the 70's and 80's; to hear her read a chapter aloud, - to see the twinkle of her eyes and hear the irresistible quality of her laughter, - was the delight of her friends. She returned to the English department in 1920 and taught through l9hh. In l92h she received the Doctorate from Columbia University, publishing then her "Back- ground of Gray's Elegy" and later her edition of "Let- ters from Brook Farm‘, evidences of a scholarship that permeated her daily thinking and teaching. It is pri- marily as a teacher that she will be remembered by many generations of Vassar students. In the last few weeks alumnae have written about her as a valued teacher, a wise“ humorous, friendly person who always remembered and placed you", who "wore her learning so lightly that one was aware of it merely as an enrich- ment of herself". A foreign student writes "she is more to me than just the patient teacher who helped me, struggling with English, and tried to make me under- stand American Literature. She is the warmest of friends, and the most open minded spirit. I shall always remember her as a great personality and as a woman who could understand so well human nature". The whole community mourns the loss of a great woman, a great leader, and a great friend. Ellinor Belding Mary L. Sague Helen E. Sandison XII - 305-306
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Title: Griffin, Carroll Wardlaw, 1900-1959 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Brooks, Richard A.E., Plunkett, Mary Alys, Linner, Edward R.
Description
Date: [After 1959]
Text: 3-7 CARROLL WARDLAW GRIFFIN 1900 - 1959 Carroll Wardlaw Griffin died on May M, l9S9 after twenty- seven years of service at Vassar College. The faculty record his sudden and untimely death with a keen sense of loss and a deep appreciation for what he did for the college during these years. Almost half his life was spent as a member of this faculty and during this time, he so lived as to have gained the friendship and respect of his colleagues, his students and his friends in the community...
Show more3-7 CARROLL WARDLAW GRIFFIN 1900 - 1959 Carroll Wardlaw Griffin died on May M, l9S9 after twenty- seven years of service at Vassar College. The faculty record his sudden and untimely death with a keen sense of loss and a deep appreciation for what he did for the college during these years. Almost half his life was spent as a member of this faculty and during this time, he so lived as to have gained the friendship and respect of his colleagues, his students and his friends in the community outside of the college. He began his teaching in the South after graduating from Clemson College in South Carolina. He studied at the University of Virginia where he earned the degree of. Doctor of Philosophy. His particular field was analytical chemistry, though most of his research up to ten years ago had to do with the adsorption of gases by solids and with some phases of extraction equilibria. The soundness and worth of these studies havebeen recognized by investigators in the field of contact catalysis and analytical procedures, for one finds references to his researches in treatises on these subjects. His textbooks in analytical chemistry deal with both qualitative and quantitative aspects. They reveal his concern with the logical development of ideas and with the exact expression of them. At the time of his death, he was in the midst of preparations for a third book. Carroll had a vital interest in his profession of scientist and teacher. His membership in various professional societies attests to this; he was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of Phi Lambda Upsilon and Sigma Xi, honorary scientific societies. As a member of the American Chemical Society, he did everything within his power to draw together chemists and chemical engineers of this community for the discussion and considera- tion of their common interests and problems. Carroll was one of the founders of the Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society, served as its second Chairman, and at the time of his death was a member of the High School Liaison Committee for promoting the teaching of science in high school. Membership in the American Association of University Professors was not a passive matter to him, for he had con- tinuing interest in the actions of this organization and 8.6 CARROLL WARDLAW GRIFFIN (Continued) applauded any movement which tended to dignify the pro- fession of teaching. That he cared about affairs at Vassar College was evidenced by his willingness to serve on many academic committees; and his long period of service as a member of the Committee on Research and finally as its Chairman demonstrated how devoted he was to doing the very best that he could for Vassar and the Vassar faculty. Carroll Griffin's liking for people and his interest in teaching and research combined with his friendliness, humor and courage, made him a rare teacher. His present and former students, in letters which they have written in these last weeks, speak of their admiration and respect for him and the things for which he stood; and they describe him as we all know him. They all refer to him as "a fine man, anzble leader, and a friend." They speak of his influence in stimu- lating an interest in chemistry and of what this interest has meant to them in their years at college and the years that followed. One of his graduate students writes of her "two good years at Vassar" and goes on to write "certainly I was a long way from being his most brilliant student but I doubt if any of the others derived more personal satisfaction from the accomplishment or a deeper respect for Carroll as a teacher and a friend." As an alumna put it, "I felt that when I really needed (to) talk, I could go to him. _He gave me much needed advice on many problems." Other students recall his spirit of fun and his humor. Still others recognized the demands that he made on himself and others to maintain what he con- sidered to be a good way of life. One needs only to read such statements as the following to understand this. "He not only imparted his knowledge of chemistry to us but by his presence the knowledge of warmth and goodness in people "Those of us who have known him have benefitted from his uncompromising struggle for truth and honor and from his living example of patience and understanding." I1 0 One cannot forget two totally different aspects of Carroll Griffin's personality. He got a great deal of pleasure out of some of the simple activities on campus and many people recall the fun that he had in taking a Very active part in the student-faculty baseball game on Founder's Day. Even more one remembers that Carroll could disagree with one and yet never lose a sense of friendship and regard for the other person. 89 CARROLL WARDLAW GRIFFIN - (Continued) It seems fitting to close this Memorial Minute with his own words taken from the introduction to one of his books, an introduction on which he lavished much care, thought and time and in which unwittingly he characterized himself. "Here then is the opportunity for joy; the joy of finding the tasks which lie ahead worthy of the effort, the joy of constructing a pathway cleanly ' penetrating what was once strange land, and the joy of commanding new knowledge aid new skills. Here, at last, we shall find the satisfaction that, having crossed this barrier, we are better seasoned for the further travels. And as each such barrier is met and crossed the disclosure becomes ever clearer that the ultimate goal beyond is no mirage, but is reality itself, worthy of all the labor - and all the joy." Respectfully submitted, Richard A. E. Brooks Mary Alys Plunkett Edward R. Linner, Chairman XV - 168-170
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Title: Salmon, Lucy Maynard, 1853-1927 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Borden, Fanny, Peebles, Rose Jefferies, Ellery, Eloise
Description
Date: [After 1927]
Text: 1 I I \ r I I I \ LUCY MAYNARD SALMON 1353 - 1927 Professor Lucy Maynard Salmon whose death occurred on February lh, 1927 had been a member of the faculty of Vassar College since 1887. Called to Vassar in order to promote the study of history she organized the department of history of which for nearly forty years she remained the head. During all these years to her colleagues and to successive generations of students she was an unfailing source of inspiration. Outside the college as well as...
Show more1 I I \ r I I I \ LUCY MAYNARD SALMON 1353 - 1927 Professor Lucy Maynard Salmon whose death occurred on February lh, 1927 had been a member of the faculty of Vassar College since 1887. Called to Vassar in order to promote the study of history she organized the department of history of which for nearly forty years she remained the head. During all these years to her colleagues and to successive generations of students she was an unfailing source of inspiration. Outside the college as well as within Miss Sa1mon's influence was widely felt, through her connection with the American Historical Association and through her published works. In 1912 she was honored by the degree of Doctor of Literature from Colgate and in 1926 by that of Doctor of Letters from the University of Michigan. At this time,however, it is no mere objective enumer- ation of her achievements which the faculty would record. It wishes also to place on record its sense of the significance of these achievements. In the first place she contributed to the study of history in this country not only her own enlarging definitions of the subject, and her own valuable research to her field, but she also trained many workers, younger fol- lowers "made" as we say by her teaching. These, car- rying on the work of research and teaching in their own vigorous measure, contribute the most lasting memorial that can be founded. Moreover the young wom- en in her classes went out not only with a new sense of the meaning of history and with an equipment in fundamental methods of work but also with a sense of their responsibility to the comunities in which they might happen to live. To this development of scholars in her own field must be added the quickening of intellectual curiosity that came to many from contact with her living mind. The greatest impulse to thinking independently comes frm another mind in action. By reason of her in- fluence the ordinary world of streets and alleys, signs and show-windows, changing work of every kind has been made a richer document. To this unwritten history, which she taught many to use, must be added the store of historical documents, formal and informal, that have extended the Vassar Library shelves year after year, and which in any cement however brief, must be noted. Vassar owes in great measure its growing LUCY MAYNARD SALMON (Continued) library and the library habits of its students to Miss Salmon's continuous interest in the amassing of material, however difficult to obtain, and to the thorough ability to use such material that she in- sisted upon. The loss to her colleagues of Miss Salmon's cooper- ation extends beyond this recognized withdrawal of her direct contribution to her students. Her fel- low-workers on the faculty were always aware of the fact that her interest in education was never limited to her own field of research or to her own teaching activities or those of her department. She was never in doubt as to what a liberal college is or how it should serve the world. She steadily questioned its relation to its imediate community in social and educational ways, its stand on all matters of national educational interest. Her scrutiny of its internal organization and effectiveness never flagged. This persistent examination of every attitude, rela- tionship, custom or educational policy has been pro- vocative and fruitful. Again and again ideas and plans which she suggested and which appeared to be remote or impractical ideals have come to be gener- ally accepted and completely realized. The faculty owes to Miss Salmon's initiative many of the measures it has sought to make effective since nineteen hundred and thirteen, when she made her significant address to the faculty in which she urged it to look to its life, and know what it was doing and why it was doing it. She stood for faculty participation in college govern- ment, in administrative as well as educational aspects, and for closer and more intelligent relations with the trustees and alumnae than she thought had yet been worked out. It is our sense of this significance of the work of Miss Salmon which the faculty wishes to place on re- cord - of a colleague who was a pioneer in education and whose ideals have left a deep impress on the life of Vassar College. Fanny Borden Rose Jeffries Peebles Eloise Ellery v11: - 201-zou
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Title: Denison, Eleanor, 1902-1969 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Allardyce, Margaret M., McCormick, Thomas J., Thomson, Vera B., Hunter, Mary-Alice
Description
Date: [After 1969]
Text: ELEANOR DENISON 1902 - 1969 Eleanor Denison, Director Emeritus of Scholarships and Financial Aid, died on March 1, 1969, after an illness of only a few days. Since retiring from Vassar in 1967, she had lived in Andover, Massachusetts, in order to be near a much-loved cousin and her family. Here Eleanor found herself a part-time job in a bookshop, which she greatly enjoyed. With her usual vigor and sense of com- munity obligation, she was soon active as a volunteer in the local Red Cross...
Show moreELEANOR DENISON 1902 - 1969 Eleanor Denison, Director Emeritus of Scholarships and Financial Aid, died on March 1, 1969, after an illness of only a few days. Since retiring from Vassar in 1967, she had lived in Andover, Massachusetts, in order to be near a much-loved cousin and her family. Here Eleanor found herself a part-time job in a bookshop, which she greatly enjoyed. With her usual vigor and sense of com- munity obligation, she was soon active as a volunteer in the local Red Cross Chapter, and in Christ Episcopal Church. Her letters to her friends at Vassar showed clearly that she had made a place for herself in the Andover community, and was leading a busy and happy life. Born and brought up in Brookline, Massachusetts, Eleanor graduated from Vassar in 1924. Thereafter, she was engaged always in school or college work - teaching history and Latin at Bradford Academy; Assistant to the Director of Admission, and then Acting Director of Admission at Vassar from 1927-1932; secretary to the headmistress of the Girls School at Milton Academy; and from 1937 to 1942, Head- mistress of the Vail-Deane School in Elizabeth, New Jersey For the next 19 years, she was Director of Admissions at Wells College, and in 1961, she returned to Vassar as Director of Scholarships and Financial Aid. All that she did was marked by unselfish devotion of time and energy and meticulous attention to detail, which she herself attributed to having been a history major under Miss Lucy Salmon. During her tenure as Director of Scholar- ships, she was obliged to handle an increasing number of financial aid cases, and Vassar's participation in several new federal aid to education programs added new complexi- ties to her work. She made a real contribution to the College by educating students, parents and alumnae in the philosophy and the procedures of a sound college financial aid program. A facet of her job that particularly interested her was the history of Vassar's many endowed scholarship funds. She was always delighted when she was able to find just the right student who fulfilled the conditions for receiving aid from a particular scholarship fund. ELEANOR DENISON (continued) Eleanor's enthusiasm, and her enjoyment of people brought her many friends of all ages. After her death her cousin wrote to a friend here: "People that I don't know stop me on the street to talk about her. I am overwhelmed by the number of people who belonged to her circle of friend- ship." A former member of the Wells College faculty recalls being welcomed to Aurora by Eleanor bringing a bouquet of flowers; and when his first child was born, it was Eleanor who had the college chimes played in honor of the event. These acts were typical of the warmth, generosity, and thoughtfulness so characteristic of her, and they are part of the legacy of happy memories she has left to those of us who were her friends and associates. Margaret M. Allardyce Thomas J. McCormick Vera B. Thomson, Director Emeritus of Admission Mary—Alice Hunter .. 2‘ ,»-’(,£<., 1 ii!‘ K") , g,-- p .< ) ‘ 1 = an v 1.. {. 5’ f § vi '7; » ‘. {
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Title: Jones, Wendell, 1899-1956 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Claflin, Agnes, Rubenstein, Lewis, Green, Howard, Lowrey, Perrin
Description
Date: [After 1956]
Text: WENDELL JONES 1899 - 1956 Wendell Jones was widely recognized among American artists, both as a muralist and as an easel painter. Of his work as a muralist, Edward Bruce, Chief of the United States Government Section of Fine Arts, said in a personal letter: I have been neglecting my work all day looking at the photograph you sent of (your mural of the) barn-raising for the Rome, New York, Pest Office. The more I look at it, the more it fascinates me, and the more cer- tain I am that it has...
Show moreWENDELL JONES 1899 - 1956 Wendell Jones was widely recognized among American artists, both as a muralist and as an easel painter. Of his work as a muralist, Edward Bruce, Chief of the United States Government Section of Fine Arts, said in a personal letter: I have been neglecting my work all day looking at the photograph you sent of (your mural of the) barn-raising for the Rome, New York, Pest Office. The more I look at it, the more it fascinates me, and the more cer- tain I am that it has the universal quality of fine art which makes it a permanent contribution which will enrich the lives of any comunity of people who have the good fortune of possessing it. It is a distinguished work of art and I hope you will have the pleasure of realizing that you have created something for a simple Post Office which will be a permanent contribution to the art of this country. In Johnson City, Tennessee: in Granville, Ohio; in Cairo, Illinois, there are other murals by Wendell Jones, and whoever has seen them will understand the sense of excitement in this letter. The large walls he loved are swept incredibly into life, covered with bustling people, their faces rapt in joy or pain or surprise; they are full of movement, light, color, shape, almost sound. In his easel painting he was an American artist in the best sense; his work is characterized by a warm sensitivity to nature and to people. He was exhibited in the Metropolitan and the Corcoran Art Gallery; in the Whitney Museum and the Chicago Art Institute; in the Carnegie International and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and in many important national and inter ti 1 hibiti Hi k i t d i na ona ex ons. s wor s represen e n books, such as Paintin and Sculptors in Modern America and American Paintin éoda ; his statements of artisti principles Eave appeared in various publications and in The Magazine of Art. These were his measurable achievements What we cannot measure, because they were intangible, because they were manifold, because they were so intimate to our WENDELL JONES (Continued) lives at Vassar, were his achievements as a teacher and as a man. It is only possible to try to define their quality. On hearing of his death, one of the students said: Mr. Jones was so much more than a good teacher. He was able to see beautifully, in a way that turned the commonplace into a work of art; and he gave freely of himself so that we around him might find our ways to share his wonderful insights. He had a way of his own in working with students; he was full of liveliness, and he had an infinite capacity for taking pains; he was always available to students who sought his help, not only in their work but in their personal problems. But was so self-effacing; his manner was so gentle; his intuition so subtle, that to the student it scarcely seemed a matter of teaching at all. It was only afterwards that she would realize how very much she had learned, and by what fine indirections. He had an imaginative sense of each student's needs, and was always quick to point out the best section of a painting or drawing; he would immediately out a mat to dramatize it, or mask it tentatively with his startling fluid hands. He would save the city for one righteous man. Yet his achievements as an artist and as a teacher were but manifestations of his essential quality as a man, reflections of his humor, his humility, his deep and abiding humanity. He was a shy person at heart, instinctively gracious, and unaffectedly self-effacing. You found out about his reputation as an artist, about his published work, only by happenstance; you heard him express some sharp insight, some astonishingly original and illuminating perception in a modestly apologetic voice, as though he were the rankest beginner of an artist, venturing something not very important. And you saw his characteristic gesture, a hand put up to his mouth, hesitatingly. His dnrm was immediate upon acquaintance; but to know him longer was to find, beneath that charm, the keenest intel- ligence and a profound capacity for love; to experience a deeper and deeper admiration for his instinctive taste, his delicacy of feeling, his uncommon under- standing of human beings and human problems; to under- stand, finally, what a rare and immensely valuable person sheltered in him. WENDELL JONES (Continued) We cannot measure our sense of loss in the death of Wendell Jones; we can only record it here. And perhaps we can best express our gratitude for what he gave to the community of Vassar College, students and faculty alike, by reflecting, each in his own fashion, on these words which he wrote during the Second World War. So the artist, at a moment in history when men's spiritual problems are practically reduced to a fear of starvation and murder, has a superhuman problem. What abiding goodness can possibly be found which can restore himself and mankind to a faith in something besides power? The artist must, I think, find the abiding goodness he can believe in. The design (of his art) can then be read as his concern over its permanence, the struggle he has in keeping his faith in it as he weaves its environment. Agnes Claflin Lewis Rubenstein Howard Green Perrin Lowrey XIV - lh8-1h9
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Title: Howson, Lillian Mary Campbell, 1891-1946 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Lovell, Florence B., Miller, John R., McCormick, Charles G.
Description
Date: [After 1946]
Text: 1 l \ 1 1 1 I i § I I 1 1 I \ l i \ I 1 i \ \ \ > i »w. J LILLIAH MARY CAMPBELL HQWSON (Mrs. Howard Howson) 1891 - 19h6 This is our moment to speak of one who was and is part of this company and to express our sense of loss in the death of Lillian Mary Campbell Howson. As a wife and mother, as a neighbor and as a meme bar of this faculty she has shared deeply in the life of this community, and her influence will be felt for a long time to come. There was in her a genuine dignity and...
Show more1 l \ 1 1 1 I i § I I 1 1 I \ l i \ I 1 i \ \ \ > i »w. J LILLIAH MARY CAMPBELL HQWSON (Mrs. Howard Howson) 1891 - 19h6 This is our moment to speak of one who was and is part of this company and to express our sense of loss in the death of Lillian Mary Campbell Howson. As a wife and mother, as a neighbor and as a meme bar of this faculty she has shared deeply in the life of this community, and her influence will be felt for a long time to come. There was in her a genuine dignity and simplicity combined with youth- fulness and enthusiasm. The affairs of the college and its welfare were constantly in her thought. Younger members of the faculty could count on her for a warm welcome and a continuing interest. Many students found in her a confidant and comforter. For the children, her home was a play center and a proving ground where they were always welcome. The children of our comunity are among those who feel her loss most poignantly. She was a sincere friend who gave of herself wholeheartedly. "The law of kindness was on her tongue." ’. Florence B. Lovell John R. Miller Charles G. McCormick xxx - 58
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Title: McCaleb, Ella, 1856-1933 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Tonks, Oliver S., Thornbury, Zita L.
Description
Date: [After 1933]
Text: I I J \ ' I I ! ELLA McGADEB 1856 - 1933 The death of Miss Ella McCaleb closed the life of one whose many years reached back well into the pioneer days of the college and gave her a vision of its growth now shared by only a few. In almost its entirety her long career was devoted to the service of her beloved alma mater. Even her short experience as a teacher in secondary schools helped her toward her ultimate duties as Dean. Endowed with a kindly disposition and a deep sense of what is...
Show moreI I J \ ' I I ! ELLA McGADEB 1856 - 1933 The death of Miss Ella McCaleb closed the life of one whose many years reached back well into the pioneer days of the college and gave her a vision of its growth now shared by only a few. In almost its entirety her long career was devoted to the service of her beloved alma mater. Even her short experience as a teacher in secondary schools helped her toward her ultimate duties as Dean. Endowed with a kindly disposition and a deep sense of what is honorable Miss McCaleb was happily fit- ted to be a friend and counselor to the student body. While she fully appreciated the importance of schol- arship she never forgot the value of character build- ing as it touches both a decent industry and an in- tense loyalty to the principles upon which the col- lege is based. Nor did her interest in the students cease at gradua- tion. Rather she maintained her contacts with the alumnae so successfully that her house was to them a homing place upon their return just as it had always been an hospitable hearth for undergraduates and faculty, and not least of all her small friends, the faculty children. Properly she considered herself a liaison officer functioning between the college with its compacted interests and the outside world as it is represented by its alumnae. In this memorial the faculty desires to record its deep sense of loss of a true friend and faithful servant of the college. Oliver S. Tonks Zita L. Thornbury IX-M9
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Title: Kempton, Rudolf T., [?]-1975 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Pierce, Madelene E., Mucci, Joseph F., Lumb, Ethel Sue
Description
Date: [After 1975]
Text: I ‘X \ r ~,. , x. 1.. Q - / Q . x_;Mf- At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May twelfth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Rudolf T. Kempton came to Vassar College in l937 as Professor of Zoology and three years later was appointed Chairman of the De- partment. He held the degrees of B.S. from Bates College, M.A. from Columbia University and Ph.D. from New York University. Prior to his appointment at Vassar he had thirteen years of...
Show moreI ‘X \ r ~,. , x. 1.. Q - / Q . x_;Mf- At a Meeting of the Faculty of Vassar College held May twelfth, nineteen hundred and seventy-six, the following Memorial was unanimously adopted: Rudolf T. Kempton came to Vassar College in l937 as Professor of Zoology and three years later was appointed Chairman of the De- partment. He held the degrees of B.S. from Bates College, M.A. from Columbia University and Ph.D. from New York University. Prior to his appointment at Vassar he had thirteen years of experience in research and teaching at New York University, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Princeton University. He was a member of several professional societies and at different times was elected to national office in the Society of General Physiolo- gists and the American Society of Zoologists. Rudolf possessed great natural ability and a special personal charisma. He was a man of integrity and courage who would stand and fight, if need be, for justice, equality of opportunity for women and blacks, and other basic principles of a democratic society. He took special pride in being a member of the college volunteer fire department and he numbered among his friends most of the college workmen as well as faculty, administrators and students. Throughout his adult life Rudolf maintained an enthusiastic interest in people, teaching and research. He held firm beliefs in the value of a liberal arts education for women and of the importance of an under- standing of biological concepts and research methods as an integral part of that education. For twenty-six years he taught a two- semester course in General Zoology. After the merger of the Depart- ments of Zoology, Plant Science and Physiology he became one of the Directors of the new General Biology course. The major thrust of his teaching was the nature of scientific investigation and the y interrelationship between fundamental research and application of knowledge to problems of the individual and society. He believed that students should see scientists as real people and not demi- gods cloistered in “ivory laboratories". Rudolf frequently illus- trated his lectures with examples from his own research experience and that of his friends. Generations of zoology students fondly remember his stories about the great and near-great biologists with whom he associated during summers at the Woods Hole Marine Biologi- cal Laboratory. In addition to teaching, Rudolf served the College in important leadership roles. He was Chairman of the Department of Zoology for a total of twenty-two years. During the Presidency of Miss Blanding he served on the Advisory Committee for many years. Older faculty f*~%t-. iv 5* qgv -2.. will remember when as Budget Representative he gave the faculty lucid explanatLons, complete with colored graphs, of the college budget. Rudolf took seriously his responsibility of representing the faculty point of view in conferences with Miss Blanding. He was always ready to discuss a professional problem with any faculty member or to engage in general discussion of college issues. We all knew where and when to find Rudolf. Every morning after completing his eight o'clock class he would pick up his mail from the post office and then go to his unofficial "office", The Retreat. As he drank a second cup of coffee, friends or students joined him. These conversations, and sometimes heated debates, often extended the so called “office hour“. Several times during his tenure at Vassar Rudolf was involved in planning for a new biology building. Before his retirement he saw the start of the plans that resulted in Olmsted Hail, but he never saw the completed building. Of equal importance in Rudolf's life were his teaching at Vassar College and his research, which was largely carried on at his beloved Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Summers spent there were important to him intellectually and socially. He enjoyed the contact with fellow scientists, and the seminars and re- search conversations kept him abreast of what was new and exciting in biological research. The excellent library, laboratory and animal supply made his research activities a pleasure. He was a Trustee of the Marine Biological Laboratory for eighteen years and played an active role in the administration of the Corporation. Rudolf's research concerned the structure and function of the kidney. At the beginning of his career he was a member of research teams who pioneered in important research on kidney function. His own early work dealt with the chick embryo and species of amphibians, but he became especially interested in the Elasmobranch fishes and the role their excretory system plays in adapting the animal to its aquatic environment. Contrary to the hostile feeling about sharks and their relatives held by most laymen, Rudolf regarded these animals as the most fascinating in the world. Many of his publications were based on the relatively small dogfish shark. While on a Vassar Fellowship in i955-56 he studied a variety of species of sharks, skates and rays at Marineland of the Pacific and Marineland of Florida. He is the author of numerous publications. During his later years at Vassar College and after his retirement, Rudolf began to compile a bibliogra- phy of the Class Elasmobranchii; unfortunately death came to him before he could complete this important monograph. During World War ll Rudolf took a leave of absence to serve as teacher and panelist in the U.S. Army's Educational Program. In l9#5-A6 he taught physiology at the U.S. Army's Shrivenham American University in England. For seven months he, with other experts, toured U.A. Army bases in Europe discussing with the soldiers problems relating to sex. An outcome of this experience was a book, "7 co-—authored with Dr. Fred Brown, entitled “Sex Questions and Answers“. This book, pubbished by McGraw-Hill, became a l95O Book of the Month alternate selection and was translated into Danish, Dutch and Portugese. When he returned to Vassar, Rudolf initiated and participated in the widely acclaimed Freshman Sex Panel. This was a question and answer session designed to give incoming students an opportunity for a frank and open discussion of sex. In many ways Rudolf was ahead of his time with respect to sex education. When Rudolf retired in l967, after thirty years of service to Vassar College, he left a void in the Department of Biology and the College Community. Until his death in l975, he maintained his con- tact with the community of biological scientists. Summers were spent as always in his home at Woods Hole and he continued to be active in the affairs of the Marine Biological Laboratory. Shortly. before retirement he built a winter home in St. Augustine, Florida, near the Marineland. Rudolf was a devoted family man. Of greatest -3- /O0 importance in his personal life was his wife,Elizabeth, his daughter, Laura, and his four grandchildren. His was a happy and active re- tirement until his terminal illness. Rudolf Kempton will long live in the memory of those of us who knew him Respectfully submitted, Madelene E. Pierce Joseph F. Mucci Ethel Sue Lumb, Chairman
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Title: Ellis, Ruth Humphrey, 1900-1963 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Crawford, Marjorie, King, Elizabeth, Beck, Curt W.
Description
Date: [After 1963]
Text: /6 RUTH HUMPHREY ELLIS 1900 - 1963 Ruth Humphrey Ellis was born on November ll, 1900, in Ansonia, Connecticut. She was a Yankee, and proud of it: she liked to tell of her father's farm and of the many miles she walked to school as a girl. Working in a factory, she earned the money to go to Wellesley, from where she graduated in 1924. She pre- served a dedicated attachment to her College throughout her life: few of her friends at Vassar have failed to swell the coffers of our sister...
Show more/6 RUTH HUMPHREY ELLIS 1900 - 1963 Ruth Humphrey Ellis was born on November ll, 1900, in Ansonia, Connecticut. She was a Yankee, and proud of it: she liked to tell of her father's farm and of the many miles she walked to school as a girl. Working in a factory, she earned the money to go to Wellesley, from where she graduated in 1924. She pre- served a dedicated attachment to her College throughout her life: few of her friends at Vassar have failed to swell the coffers of our sister college by buying the wrappings and ribbons which Ruth brandished every year at Christmas time. She took her first teaching position at the Connecticut College for Women, where she arrived on horseback, asking feed and shelter for her mount. But soon she decided to continue her own education and entered the University of Illinois as a graduate student and teaching assistant. There she earned a Master's Degree in 1928 and a Ph.D. in 1930. In that same year she came to Vassar as an instructor, and here she taught until, after 33 years, she died where she had spent so many hours of her life: in the midst of a busy freshman laboratory. Ruth Ellis studied biochemistry when it was a young science, - still, indeed, called physiological chemistry, - and concerned itself largely with nutrition. Her dissertation dealt with the essential amino acids. After she came to Vassar, the Sanders Chemistry Laboratory was the inhospitable home of rats who strug- gled along on deficient diets while she directed two students in their research for a Master's Degree. _ In 1953-55, Ruth Ellis spent two years organizing the undergraduate chemistry program at the Women's Christian College in Madras. She fell in love with India, and this love grew into a more gen- eral concern for the people of Asia and Africa in their struggle for political and economic independence. As a teacher, the stu- dents of these countries were especially close to Ruth's heart, and many of them found a warm welcome in her home. But she also almost single-handedly created the Mid-Hudson International Center for professional and businessmen and women from far lands. Nor did she close her eyes to problems near by: she worked with the NAACP for fair housing practices in Poughkeepsie. These many and demanding activities became the central concern in her life, and she was happily at work in them on the morning of her last day. She started and ran committees as the price of i RUTH HUMPHREY ELLIS (Continued) progress, but she was still a Yankee: working as an individual for the welfare of other individuals. She was certain that most of the problems of the world grew from ignorance, and that if people but knew more about each other, these problems would be lessened or dissolved. To her, education was everything, - and everything was education. Marjorie Crawford Elizabeth King Curt W. Beck, Chairman XVI 106
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Title: Heinlein, Mary Virginia, 1903-1961 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Gleason, Josephine, Pennock, Clarice, Rothwell, William, Ross, James Bruce
Description
Date: [After 1961]
Text: MARY_VIRCINlA,HElNLEIN l903 - 1961 Mary Virginia Heinlein was born in 1903 in Bridgeport, Ohio. She must have liked her town. She insisted on going to its public schools, against the preference of her family for pri- vate ones. Years later she could bring generations of Bridge- port people alive for us with her reminiscences. Or one might hear her and an old neighbor from home telling over with relish all the institutions of higher learning in their native state. Perhaps these steady ties...
Show moreMARY_VIRCINlA,HElNLEIN l903 - 1961 Mary Virginia Heinlein was born in 1903 in Bridgeport, Ohio. She must have liked her town. She insisted on going to its public schools, against the preference of her family for pri- vate ones. Years later she could bring generations of Bridge- port people alive for us with her reminiscences. Or one might hear her and an old neighbor from home telling over with relish all the institutions of higher learning in their native state. Perhaps these steady ties with the place she first knew had a share in her passion for authenticity, in the richness and sub- stance of her experience of the wide world. It was in Bridgeport that the theatre took hold of her. She saw all the plays that Chautauqua on its circuit and stock companies on their tours brought to her part of the Ohio Valley; and early in life she began to find her way backstage to talk with the players. For her own part, this theatre-goer, who was also getting to be well-read, initiated her playmates into many dramatic ventures. So, when she came to Vassar College in l923 to enter the Junior class, after two years at Ohio State University, it was natural that her teacher, Winifred Smith, should be struck by her intui- tive and vivid understanding of Elizabethan drama, unusual in students then or now; by her quick response even to the old- fashioned Elizabethan humor and comedy, which she could interpret in the medium of American rural dialect and slang. At Vassar, she chose some of the courses that Vassar Alumnae are still talking about. One of them was Henry Nobel MacCracken's Chaucer and the Early Renaissance. Her teacher must have seen her then as he saw her long after. The other day Mr. MacCracken wrote: "The chief quality of Mary Virginia Heinlein - my student, colleague, director, and friend — was dedication to the very point of possession. For two-score years I never ceased to wonder at its intensity." It was not the Vassar actors but the debaters whom she joined as a student. Mr. MacCracken remembers this, too: "An obscure member (as we often let a transfer be) of a brilliant class, with no toehold in her glass mountain, she climbed to the presi- dency of Debate Council, then the most favored of college sports In the fall of 1925 she led her team against one from Cambridge University, whose most notable member was Richard Austin Butler (now Great Britain's Home Secretary). The issue was: Resolved that modern democracies are not compatible with personal liberty l MARY VIRGINIA HEINLEIN (Continued) The judges‘ award went to the English. But Mr. MacCracken thought they found it a hollow award: "They had come to win converts not debates; and the Vassar audience voted solidly for Mary Virginia's side." From Vassar Miss Heinlein went straight to the Theater Guild School of New York. The next six years she spent in the theatre, studying in this country and in Europe, acting in New York and in travelling companies, trying her hand at directing - managing. In these years she was deeply influenced by the psychological exploration of the experimental dramatists of the twenties; and this became one of her continuing and developing interests. Then came the lean years of the thirties. She went home to Ohio, into her father's law office, and the law school of the State University. But the fine career in the law, and perhaps in the State Legislature, that her Vassar teachers and friends began now to predict for her barely got under way. In l933 Sarah Lawrence College offered her an opportunity that she could not resist: to introduce drama into its liberal arts curriculum. It is hard for Vassar people to remember how radical and rare such an opportunity was in those days because Vassar's own pioneering in the Arts began early. For twenty years in our own Department of English, students had been tak- ing courses in playwriting and play production, and putting their learning to the test, first in the campus dramatic work- shop, then in the Poughkeepsie Community Theatre and finally in the Experimental Theatre. By the time Miss Heinlein returned to Vassar the Division of Drama had been established. She came in 1942 as Professor of Drama and Director of the Experimental Theatre. She brought with her a clear vision of what the education of women should be, and of the place of the arts in this education Her own words give the best statement of her goals as a teacher Our teaching philosophy is sensible and simple. We believe that a student's status is a dignified one, comparable to a profession, and that the student's chief business is learning. Since all things change and man's wisdom is finite, the important thing for the student to learn is hpw to learn so that her experience here may be the start of an ever continuing process of self-education. We teach, therefore, techniques of learning and hope the student acquires the taste for constant exploration. MARY VIRGINIA HEINLEIN (Continued) Our goal is the student's independence of us, an independence based on the genuine confidence which comes from knowing that one has a reasonable under- standing of oneself and the ability to do useful work, and on her realization that final responsibility for her education as well as for her direction in life rests upon herself alone. We believe, also, that for some individuals the practice of an art is an integrating and truly educating process, demanding, as it does, the involvement of the whole personality and the constant searching and testing of oneself, and calling at the same time for the utmost flexibility, originality, and spontaneity, and the most rigorous self-discipline, organization, and order. We believe that drama furnishes proper substance for the students‘ meditation, dealing, as it does, with the most important question affecting man, the meaning of his own existence; and that it presents to the mind, as do the myths, rites and dreams from which it comes those symbols and images the contemplation of which leads the human spirit toward its true and proper development. This is not a definition of permissive teaching, and Miss Heinlein's students did not have an easy time of it. "She behaved," one of them says, "As if our naivete were a fault we could shed if we chose; and she chose that we get rid of it fast." A young woman might kick hard against the pricks - hard enough for all to see. But ten years later she would write that Miss Heinlein was her great teacher, the first person she had ever known who showed "intellectual passion." She would say that in having to submit to the "authority of accuracy and precision"; to subject the development of her ideas to the rigor of logic, to suffer the explorations of her own mind, she was getting her introduction to "a great science, in the fine old Greek sense of the word." We all had a share in Miss Heinlein's educational enterprise, eveniﬁﬂﬁe of us who never appeared on her stage, or lent the resources and insights of their own professions to her produc- tions. We were her audience, whom she made feel as essential to the theatre, between curtain—up and curtain-down, as her cast. Some of us had to take it on faith, now and then, that the play before us was, in her words, "so good that it needed doing." But in the end every one of us had his own treasury of satisfying memories of her theatre; perhaps the power and the insights in her production of The Tempest; perhaps the MARY VIRGINIA HEINLEIN (Continued) sights and sounds of young women, so moving, against the stylized sets of The Mother_of Us All; perhaps the perfection of The Blood Wedding, that “brooding folkplay of simple peasants, devoid of all decor but mere sunlight on plaster walls." All those years Miss Heinlein took her part in the national and international affairs of the theatre. She held office in the American National Theatre and Academy, the State and National Theatre Conferences, the American Educational Theatre Association, the American Society for Theatre Research. She was a delegate to Conferences of the U. S. Commission for UNESCO to the National Theatre Assemblies. Her paper for the Inter- national Congress of Theatre Scholars and Historians held in Venice in '57 was published in German by the Institute for Theatre Science of the University of Vienna, and in other languages. She gave lectures on the drama, wrote articles and reviews, made reports for Foundations. She found time to write for children a play called The Panda and the Spy, first given at Vassar in 1943, and still showing in children's theatres. She visited theatres around the world. Now and then, by way of a holiday, yet keeping her hand in, she would spend a summer in one of the stock companies. In collaboration with Mrs. Stavrides, she had almost completed a translation of the memoirs of Andre Antoine, founder of the Theatre Libre in Paris. But important as it was, her public role has for her friends and colleagues far less reality than her warm and generous personality, with its unique combination of wit and wisdom which responded so directly to the authentic, yet was so quick to unmask the false and deflate the pretentious. It has less reality than the gallant, playful and truly comic spirit that set our mundane concerns in a proper perspective. On December 20, 1961, Mary Virginia Heinlein taught her last class. She died on Christmas Day. Josephine Gleason Clarice Pennock William Rothwell James Bruce Ross, Chairman XV 333-390
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Title: Dimock, George E., 1853-1919 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Reed, Amy L., Baldwin, James F.
Description
Date: [After 1919]
Text: cnoncs E. nxmocx 1853 - 1919 The recent death of George E. Dimock, who was for sixteen years a devoted Trustee of the CO116g6, is felt by the Faculty to be an irreparable loss.F0r Mr. Dimock combined in unusual measure ability in business with the tastes of a man of letters, and as he chose to make the educational and intellectual life of the College his special interest, he rendered it exceptional service. A member of the Comittee on Faculty and Studies, he was always alive to the need of...
Show morecnoncs E. nxmocx 1853 - 1919 The recent death of George E. Dimock, who was for sixteen years a devoted Trustee of the CO116g6, is felt by the Faculty to be an irreparable loss.F0r Mr. Dimock combined in unusual measure ability in business with the tastes of a man of letters, and as he chose to make the educational and intellectual life of the College his special interest, he rendered it exceptional service. A member of the Comittee on Faculty and Studies, he was always alive to the need of materials for study; himself a collector of books, he enriched the Library; he promoted research. Still more memorable was the personal appreciation which he manifested toward all achievements of faculty and students, who felt his commendation to be both a reward and an incentive. There are few men indeed of the present generation who merit so well the description expressed in the Classic phrase, "a friend of learning." While his influence will long be held in living memory with gratitude and admiration, it is enacted as a permanent memorial that this recognition of his life of service be engrossed in the Minutes of the Faculty. It is further moved that a copy of the above-written resolution be presented by the Secretary to Mrs. Dimock Amy L. Reed James F. Baldwin VII - 18
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Title: Marshall, Howard D., 1924-1972 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Johnson, Shirley, Glasse, John, Albers, Henry, Herbst, Lawrence
Description
Date: [After 1972]
Text: Qé HOWARD D. MARSHALL 1924 - 1972 Professor Howard D. Marshall was born on April 9, 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents were Smith and Florence Drake Marshall. He grew up in Dutchess County and attended local schools. He served in Japan and Okinawa in the United States Infantry in 1946. Professor Marshall attended Columbia College where he received his B.A. in 1947, his M.A. in l949, and his Ph.D; in 1954 in Economics. He came to Vassar College as an instructor in 1949 and served on...
Show moreQé HOWARD D. MARSHALL 1924 - 1972 Professor Howard D. Marshall was born on April 9, 1924 in Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents were Smith and Florence Drake Marshall. He grew up in Dutchess County and attended local schools. He served in Japan and Okinawa in the United States Infantry in 1946. Professor Marshall attended Columbia College where he received his B.A. in 1947, his M.A. in l949, and his Ph.D; in 1954 in Economics. He came to Vassar College as an instructor in 1949 and served on the faculty continuously from that time until his death in August, l972. During his time at Vassar he took several research leaves and spent the year 1955-56 as a Visit- ing Professor at Wesleyan University. He was promoted to Assistant Professor at Vassar in 1954, to Associate Professor in 1959 and became Professor in 1967. He was Chairman of the Department of Economics a number of times. In fact, there were many who thought of him as almost the permanent chairman because of his leadership of the Department. He taught a wide- ranging number of courses, and was competent in a surprising number of fields including Labor, History of Economic Thought, Money and Banking, Corporate and Government Finance and Economic Theory. His strong sense of independence kept him from ever succumbing to the "fashionable" in the academic marketplace. His high standards for academic excellence were evident in his writings and in his teaching. He provided great balance in the Department through the years, not only through his breadth of interests but also through the sense of continuity he gave even while welcoming change. He published a large number of articles in his fields and, at the time of his death had completed five books: The Mobility of College Faculties; The Great Economists; The History of Economic Thought; Business and Government; and Collective Bargaining. Several were jointly authored with his wife, Natalie Junemann Marshall. He was deeply committed to problems of the labor movement and particularly brought his insight to bear on the problems of education and educators. At the time of his death he was work- ing on a study of the labor market for public school teachers. $7 HOWARD D. MARSHALL - continued He was active at Vassar on a number of committees. And he was not only a staunch member of the AAUP who applied his professional interest in the mobility of college professors to the local situation, but a past president of the Vassar Chapter. Howard Marshall was one of those rare faculty members who grew up in the Vassar area. Throughout his life he chose to maintain close contact with the community from which he came. He was very active in the Dutchess County and Poughkeepsie community, both in a professional capacity and with respect to community organizations. Howard Marshall's interest in and love of the community led him to a variety of undertakings. He was Chairman of the board of directors of the Hudson Valley Council on Economic Education. He was a member of the New York State Council on Economic Education. He gave a course in Business Economics for several groups at IBM and in l955 and 1958 gave a series of lectures for the Cornell Extension Service on "Current Problems in Labor Relations." At the time of his death he was engaged in producing an index of business conditions for the local area. Howard Marshall was actively involved with many of the busi- ness and community leaders and always encouraged the Vassar students to undertake studies of the community and to sup- plement their classroom knowledge with field work in local banking and investment institutions. In addition, he was the director of the Vassar—Wellesley Summer Internship Program in Washington, D. C. in 1961. This program provided an opportu- nity for juniors to learn about various aspects of national government by working in offices in the nation's capital. He was a well known figure in economics, and was listed in a number of directories including "Who's Who in America," "Contemporary Authors," "American Men of Science," and "Who's Who in Education." He was a member of a number of professional organizations including the American Economic Association, Industrial Rela- tions Research Association, and the National Tax Association. Y? HSWARD D. MARSHALL - continued He was a devoted family man who gave much to his wife, Natalie, and two children, Alison and Frederick Smith. His love of congeniality and friends brought many members of the Vassar community to his home, and we will long remember friendly evenings at Howard's. He had many friends from the Poughkeepsie comunity at large and those of us who joined him in gather- ings at his home always knew that our circle of friends would be widened as we met persons from all walks of life outside the academic community. Thus Howard served in many ways to narrow the gap between town and gown. Many of us now cherish friends we first met at Howard's home. But more than that we remember his warmth and friendliness, the good humour, kindly concern and understanding he brought to any situation, and the breadth of his knowledge as he talked with ease on many different subjects. Howard Marshall's home, located for many years across Raymond Avenue from the Main Gate of Vassar College was an important part of the Vassar community in another way. In it, he exempli- fied the role of the devoted teacher-scholar in a residential college. Senior seminars, picnics for majors, parties at gradu- ation, and gatherings after visiting lectureships were often held at the Marshalls. Here, as well as in the classroom, he imparted to generations of Vassar economics majors his values, an inner peace, a strong sense of justice, and a deep respect for life. Perhaps the most remarkable quality which Howard Marshall had was his courage and tenacity which let none of us at Vassar know how hard it must have been for him to carry on a more than full load of teaching, advising, departmental chairman and college activities cheerfully and with no sense of anything but all the time in the world when we came to him as friends and colleagues to discuss professional or other problems. His illness never curtailed his interests, nor his zest for life. There was a heroic quality to the way he refused to come to terms with the restraining demands of his illness. For Howard Marshall insisted upon living fully to the very end of his life -- without compromise. It was a victory he won through struggles that probably few of us know. Respectfully submitted, Shirley Johnson, Chairman John Glasse Henry Albers Lawrence Herbst ./ I r"
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Title: Ascheri, Carlo, 1936-1967 -- Memorial Minute: . .
Creator: Domandi, Mario
Description
Date: [After 1967]
Text: _¢ ‘z ._._ i"iM I Ox . CARLO ASCHERI \ » \- l936 - 1967 Carlo Ascheri was born in Ventimiglia, Italy on February 16, 1936. After attending the schools in his home town, he went to study philosophy at the Scuola Normale of Pisa, and then at the University of Heidelberg, where he was also a Lecturer in the Italian Department. His main intellectual interest was the social philosophy of the Hegelian left, particularly the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach. When he came to teach at Vassar in...
Show more_¢ ‘z ._._ i"iM I Ox . CARLO ASCHERI \ » \- l936 - 1967 Carlo Ascheri was born in Ventimiglia, Italy on February 16, 1936. After attending the schools in his home town, he went to study philosophy at the Scuola Normale of Pisa, and then at the University of Heidelberg, where he was also a Lecturer in the Italian Department. His main intellectual interest was the social philosophy of the Hegelian left, particularly the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach. When he came to teach at Vassar in 1963, he tried to pursue those studies, but soon found that the materials available here were very inadequate. Though he was very happy here for personal reasons, professional considera- tions forced him to return to Germany; there, a Thyssen fellow- ship allowed him to work on Feuerbach uninterruptedly for two years. In that time he wrote a number of things of such high quality that he came to be considered one of Europe's leading scholars in his field. The Meiner Verlag had commissioned him to edit the first two volumes of a new edition of the complete works of Feuerbach. His German article entitled "Notwendigkeit einergveranderung" established the basis for a new interpreta-I tion of Feuerbach's early thought. He was invited to address international conferences and seminars. By the spring of 1967, he felt he was well along enough in his work to accept an invita- tion to return to Vassar the following fall -— especially since he had now started studying on translating the works of Herbert Marcuse, many of whose disciples are in this country. ‘ That sumer, Mr. Ascheri married Heidi Osterloh. They arrived in Poughkeepsie in September, and had barely finished setting up a delightful apartment in Keyes, when a sudden cerebral hemorrhage carried him away on November 29, 1967 at the age of 31. . Carlo Ascheri, the young scholar, has received academic recogni- tion worthy of men twice his age. His notes have been gathered, and will be published as books and articles by friends working in the same field. His nearly finished translation of Marcuse has been completed by his wife and will appear this summer. A Fest- schrift in his honor was published a few months ago, and included contributions by outstanding European scholars. But for Carlo ¢ CARLO ASCHERI (Continued) Ascheri the man, the gentle, honest, completely integral man, the sensitive loyal friend, there can be no adequate eulogy. Respectfully submitted, Mario Domandi
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Title: Claflin, Agnes Rindge, 1900-1977 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Pommer, Linda Nochlin, Barber, Leila Cook, Groves, Earl, Kuretsky, Susan Donahue, Askew, Pamela
Description
Date: October 14, 1981

Title: Washburn, Margaret Floy, 1871-1939 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Macurdy, Grace Harriet
Description
Date: [After 1939]
Text: 774 MEMORIES OF MARGARET FLUY WASHBURN July 25, 1871-October 29, 1939 Others will write of Margaret Floy Washburn as a woman of genius, a great psychologist, and a great teacher. More than most women of her time she leaves an enduring monument in her scientific investigation, her published studies, and in the students whose careers have been promoted and inspired by her teaching and her friendship. I write tonight with a heart filled with memories of her vivid life, her brilliant and...
Show more774 MEMORIES OF MARGARET FLUY WASHBURN July 25, 1871-October 29, 1939 Others will write of Margaret Floy Washburn as a woman of genius, a great psychologist, and a great teacher. More than most women of her time she leaves an enduring monument in her scientific investigation, her published studies, and in the students whose careers have been promoted and inspired by her teaching and her friendship. I write tonight with a heart filled with memories of her vivid life, her brilliant and versatile mind, her passionate and loyal devotion to her mother, to Vassar College, and to her chosen friends. Words are cold things for describing a being of such vitality and strong impulse. She loved her work, her classes, her research, and she loved lﬁ‘e. All who knew her knew of her intense love of animals and of the impulsive generosity which made her spring to the help and defense of anyone who was in need or in trouble. To see an animal suffer was agony to her. In the diary of her uncle Michael Floy, professor of mathematics in Columbia University, he tells of working three hours one afternoon to rescue a toad that he had accidentally covered with earth when he was up- rooting a tree. Margaret Washburn had the same pity and care for all helpless things. She always fed the campus squirrels in winter. The last words she spoke to me before she was stricken concerned the care of my cat Mau during my proposed year in Europe. My thoughts often go back to that last walk with her on March 17, 1937. As clearly as though it were yesterday I can see her as I first saw her. She came to the Faculty table -- it was thirty-six years ago -- a tall, slender young woman, moving with ease and lightness. I remember well the warm and vivid glance of her brown eyes and the distinction of her whole presence. We became friends imediately, seeing each other daily in term time for many years. She was never dull. Her wit, her appreciation of life's ironies, her love of poetry, for which she had a remarkable memory, her knowledge of biography and literature, the entire absence of affectation in her attitude toward life and people made her a fascinating companion. That extraordinary vital quality in her made friendship with her an endless voyage of discovery. One knew her well, but never completely. She had so many resources and gifts that contributed to her happiness -- an intense love of music, of reading, especially in eighteenth century literature, and of thinking. Although she loved her friends I have often heard her say, laughing, "never less alone than when alone." 75 msmoarss OF MARGARET FLOY wasssumr (Continued) Her study of her family genealogy gave her great pleasure. She investigated her Cornish, English, Dutch, French, and Scotch ancestry both in America and abroad. I once bought her a record which she prized, from a London church, of the death of her ancestor John Washburn in 1685 while on a visit to London. All the different strains of ancestry had united in her blood to form a being of rare genius with the instincts of a creative artist. How many walks and talks we have had together in the beauty of the Vassar which we both loved, for whose outward form she had so keen an eye. She saw so much in nature and often chided me for my slow v1§I6h. She cared for everything that had ever stirred her thought. For example, she could quote more of her favorite Latin poet, Horace, than many a professional Latin scholar could quote. She visited Rome, made a collection of Roman coins, and welcomed the plan which we carried out in the summer of 1936 of visiting Roman Gaul. We went to Orange, Vaison, Nimes, Arles, St. Remy, and Aignes Mortes and she took many pictures of Roman theatres and Roman monuments. When we were in England together and went to such places as St. Albans and Bath she had the most lively interest in Roman antiquities as well as in the later historical monuments. She took the part of the nurse in the Hi ol tus of Euripides when that play was given by the Departmeng 0% Dramatic Production and the Classical Departments, and she learned the large amount of Greek that belonged to her part rapidly and with ease. Her mind was always active and she loved beautiful bodily movement, such as dancing. It was no superficial interest that she took in things outside her own specialty. Indeed, I think she thought that nothing was outside her specialty. She felt that a broad foundation 3f_knowledge and culture was necessary for the student of psychology and I never saw her bored by anything intellectual. So many memories crowd upon me of our personal friendship and our trips together, of her work in the Faculty, presiding over it splendidly in the absence of the President from the chair, serving on many important cmmittees, to which her colleagues constantly elected her; of her encouragement of young scholars, of the many honors she received from institutions throughout the land; (she was happy over her election to the National Academy of Sgiences); of her generosities to poor people who were struggling to pay off a mortgage, or to carry on a little business, and of her keen enjoyment of the beauty of life. MEMORIES OF MARGARET FLOY WASHBURN (Continued) It is hard to believe that that flame is quenched. Her work and her memory remain, as long as Vassar stands, in the college to which she gave her love, her life, and her talent. A hast of alumnae remember the inspiration of her teaching and the joy of her friendship. They have show: their love and gratitude in many ways and one of them, Polyxenie Kambouropoulou, has devoted herself to her daily during her long illness. She wrote her graduating essay on the poetry of Matthew Arnold, which she loved. She gave me her old copy of Arnold's poems. All today I have heard ringing in my brain his verse, which I have heard her repeat -- "Her oabin'd, ample spirit, It f1utter'd and fail'd for breath, Tonight it doth inherit The vasty hall of death." Her love for her mother was the strongest emotion of her life. She told me repeatedly that her mother was a perfect human being -- that she had never seen a fault in her. And her mother, who loved her and was quietly proud of her achievement, once told me that she considered her less her daughter than her contribution to the race. Grace Harriet Macurdy Vassar Alumnae Magazine January l9hO, Page 3-h
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Title: Dickinson, George Sherman, 1888-1964 -- Memorial Minute
Date: [After 1964]
Text: GEORGE SHERMAN DICKINSQN 1888 - l964 On November 6 of this year, George Sherman Dickinson passed away in his home at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he had lived since his retirement from Vassar College in 1953. Mr. Dickinson spent the greater part of his teaching career at Vassar, where he was a member of the faculty for thirty-seven years. For twelve of these years he was Chairman of the Department of Music. Before this, he had taught for six years at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he...
Show moreGEORGE SHERMAN DICKINSQN 1888 - l964 On November 6 of this year, George Sherman Dickinson passed away in his home at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he had lived since his retirement from Vassar College in 1953. Mr. Dickinson spent the greater part of his teaching career at Vassar, where he was a member of the faculty for thirty-seven years. For twelve of these years he was Chairman of the Department of Music. Before this, he had taught for six years at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he had received the greater part of his professional training. Oberlin College conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Music on him in 1935. Mr. Dickinson was generally regarded as one of the most distinguished teachers on the Vassar faculty, and his activities during his long period of service here were manifold; many of them continue to affect the course of the work in music at Vassar in both direct and indirect ways. He was personally responsible for planning, as a whole and in detail, Skinner Hall of Music, which was finished in 1931; and time has proved the soundness as well as the constructive imagination of his planning. In addition to his teaching, Mr. Dickinson was also the Music Librarian of the College, and it is he who developed the Music Library (which is appropriately named after him) into one of the finest college libraries of music in the United States. There are thousands of Vassar alumnae who still remember him gratefully and affectionately as the professor of Music 140, a course that he developed in unusually effective ways, and which served as a model for similar courses in other colleges and universities. Mr. Dickinson was widely known for his scholarly writings in the fields of music theory, music aesthetics, and music as a subject of study in higher education. In his books and articles in these areas he revealed a first-rate mind at work, and whatever he treated was done so with origin- ality. Like the man who wrote them, his books were keen, forthright, and incisive. He left a completed manuscript at the time of his death - A Handbook of Style in Music - which will soon be published, partly through the aid of the Salmon Fund of Vassar College. He was a man in love with books, and he had concern not only for what the book said but how the book said it; his hobby was typography, and he personally designed many of his published works. GEORGE SHERMAN DICKINSON (continued) Those who knew Mr. Dickinson will never forget his intel- ligence and forcefulness, his quick wit and humor, and the essential kindliness of the man. Vassar is the richer because this devoted teacher and able scholar chose to spend the greater part of his active career here. Carl Parrish
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Title: Tremelling, Michael M., 1945-1988 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Brown, Robert D., Stout, Edith C., Beck, Curt W.
Description
Date: September 1988
Text: Memorial Minute Michael J. Tremelling Michael Tremelling died last June at the age of forty—two. For a decade and a half his life had hung by a thread and that thread was getting thinner and thinner. He knew that, but he used what time he had to do his work, to raise his children and to show more concern for others than for himself. when he lost his last battle, his friends, colleagues and students lost the most remarkable man they are ever likely to know. Michael Tremelling was born on...
Show moreMemorial Minute Michael J. Tremelling Michael Tremelling died last June at the age of forty—two. For a decade and a half his life had hung by a thread and that thread was getting thinner and thinner. He knew that, but he used what time he had to do his work, to raise his children and to show more concern for others than for himself. when he lost his last battle, his friends, colleagues and students lost the most remarkable man they are ever likely to know. Michael Tremelling was born on October i4, I945, in Rigby, Idaho. In his undergraduate years, at the Idaho State University, he was the junior member of joint faculty—student research that resulted in his first two publications. This early experience shaped his later professional life as a chemist and as a teacher of chemistry: he was never happier than when he worked with his Vassar students in the laboratory. Mike did his graduate work at Yale, where he earned Master's and Doctor's degrees in physical organic chemistry and then went on to Cal Tech for a year of post—doctoral research. -1- it was during that year that both his kidneys failed and were replaced by a kidney given him by one of his sisters, Jeanne. when Mike applied for an appointment at Vassar early in 1974, he sent along his cu/‘r/‘cu/um wfae on which the entry "Health:" read “Good; kidney transplant May 1973". That laconic assessment reflected his determination more than his optimism. He knew, as we did, that the health of a transplant patient is never simply "good". The drugs administered to prevent the body from rejecting the alien organ inevitably weaken the entire immune system. Even a trivial infection like the common cold constitutes a threat to life. in addition, these drugs cause progressive deterioration of the bone structure. Both of Mike's hips had to be replaced with steel and plastic not once but twice, and during his last stay in the hospital, he faced a third hip replacement, a drug-resistant infection, and a second kidney transplant. That proved to be more than even his tenacity could overcome. Mike had a fierce and dogged will to live, not for the pleasures life afforded him, for those were few, but for his work which he loved, and for his two young sons, Christopher and Jonathan, whom he loved more and for whose custody he had fought a long and wearying battle. Most of his energy went into his work, and he was good at it. _ 2 _ He was a demanding teacher, and a generous one. He was always ready to help students who were honorably struggling with chemistry, and even more so to guide those who wanted to explore it beyond the context of the introductory course. But he had no patience with students who did not try to do their best. For someone who as a matter of course worked to the limit of his capacity under trying circumstances, - who painfully dragged himself to class on crutches and taught with an overhead projector from his chair when he could no longer stand on his feet, - it was incomprehensible and infuriating that there were hale young people who could not be bothered to put their best effort into their own future. At the center of Mike's professional life was his research. Characteristically, he was only interested in difficult problems. He carried out work in three distinct areas of physical organic chemistry: solid-state reactions at high temperatures, steric requirements of physiologically active molecules, especially morphine analogues, and the mechanisms and kinetics of free-radical reactions. His substantial and highly original contributions to these fields have been published in more than a dozen papers, several of them in journals that accept only work of unusual and fundamental importance, like fez‘/"a/lea’/"an Letters and the rapid communications section of the ./0uma/ of 2‘/re Amer/‘can C/?6‘/77/Z‘8/ Social‘;/. His work was supported by grants from the Petroleum Research Fund, the Research Corporation, and the National Science Foundation. He worked and -3- published jointly with two colleagues in the department and, above all, with his students. To a deeply engaged scientist, teaching and research are indivisible: the most effective teaching and the most exciting learning are done when a student and a teacher strive together to trace the lines of order and of beauty in Nature's tapestry. The students who had the good fortune to work with Mike in the laboratory knew and loved him best, both as a scientist and as a man, and their lives have been profoundly changed by knowing him. it is easier to talk of Michael Tremellings work than to convey what kind of man he was. Few could live in such adversity and in virtually constant pain without falling into despondency, self -pity and an acceptance of defeat. That was not Mike's way. He staved off despair by setting aside what he could not change and putting his energy into what he could. If he was discouraged by what he called the rollercoaster ride of small improvements followed by large setbacks, he did not let it show. His health was not a subject of conversation he saw fit to open. As he lay immobilized on his bed for most of last winter and throughout spring, he would talk to his visitors about everything else but that, - about books he read, about college affairs, about national politics. His comments were often funny and always incisive and cuttingly to the point. He did not have the mind, — or the time, — to beat about the bush. Only when asked would he speak of his _4_ condition and then in such a matter-of-fact way that it seemed he was looking not at the ruins of his life but at a biochemical phenomenon he followed with detached interest. Then he would change the subject. The remarkable thing is our clear sense that he avoided speaking of his pain and of his prospects not to protect himself but to spare our feelings. There is no lack of large and noble words to describe Michael Tremelling. There is his genuine brilliance as a scientist. There is his unflagging courage that can only be called heroic. There is the enormous dignity with which he faced multiplying disaster. But at the core of all of these there is that rare and unfashionable quality called goodness. Wordsworth reminds us that the "best portion of a good man's life" are "his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love“. Yes, but not unremembered. All who knew Mike during his short life will remember him for however long we may live. September I988 Robert D. Brown, Department of Classics Edith C. Stout, Department of Chemistry Curt W. Beck, Department of Chemistry -5-
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Title: Palmer, Jean Culbert, 1872-1929 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: The Philadelphia Meeting of the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College
Description
Date: [After 1929]
Text: JEAN CUEBERT PALMER 1372 - 1929 The following minute written by Caroline M. Lewis and adopted at the Philadelphia meeting of the As- sociate Alumnae of Vassar College, and also at the Council meeting with a vote that a copy should be sent to the faculty of Vassar College, was read: If the aim of Vassar College's existence can be caught in one phrase, it seems happily expressed in the enrichment of personality through character of mind. To these qualities of education Jean Culbert Palmer...
Show moreJEAN CUEBERT PALMER 1372 - 1929 The following minute written by Caroline M. Lewis and adopted at the Philadelphia meeting of the As- sociate Alumnae of Vassar College, and also at the Council meeting with a vote that a copy should be sent to the faculty of Vassar College, was read: If the aim of Vassar College's existence can be caught in one phrase, it seems happily expressed in the enrichment of personality through character of mind. To these qualities of education Jean Culbert Palmer particularly contributed. Her unerring sen- sitivity to the needs and capacities of the per- sonalities with whom she was in contact created for them an imediate sense of adjustment to difficulty and a freer course to self-development. Her own character of mind offered the steady inspiration of its example especially throughout her recent illnes during which her first thought always was her re- sponsibility to the College, herself the last thoug As Warden of Vassar College for fourteen years, Mis Palmer preserved a peculiarly delicate and importan balance between the solidity necessary to the large group which her decisions affected and constructive exceptions which personality demanded. As we, the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College, mou her death on July ll, 1929, we are also grateful th her charm of calm power remains a living impulse wi us who shared it. From the Philadelphia meeting of the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College VIII - 351 ht s t rn at th
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Title: White, Henry Seely, 1861-1943 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: [unknown]
Description
Date: [After 1943]
Text: HENRY SEEEY WHITE 1861 - l9h3 When he was appointed to Vassar, in 1905, after President Taylor had searched the country for a mathematician of high distinction, Heny Seely White was recognized as a leader in his field, internationally known for his research in the new geometry. He had graduated fram'Wesleyan University with honors, studied in Germany and Italy, and taken his doctorate at Gottingen under the inspiration of such mathematicians as Klein and Schwarz. It was after teaching at...
Show moreHENRY SEEEY WHITE 1861 - l9h3 When he was appointed to Vassar, in 1905, after President Taylor had searched the country for a mathematician of high distinction, Heny Seely White was recognized as a leader in his field, internationally known for his research in the new geometry. He had graduated fram'Wesleyan University with honors, studied in Germany and Italy, and taken his doctorate at Gottingen under the inspiration of such mathematicians as Klein and Schwarz. It was after teaching at Wesleyan, Clark and Northwestern Universities that he accepted the call to Vassar. To our advantage he repeatedly declined calls to other universities, feeling that the great happiness, both for him and for Mrs. White, was to be found at Vassar. In his thirty-one years here he was one of the outstanding figures in the life of the col- lege and the community. Frm the class of 1906 down to the graduates of the present year Vassar students and his colleagues have felt the charm of his personality and the quality of his great intellect. He had a courtly dignity combined with a dry, penetrating wit. A conflict of logic with common sense in faculty discussion brought forth his choicest humor, always out of a tolerant, sane point of view. His insight into fields others than his own grew out of an easy familiarity with the currents in education, con- temporary and past. In some subtle way he developed in his students a power which neither they nor others knew they possessed. Sad as we are at the loss of Professor White we feel that what he gave to the college will always be a part of Vassar's contribution XI - 66
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Title: Lee, Otis, 1902-1948 -- Memorial Minute:
Creator: Brooks, Richard A.E., Newcomer, Mabel, Weitz, Morris
Description
Date: [After 1948]
Text: OTIS LEE 1902 - 19 I48 The College cmmunity and philosophical scholars mourn the unexpected death of Otis Lee in Peacham, Vermont, on September 17, l9h8. Professor Lee was born in Montevideo, Minnesota, in 1902 and grew up in the Middle West, where he was strongly influenced by the cultural traditions which prevailed there -- especially by the idea of the open society or community. After receiving his B.A. de- gree from the University of Minnesota in 192h, he went to Oxford as a Rhodes...
Show moreOTIS LEE 1902 - 19 I48 The College cmmunity and philosophical scholars mourn the unexpected death of Otis Lee in Peacham, Vermont, on September 17, l9h8. Professor Lee was born in Montevideo, Minnesota, in 1902 and grew up in the Middle West, where he was strongly influenced by the cultural traditions which prevailed there -- especially by the idea of the open society or community. After receiving his B.A. de- gree from the University of Minnesota in 192h, he went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. There he encountered the German philosophical tradition as it was being interpreted by the Oxford Hegelians. ‘He returned to America, again to different traditions, this time at Harvard, where he came under the influence of the pragmatism of C. I. Lewis and the metaphysics of A. N. Whitehead. In 1930 he received his Doctor's Degree and for the next three years taught in the Philosophy De- partment there. Then with his wife, Dorothy, he went to Germany to study for a year with the leading re- presentative of contemporary Hegelianism, Professor Richard Kroner, who is now at Union Theological Semi- nary partly through Professor Lee's assistance in escaping from the Nuremburg Laws of the Nazis. After his return to this country, Professor Lee became Chai man of the Department of Philosophy_at Pomona College and remained there until he was invited to assume a similar position at Vassar College in 1938. I'- During the ten years that Otis Lee was with us he took an active part in many aspects of community life even though he did not enjoy robust health. An able violin- ist, he helped to organize an informal student and faculty quartette, which often played in his home. A strong believer in democracy, he acted on his beliefs by participating in forums and political affairs in Poughkeepsie - even to ringing doorbells during a political campaign. He became interested in the Fough- keepsie Day School, served two years on its Board of Trustees, and had been President of the Board for a year at his death. Within the college community he carried his full share of committee work. He was eager to develop interde- partmental courses, and the Freedom Seminar was largely OTIS LEE (Continued) the result of his interest and efforts. Himself the product of many traditions, he worked to build the Philosophy Department on the principle of diversity. He played an important part in the education of many students -— inside and outside the classroom, and after their graduation -- as teacher, counsellor, and friend. Kindliness, tolerance, and a passion for justice characterized his relations with all people. Besides all this, much of Otis Lee's time and energy was directed toward writing his forthcoming book, Existence and Inguiry, the last galleys of which he sen o t e n vers y of Chicago Press two years be- fore he died. Already the author of many articles and the editor of a book on the philosophy of Whitehead, Professor Lee had been granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in l9hO to write this work; but never one for hasty evaluations, he wrote and re-wrote it until last year. Like his life, the book is a creative and critical synthesis of the major philosophical traditions in modern thought. Professor Lee saw in the development of philosophy since Descartes three main tendencies: analysis, dialectic, and a pragmatism. In a book which he was already projecting, he hoped to achieve a positive reconstruction of modern philosophy, in which his ideas of value, of the individual, and of the com- munity were to be developed in the context of American society. ,For he recognized the rich possibilities of contemporary American thought and always refused to adhere uncritically to strictly European movements. He was not a Hegelian, a Bergsonian or an Oxfordian, but a philosopher who sought to bring together these strands of thought and to interweave them with the cultural fibers of American life. Richard A. E. Brooks Mabel Newcomer Morris Weitz XII - 261;-265
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