CLASS OF 1850

James Ormond Wilson, the veteran educator, was found dead in his home in Washington, D. C., April 2, by a mumber of friends whom he had invited to gather in celebration of his eighty-sixth birthday. He had been in poor health for a week, from no disease but the infirmity of age. He was born in Royalston, Mass., April 2, 1825, the son of James and Chloe (Thurston) Wilson. He was prepared for college at Brattleboro Academy, Vermont, and New Salem Academy and Williston Seminary, Massachusetts. He left col- lege about the middle of the course, but in 1868 he was awarded the bachelor's degree and enrolled with his class. In 1848 he settled in Washington, and conducted a private school for two years. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in 1853. Meanwhile he had taken a clerkship in the Treasury Department, .which he retained until 1869. From 1861 to 1869 he was a member of the board of education of the district, and was then superintendent of public schools from 1870 to 1885. During his administration he instituted many educational reforms, and most of the modern methods of administration of the schools of the district were due to him. Since his retirement from active service he has continued his interest in all matters pertaining to education, and has watched the development of the schools under the plans'laid out by him. In partial recognition of his services, the new normal school of Washington has been given his name, though he did not live to be present at the dedication. Mr. Wilson was president of the department of superintendence of the National Educational Association in 1874 and president of the association in 1880. School exhibits sent to the Vienna and Paris expositions were awarded medals of highest honor, and he received special personal recognition from the French government. Mr. Wilson was also a director of the National Metropolitan Bank, 1874-97; trustee of the Columbian (now George Washington) University; secretary of the board of directors of Garfield Memorial Hospital to 1908; trustee of the New York Avenue Presbyterian church to 1909; secretary of the American Colonization Society, 1892-1910; president of the trustees of the Boys' Industrial School. He wrote a monograph entitled "Eighty Years of the Public Schools," which appeared in the report of the national commissioner of education for 1894, and was the author of the Merrill "Word and Sentence Book," a text-book in use in the Washington schools. He was married in Washington, July 5, 1853, to Sarah Ann Washington, daughter of Henry and Mary Ann (Spence) Hungerford, who died November 5, 1906. Their three daughters survive their parents, who leave also three grandchildren.