A LOSS TO THE COLLEGE

Within the last two months the College has sustained a severe loss in the death of three men whose lives have been closely woven into many phases of its activities. On August 28, Marvin Davis Bisbee died at the home of his daughter, the funeral services being held in the College Church. Pie was librarian for twenty-four years, besides being Phillips Professor of Divinity for six years and Professor of Bibliography for seventeen. John Robie Eastman, trustee of the College from 1900 to 1912, died on September 26 at his home in Andover, New Hampshire. Charles Francis Richardson, for thirty years Winkley Professor of Anglo-Saxon and the English Language and Literature, died on October 8, at his summer home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. These men were ever active in the service of the College, upholding its traditions of the past and strengthening its life in the present, and their passing is keenly felt. The following appreciative words were, written by those who knew them best:

MARVIN DAVIS BISBEE

The death of Marvin Davis Bisbee, Professor of Bibliography, Emeritus, on the 28th of August, removed from the College, circle one of the small group of men whose service on the academic faculty connected the New Dartmouth with the Old. Professor Bisbee came to Dartmouth after seven years in the Christian ministry and five years of editorial work on the Congregationalist. From the time of his coming in 1886 to his retirement in 1910, he had the entire charge of the library, and from 1887-1893 he added to that work the duties of the Phillips Professorship of Divinity.

The rapid growth of the New Dartmouth brought to the library difficult in every department of its administration, with only slow increase of funds. The newer methods of instruction brought immediate pressure for more ready access to the books at all times, and for large increase in the library equipment of many of the departments. Professor Bisbee addressed him- self earnestly to.the growing work. The opening of a large reference library for departmental uses, open day and evening, the establishment of the "Octagon," with the volumes in literature freely accessible to the students at all times, the opening of the Kennerson Memorial Library, the acquisition of the valuable Connor library, with its splendid old editions, obtained for the College largely through Dr. Connor's affection for Professor Bisbee, the securing of books for the Alumni Alcove, the sorting and cataloguing of a mass of valuable old newspaper files, were all definite accomplishments. At the same time a complete reclassification and recataloguing of the whole library was going on, and a system of greatly enlarged service to the student body was being developed. Professor Bisbee was particularly devoted to the history of the College. The religious aims of the founders and their devotion to their faith appealed to his own deep piety, and he was untiring in the attempt to make the College collection of the early manuscripts and pamphlets as complete as possible. His work in this line is a part of the most valuable endowment of the College.

From the Christian ministry Professor Bisbee brought the fine ideals and standards of that calling. His service to the religious life of the College and the village was spontaneous and fruitful. He became greatly beloved, too, in the churches of the state, and at his own school, Kimball Union Academy, where in his youth he had found his wife, and to which he gave loving service as a trustee. But it was perhaps in the most personal relations that Professor Bisbee's influence was greatest. Many a student needing spiritual help in his doubting years found in Professor Bisbee's faith a help into stronger life, and many a man perplexed by financial difficulties owed to him the opportunity to earn his way through College. Professor Bisbee was a man of spiritual insight and of warm affections; able to grind at the mill of library machinery when that was necessary, he nevertheless was his real self, when in closest touch with the lives of the men about him.

CHARLES D. ADAMS.

JOHN ROBIE EASTMAN

Address delivered at the funeral ofProfessor John R. Eastman, And over,N. H., September 29, 1913, by President Nichols:

I want to speak to you of Doctor Eastman's long, intelligent' and devoted service to Dartmouth College, with the simplicity, directness and restraint that he would himself have used in speaking of a friend.

Doctor Eastman was graduated from Dartmouth College with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1862. In the same year, and immediately following his graduation, he received the appointment as Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy. Three years later he received the degree of Master of Science from his College and in the Navy was promoted to a professorship in mathematics. This position he maintained with distinction, high reputation and honor to the time of his retirement from the government service in 1898.

So large had his reputation grown, so well recognized was the value of his scientific labors at the United States Naval Observatory, that in the year 1877 Dartmouth College, in recognition of what he had already accomplished, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

In 1900, after his retirement from the navy with the rank of Rear-Admiral, he was chosen a trustee of Dartmouth College by the ballots of the Alumni. He was twice later rechosen to the same office. His services as a member of that honorable board lasted from 1900 to 1912, at which time his consent could not be obtained to be again a candidate.

I cannot tell you, because it would take too long, all of the services that he rendered to his College as a trustee. During the time that he was on the Board he was continuously on that committee of the Board of Trustees which has to do with instruction and education. He also served on the Committee of Degrees, and for eight years, with the President of the College, on a Committee for the Development of the Second College Grant, a large tract of forest lying in the nortcrn part of this state.

Doctor Eastman many times made the long and tiresome journey up to this all but trackless wilderness, the nearest gateway of which is thirty-five miles from any railway. He rendered faithful, devoted, untiring service to improve that property, to study it, to develop it. I think I am not mistaken in saying that although that property came to the College in 1809 by grant of the New Hampshire legislature, he was the first trustee of the College to set foot upon it.

Great as were his services to the College, both as a member of the Committee on Degrees and a member of the Committee on the Second College Grant he rendered the College a yet higher and more distinguished service as a member of a the Committee on Instruction and Education.

When Professor Eastman went on the Board in 1900, I was a professor in the College, teaching a science which was of all others, the most closely related to his own.

The first impression that I had of him was a lasting one, although it was deepened and enriched by later acquaintance and close friendship. The thing that impressed me most about Professor Eastman when I first came to know him was the breadth of his knowledge, the depth of his culture, the nobility of his nature, and the distinguished service which he had rendered to his chosen science. The simplicity of the man, the modesty, the all but unconsciousness on his part of his high position, was one of the things that impressed me most. Standing as he did in a position of authority in a certain field of science, he yet always spoke modestly and some what disparagingly of his own work.

As a member of the Board he spent more time in Hanover, I think, than any other member I have known. He knew more members of the College Faculty, and those members were ever in the closest sympathy with him. His nature, as you know, was winning, sympathetic, kindly. His life spent in scientific investigation, led him to a keen appreciation and wide understanding of academic values. He knew the work of a teacher. He knew its successes, its disappointments, its rewards, and he knew when a man was doing his best and' was doing it well. It was his-closeness of touch, his sympathy, his human quality, that made his association with the members of the teaching staff of Dartmouth College so dear. They felt that they had in him an intimate friend, a brother, one who knew the sort of thing that they were trying to do and could appreciate work well done.

After six years of absence, I returned to Dartmouth College in 1909 as its President, and saw Doctor Eastman on yet another side. He was of great assistance to me in the first three years of my administration. I had many occasions to consult with him, to find out his opinions, to get his judgments. There were questions about promotions; there were questions about new appointments to the teaching staff. I knew the Trustees, in choosing teachers, could always rely on Doctor Eastman's rare human and professional judgment. I could always rely on his kindness, on his sympathy, on his justice. This is but the experience of every man in Hanover, and I dare say everywhere, who ever came in contact with him.

It is the loss of a man of the highest human qualities and professional endowments, a faithful and devoted servant of the College, which brings his colleagues here to mourn with you, his fellow-townsmen. Ever loyal in his service to Dartmouth, he goes to the grave today - bravely clad in the official robes of the College which loved him, the College he served with such untiring devotion.

CHARLES FRANCIS RICHARDSON

Address delivered at the funeral ofCharles F. Richardson, Rollins Chapel,Hanover, N. H., October 12, 1913, byPresident Nichols:

In past years Professor Richardson often conducted this Sunday vesper service It is-Mrs. Richardson's wish, and is his also, we believe, that the service today should not depart from the forms he used and loved.

He never knew a selfish sorrow and often quoted, "They mourn the dead who live as they (the dead) desire." There are many here today and each of us has his personal cause for grief. But let us rather, we his colleagues, fellow townsmen, brothers, so far as in us lies, unselfishly thank God, who gave him to us, for all the riches his life has sown in town and College.

Professor Richardson's father, Dr. M. C. Richardson, a physician, was a graduate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1841. You will find his name on the bronze doors of Webster Hall.

Sixty-two years ago Professor Richardson was born at Hallowell, Maine. At the age of twenty, in the class of 1871, he was graduated with Phi Beta Kappa standing from his father's College. He taught for a year and had barely come of age when he began his literary and editorial work on the staff of the New York Independent, where he served in succession as temporary literary editor, office editor, and literary editor. His editorial work continued through eleven years and beside the Independent, included service on the Sunday School Times, The Library Magazine, and Good Literature.

At the age of twenty-seven he married Elizabeth Miner Thomas of Wilkes barre, Penn., who ever since has been his constant companion, the helpful sharer of his life and all his work.

Four years after his marriage he accepted the call of his College to the Winkley Professorship of Anglo-Saxon and English Language and Literature.

Thus in 1882 he made the choice between teaching and editorial work, and for this choice all Dartmouth men have risen to call him blessed.

For the next twenty-nine years his single purpose was to serve his College, his community, his art. His was a spirit of light and healing; alert, versatile, of quick and incisive utterance, he was ever a generous, kindly and sympathetic brother to every man, woman and child who crossed his .path. In the service of love he knew no differences of occupation, cast or lineage, but like unto Him, the greatest of all teachers, he saved his scorn for Pharisees.

Two years ago he withdrew from the time and strength-exacting duties of stated lectures and classroom work. His reasons for this step are set forth with characteristic clarity and completeness in his letter of resignation. It reads:

To the Trustees of Dartmouth College: Honorable and Dear Sirs: —

I have always intended to resign my professorship while I felt that I was, as far as I" knew, giving the College the best of my strength and enthusiasm; and with that purpose in mind I have long thought that-the sixtieth anniversary of my birth and the fortieth of my graduation, would be a fitting time to exchange the teacher's work for the literary life. I therefore beg herewith to tender my resignation of the Winkley Professorship of Anglo-Saxon and the English Language and Literature, to take effect on Commencement day, 1911.

In thus laying down labors which will have busied me so pleasantly. for twenty nine years, I wish to express my sincere gratitude for the uniform kindness and consideration which I have received from the successive members of the Board of Trustees; from the three presidents under whom it has been not only an academic but a personal pleasure to serve; and from my associates on the faculty, both older and younger. The long line of graduates, too, who have passed under my instruction, seems to me a procession of friends. My sole regret, in looking backward, is that — especially as I worked single-handed in the English department from 1882 to 1894—so large an element of imperfect tion has mingled with my toil. But as the department now has two full professors besides myself, and six other instructors, I have every belief that it can secure better results in the future than in the past. Men come and go, but Dartmouth endures.

Sincerely yours,

CHARLES F. RICHARDSON.

The effect of this letter utpon the Board was to arouse a feeling of irreparable loss to the College. The Trustees urgently besought Professor Richardson to accept part time duties in the College service, but his intention, though gently expressed, remained firm. Whereupon the Trustees elected him Professor of Anglo-Saxon and the English Language and Literature, emeritus.

Academic recognition of his striking his scholarship, his rare power as a teacher, was abundant. Eighteen years ago Union College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy and in 1911 Dartmouth honored both herself and him by investing him with the degree of Doctor of Letters, accompanied by the following characterization:

"Charles Francis Richardson, beloved of all Dartmouth men, forceful writer and brilliant teacher, whose rare personal and spiritual gifts have enriched the life of this College over the span of a generation."

The announcement of Professor Richardson's resignation brought out abundant press comment, sympathetic, appreciative of the man and scholar and regretful of the loss to education.

Professor Richardson received sheaves of letters from his former students, letters of appreciation and gratitude, so warm, so intimately personal, that it would be a desecration to read them publicly. They served their purpose, and cheered his heart. He accepted them humbly, honestly believing them a generous overpayment for his years of devoted work.

Thus Professor Richardson retired from routine teaching, but born teacher that he was, he could not leave his profession. His pen was busy to the last upon literary and academic questions and his voice has recently been heard in many public places where it will be long remembered.

His published work, including books in prose and verse, leading papers and edited editions, covers a productive period of over thirty-five years. A bibliography known to be partial and incom- plete, contains twenty-five titles, the last of which is dated May, 1913. A number of important manuscripts of books and other significant contributions his sudden death leaves incomplete, and the cause of letters and scholarship suffers loss.

Professor Richardson thus wrote and edited many books which bear his mark and message to many whom he never saw. But his most precious books are in the lives of living men. He wrote best and most upon the heart, wrote in letters of shining light which warmed and kindled flames in many souls.

Of Professor Richardson, the citizen, ever generous and loyal to every worthy cause, local and national, it is needless in this present company to speak, and I return, as we all must do, to Professor Richardson, the teacher. Since the beginning of the world there have been three great types of leadership, three dominant professions: the ruler, the warrior- and the teacher. Of these the voice of the teacher has ever been raised in the greatest service and has earned the greater love.

Professor Richardson's ideals of his profession were as high as his practice. Among a number of other things he said in a public address upon the qualifications of a teacher, occurs this luminous and incisive paragraph:

"But to competence must be added, every day of the academic year, an un questionable power to teach. Para- phrasing the Biblical sum in addition, the professor must add to investigation, knowledge; to knowledge, wisdom; and to wisdom, the ability to impart it. To begin with, he must cause the student to know facts, but he must both allure him and direct him to arrange those facts, in his own mind, in such a way as to leave a large residuum of exact learning, in the best sense, with its concomitant of a developed character."

Many undergraduates- who elected Professor Richardson's courses, chose not literature, but Professor Richardson. Later under his sympathetic, masterful guidance they were led through the richest fields of thought and spirit. They saw the heavens smile before them and many beheld through his eyes a new vision of the fulness of life. More than eighteen hundred years ago, St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and no kind without significance." What are the significant voices which should be heard by every man, and most of all by the teacher ? The voice of philosophy, of science, of poetry, of music, of art, of nature, of faith. The living voices of poverty, of distress, of fellowship, of brotherhood, of sympathy, of love, of duty; and in all and through all the voice of God. There was no one of these voices Professor Richardson did not hear, nor hearing failed to answer with all the ardor of a child. He was

One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,

Held, we fall to rise; are baffled, to fight better.

Sleep to wake.

CHARLES FRANCIS RICHARDSON

With substitution of the poise and development of brilliant manhood for the impulsiveness of brilliant youth, the Richardson I first knew in college life and fraternity activity in 1868 was unchanged when, in the fullness of his power, he retired from the leadership of the English department of his College in 1911.

I may notice only a few characteristics and gifts as if they were separate, rather than the well-blended elements of an interesting and attractive personality.

Any one who knew him well observed most, if not first, his sample, wholehearted, unwavering belief in the satisfying greatness of his chosen field of work. The world offered-many other objects and causes attractive to a man of his brOad outlook, but they held him only temporarily or lightly. This trait was a deep foundation of his power and his inspiration for others.

I do not know whether it was an inborn gift or an acquired habit, but I most admired in him his instinct for the best by the, measure of permanent standards—the best in literature, in book making, in music, in art, in clothes, in travel, in nature, in the use of time. His memory and power of survey of any field was extraordinary, and objects were listed in his mind in the order of their merit. If you talked with him of the newspapers of London or the plays upon the New York stage, he would give you the best and recall the others with a brief comment upon their relative value.

A quality that grew in him during his later years was the love and appreciation of the content of literature above the mere form. He was rarely gifted in the art of easy and retaining conversation, and a familiar figure at any social coming together in the College was Richardson, the center of a growing circle of students, doing most, but not all, of the talking. And his brief addresses and after dinner speeches — many in the course of the year - were always a joy to the listener.

His open-hearted, cheery manner welcomed all approaches. His great and thoughtful generosity has aided every good cause and has made easier the way of many a struggling student.

His courses were an institution of the College, and for many years no student felt that he had done justice to his opportunities unless he had taken at least one of Professor Richardson's electives.

He becomes another of those memories that are as real as the visible College."

EDWIN J. BARTLETT

PROFESSOR RICHARDSON AS A TEACHER

The teacher should possess the qualities of manliness, scholarly learning, enthusiasm for his chosen subject, and the ability to impart not only his knowledge but also his enthusiasm. Such a teacher we call inspiring, and such was Professor Richardson. Up-on Dartmouth men of twenty-nine successive classes he made the impress of one who knew the finer things of life and who had chosen .the better part, of one whose acquaintance with art, music, and literature was so broad and so thorough that he always spoke as one having authority, of one who so loved his books that he allured others to love them, too; most of all, of one who so seriously' cared for the intellectual and spiritual life of his students that he lifted them part way to his own high plane of living and thinking.

His, courses were always crowded, not because the subject was popular, but because they were conducted by Professor Richardson. Whether the subject was Anglo Saxon, the Wichffe Bible, the Technique of Versification, or American Literature, it was the man, the scholar, the enthusiast, who made the course interesting. His range of reading was so wide, his tastes so catholic, his ability to draw pertinent comparisons and illustrations so ready, his thoughts so striking, and his phrasing so happy, that his lectures were a delight to his hearers and were fine literature in themselves. The student who brought no interest to the course almost at once became kindled with a desire to read for himself, to gain some part of that wide culture,, to become himself a thoughtful, forceful man.

Professor Richardson's teaching was wider than the subject matter of his courses; it was literature in the largest sense, wisdom as well as knowledge, the ethical and moral appeal as well as the philological and formal. With his students he discussed the teachings of the ages, the questions of life, ideals, and conduct. To him, literature was essentially "the criticism of life" ; to his students, a finer and nobler art because of its interpreter. As a teacher his accomplishment was too large to be gauged by eulogy; in his death ' Dartmouth mourns a lover of letters and a master of men.

FRED P. EMERY