CLASS OF 1877

Charles Andrew Willard, judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, died March 13, at his home in Minneapolis, after an illness of two month; apparently caused by overwork.

Judge Willard was born in St. Johnsbury Vt., May 21, 1857, his parents being Andrew J. and Aurilla B. (McGaffey) ,Willard, and his preparation for college was obtained at the high school of St. Johnsbury. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, and easily took rank among the first scholars of the class, being admitted to Phi Beta Kappa.

After a year's law study in St. Johnsbury and a year in Boston University Law School, from which he graduated in 1879, he began practice in his native town. January 1, 1881 he gave up his profession to become librarian of St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, but returned to it April 1, 1882, and went into partnership with his classmate, John W. Willis, in St. Paul, Minn. This partnership was dissolved October 1, 1884, and he practiced alone in St. Paul till April 1, 1885. At the last date he became a member of the Minneapolis firm of Gilfillan, Belden, and Willard, which later became Gilfillan, Willard, and Willard, the second Willard being his brother, Stephen R. Willard '84, since deceased.

In the spring of 1901 his high standing in the profession won him the appointment as associate judge of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands. After three years he resigned, and returned to his practice in Minneapolis, but in January, 1905, was persuaded to accept a reappointment, and returned to the Islands. His work in the Philippines so strongly impressed the then Governor William H. Taft, that in May, 1909, while in Europe on his way home for a vacation, news reached him that President Taft had appointed him to the vacant judgeship of the District Court of Minnesota. In this, as in his former position, his legal learning, sound judgment, industry, and integrity brought him high standing as a jurist.

Judge Willard was a member of the Lafayette and Minneapolis Clubs, and a communicant of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal church. From 1888 until his appointment to the Phillipines, he was a lecturer in the law department of the University of Minnesota. In 1905 Dartmouth conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws.

Sept. 28, 1901, Judge Willard was married in Manila to Charlotte, daughter of Albert W. Hastings of Minneapolis, who was a member of the Municipal Commission of Manila. She survives him, with their two sons.