PROFESSOR FRANK ARTHUR UPDYKE

On Friday, September 20, Professor Frank Arthur Updyke died almost instantly of cerebral hemorrhage at his home on Occom Ridge. He had suffered from a weak heart in recent years, but: had been feeling much better since the summer's rest, and was able to do a very considerable amount of work in his garden this season. After a busy morning in the College Library in preparation for his classroom work, he had just come in for lunch in the best of spirits, and no one had any thought of danger until he was heard to fall in the bathroom.

His loss will be felt not only in College and alumni circles, but far beyond them. He came to Dartmouth in 1907 as Assistant Professor of Political Science, and since 1911 has held the Ira Allen Eastman professorship in the same department. He was born in Daggett, Pennsylvania, October 25, 1866, fitted for college at Wayland Academy, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and entered Brown University in the fall of 1889. He received the degree of B.A. at Brown in 1893, of A.M. in 1896, and of Ph.D. in 1907. In college he was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity.

From 1894 to 1897 he was instructor of Greek and Latin in Atlanta Baptist College, and from 1897 to 1904 instructor in Latin and assistant principal in Wayland Academy. During the next two years he pursued graduate study at the University of Chicago, at Brown, and at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. In 1894 he was married to Cornelia Parish of Delevan, Wisconsin, who survives him.

During the summer of 1913 Professor Updyke was Professor of Political Science at the Summer Session of the University of Michigan, and in 1914 he was the Albert Shaw Lecturer on American Diplomatic History at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Updyke was the author of The Diplomacy of the War of1812, County Government in New England, and Short Ballot Suggestions forNew Hampshire. In addition, he was a frequent contributor to the Political Science Review and Annals of the AmericanAcademy of Political and Social Science. In 1912 he served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of New Hampshire.

A quiet funeral service was held in the College Church on the afternoon of September 23. This service was conducted by the Reverend William W. Ranney, who spoke these words of appreciation of the worth of the life and work of Professor Updyke:

"It is not my habit to make remarks at services of this sort, and all who knew him in whose honor we are met here today appreciate that anything like eulogy would be distasteful to him. But his place in the College, in the community, and in the church was so notable that certain things must be said.

"Frank A. Updyke was born in Pennsylvania in 1866. At the age of twelve, an orphan, he found a new home with an uncle and aunt in central New York, and to them he became a beloved son. He fitted for college in Wayland Academy in Wisconsin, making there lifelong friendships and beginning the relationship which was closest of all as it led to his signally happy marriage.

"He graduated at Brown University in the class of 1893, and received from the same institution the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1907. His loyalty to his alma mater and the devotion he gave to his friends of college days are typical of the man.

"He taught in Wayland Academy and in a Baptist school for colored pupils in Georgia, and since 1907 has been an honored member of the faculty of this college.

"The greatness of his service might fail of appreciation by those who saw in him only an unassuming, quiet man. But many knew him for what he was. It was my good fortune to hear at the commencement season a year ago the father of one of the best men in the graduating class thanking Mr. Updyke for what his courses had meant to that son, and for what the personal relationship had done for him. Such words are not often spoken, but they are often felt. No one can measure the influence which has gone out from that classroom, reincarnated in many men who are cherishing the ideals of this true teacher and doing their part to bring to pass the better day for which he longed.

"He was not; a brilliant man, but he was a thorough scholar with unusual capacity for faithful study which led to clear results, never superficial. He accomplished substantial work in his chosen field and won the unfeigned respect of experts by his published articles and his book, 'The Diplomacy of the War of 1812'.

"Among his colleagues he was recognized as an ideal coworker in all that concerned the welfare of the College, unselfishly ready for any committee labors, absolutely dependable always.

"No one had a larger place in promoting the Dartmouth Christian Association, and with his fraternity he was a brother beloved, wise in counsel and an inspiration to them all. In a real sense he was a veritable college pastor.

"In the community it was the same story. Here was a man who could be depended upon to do all in his power for the best interests of the people. In local affairs and more widely he was always ready for any service he could render and was eager for civic betterment.

"He was a valued member of the State Constitutional Convention, and he may be called in the best sense of the words, a practical politician, without any trace of the evil sometimes associated with those words. He had high ideals, but they were not impracticable. He kept close touch with the real world of men and women in which he lived.

"He was devoted to this church, whether as office-bolder (being a deacon at the time of his death), or unofficially, always deeply interested and ready for every helpful deed. Generous himself with money and time, he believed that we could as a church make more generous gifts for our common work. He was our representative on the state committee for raising the Pilgrim Memorial Fund, and while others felt the difficulty of appealing for so large a sum as that involves —and he knew full well the difficulties at this particular time,—he undertook it out of loyalty to the denomination and because he felt that it was the only just thing to do to provide pension funds for our ministers. Now that he is gone we must see to it that this work is carried through in loyalty to his memory.

"On the personal side he was a singularly lovable man. Unusually fond of his flowers and his garden, generous to the last degree in sharing with others the treasures nature gave as a reward of his labors, loving every living thing, but devoted to children with an affection not to be measured, it was not strange people were drawn to him.

"He was a missionary not from duty's sake, and he was a friend of young men in college not because he felt he ought to be, but because he cared for people and out of real sense of comradeship with them shared their joys and their sorrows.

"He had great courage to undertake large things and to bid others to share them with him. This was more remarkable in view of the limitations of his own strength. From a boy he had trouble with his heart, but thought little of it, and in these later years when many a man in like case would have complained of weakness and excused himself from many tasks, he never withdrew himself, but patiently accepted such restraint as must be and did his part, and more, with a faithfulness and efficiency and good cheer that has put many of us sturdier ones to shame.

"His faith was notable not in that he often spoke of it, but in that we felt in him deep sources of strength, deeper than merely human.

"But he was great in the greatest of all gifts, love. He had faith and hope and love—and they abide—but the greatest of these is love."