Deaths

(This is a listing of deaths of which word hasbeen received since the last issue. Full notices,which are usually written by the class secretaries,may appear in this issue or a later one.)

Class of 1874

Hayden Lewis Demerritt, a member of this class for the first two years of its course, died September 6, 1920, at Berkeley, California.

Mr. Demerritt came to college from Nottingham, N. H., and was born March 29, 1849. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Upon leaving college he took up the profession of engineering, and worked for a time with John Ellis of Woonsocket, R. I., state engineer. In 1877 he went to California, where most of his subsequent life was spent. In 1878-9 he was engaged in railroad surveys in Guatemala. From 1879 to 1882 he was at work on the reclamation of islands in the delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers in California. In 1882-4 he was with the surveyor general of the state of Nevada. From 1884 to 1889 he was again employed in the reclamation of islands in the delta mentioned above and in channel dredging and reclamation work in Oakland harbor. From 1889 until his death he was an assistant engineer in the service of the United States in river and harbor work, with headquarters at San Francisco. His work was principally on the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers; on San Francisco bay and its tributaries and the bar entrance to San Francisco bay; on lighthouse construction at Humboldt harbor and San Diego bay; and during the Spanish-American war in mine-laying and fortification.

Mr. Demerritt was a Mason and a Knight Templar, and his funeral service was held at the Masonic Temple in Berkeley.

In June, 1882, he was married to Clara Sanborn of Benicia, Cal., who died August 26, 1913. They had four sons and one daughter, all of whom are living, and there are five grandchildren.

Class OF 1878

Ruez Holland Rice died suddenly at Lyndon, Vt., January 26, 1921.

Mr. Rice was born at Potton, Que., August 29, 1853, son of Alfred and Esther (Hammond) Rice. He prepared for college at Lyndon Institute, his 'home being then in Lyndon. His graduating statement indicated that he intended to study law, as did most of the graduates of those days. But immediately after graduation he went to Colorado, and spent nearly four years in that state, occupied, as he said, in "teaching, farming, surveying, ranching, and railroading." While there he was married in 1881 to Miss Bertha E. Woods.

He subsequently returned to the home farm at Lyndon, Vt., and made that his abode for the remainder of his life, although he had in recent years spent his winters with his son and daughter in Springfield, Mass. At the time of his death he was visiting his farm for the purpose of getting out logs, and was staying at the house of a neighbor. He was ill but a day or two, and was up and about the day of his death.

The local paper says of him: "Mr. Rice was a much beloved member of the community, 'a fellow you always like to see coming,' or, as another neighbor said, 'a good man has gone on.' During the years he held various offices of trust in town, as superintendent of schools, member of the school board, and lister. He was active in behalf of the Free Baptist church at Lyndon Center, having been superintendent of its Sunday school and teacher for many years. No person who sat under his instruction will forget his power to make the subject vital and his interest in the welfare of each member of the class."

In college days Mr. Rice's classmates recognized under a rather rough exterior a sensitive and somewhat poetic nature. Some will recall how he led a cross-country run one evening, the crowd following his peculiar fox trot for several miles to a bed of arbutus he had described so glowingly that his fellows had doubted his seriousness. Never before or since did any of them1 see such a display of the favorite flower as he showed them when they arrived. He was known to his classmates as "Dan Rice," after a famous showman of those days, and he accepted the title and played the part.

He had not in recent years responded to class letters. The last word he sent to the class secretary (in 1888) concluded with these words: "I have seen little of my classmates since 1878, but sometimes my heart goes out in a great longing toward them."

He was a member of the Masonic order and of Theta Delta Chi.

Mr. Rice had four children: Ruez U. (1882), since deceased; Lulu E. (1884), now Mrs. Alfred S. Crane of Springfield, Mass.; Albert M. (1886), also of Springfield; and Mildred E. (1890), a teacher in the high school at Holyoke, Mass.

CLASS OF 1881

George Melvin Stafford died September 15, 1918, at Long Beach, Cal.

He was born in Wisconsin, March 31, 1860, but his home while in college was at Helena, Montana. He took the course of the Chandler Scientific Department, and was a member of Phi Zeta Mu, now Sigma Chi.

After graduation he returned to Montana, and was for some years a mining engineer in Helena, and then was engaged in the harness making and saddlery business in Lewistown. He was county surveyor from 1886 to 1896, and again for some time from 1898. About 1909 he became a farmer on a ranch near Helena, and this was his home for the rest of his life.

November 8, 1892, he was married to Allis E. Watson of Lewistown, who survives him. They had three sons and two daughters, one of each dying in infancy, and the rest surviving their father.

CLASS OF 1887

Frank John Urquhart died February 25, 1921, at his home in Newark, N. J., of heart disease. Last July he had been compelled to suspend work by illness, but after a few weeks' rest his health seemed restored. Five weeks before his death he was again compelled to leave his work, and from this time his health steadily failed.

He was born in Toronto, Ont., May 4, 1865, his parents being Adam and Ellen (Rogers) Urquhart. His father was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, and his mother of Toronto. His parents early removed to Leominster, Mass., and he prepared for college in the high school of that town. His open, frank, and engaging personality early endeared him to class and college associates. He was a member of Theta Delta Chi, and was prominent in the literary life of the college.

In the winter of senior year he sent to a New York paper an account of the tragic railroad accident in Hartford, Vt., and his success in this reporting may have determined his future career. In the fall of 1887 he became a member of the staff of the Newark (N. J.) Daily Journal, and soon was made assistant to the city editor. Later he was promoted to be city editor, but January 1, 1889, he left the paper to become representative of the NewYork World in Newark. After a year he took a position on the staff of the Newark SundayCall, and there remained for thirty-one years, becoming associate editor and part owner.

He was a hard worker, a man of great fidelity, public spirited, active in his church (St. James' Episcopal) and in civil life, an ideal citizen in the community in which his life work was cast.

In his leisure hours he wrote the larger part of a history of Newark in three volumes, which has been in use in the public schools of Newark since its publication. In his newspaper he specialized in school work for many years. He was an active member of the Newark Chamber of Commerce, of which he was recently named chairman of the committee on school affairs. He was a careful student of Indian archaeology and a collector of arrow heads and other Indian relics. For several winters he delivered historical lectures in the free courses given in the school buildings under the direction of the board of education.

April 28, 1898, Mr. Urquhart was married to M. Elizabeth Nichols, daughter of Col. William Hayward Nichols of Maryland and Caroline Belcher of Newark. She survives him with their two daughters, Jean, a sophomore at Vassar, and Louise Woodruff, who expects to enter Vassar next fall.

The following tribute was paid him by his office associates: "His character was well rounded. He was gentle, and yet had notable force, which showed itself in his deep convictions and iron resolution. It was impossible to: turn him from any course which he judged to be right. He was true to himself and in his observance of his duty to others. Any task might be assigned to him with the assurance that it would be performed promptly and with the exercise of his best ability, and yet without bustle or self-vaunting. In fact, fidelity marked his life in all its phases. The rector of the church of which he was an officer testified that every Monday he looked over the church edifice, which had been committed to his supervision, in order to keep it in repair. An untiring worker he was, as is evidenced by the voluminous history of Newark that he wrote and the lectures that he prepared and delivered while rendering with great zeal his service to the Sunday Call. This unflagging industry, with expenditure of much nerve force, is the one fact about Frank Urquhart that his associates must regret today, for it alone explains the weakening of his heart and the ending of his valuable and beautiful life a quarter century too soon."

His classmates Hadlock, Dartt, and Cunningham attended the funeral.

CLASS OF 1907

Philip Montague Powers, for some time a member of this class, died April 18, 1921, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, after a long illness.

He was born in Milwaukee, Wis., January 16, 1885, the son of Harry Huntington and Mary (Montague) Powers. His father held professorships in various colleges, and both parents are now in Constantinople. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Milwaukee. He was a member of Psi Upsilon.

After leaving college he went into newspaper work, and in 1910 became a special writer on the Boston Post. In 1912 he joined the city staff of the Boston Herald. In January, 1915, he entered the service of the Associated Press, and was immediately assigned to foreign service. He was first attached to the London bureau, and later went to Berlin, where he remained until the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany. During his stay in Germany, he visited at various times all the fronts at which the German armies were fighting. He left Germany with Ambassador Gerard, and after a short stay in Geneva went to the Paris bureau of the Associated Press. Early in 1918 he was assigned to cover the American front, and remained with the American armies in the field. until after the armistice was signed. Later he entered Germany with the first group of American correspondents, and became acting Associated Press correspondent in Berlin. He returned to this country in April, with health seriously impaired by his arduous service. He grew steadily worse, and received an "apoplectic stroke a few days before his death.

He married Clara MacKiel, who survives him. While he was in Europe, she served with the American Red, Cross in France.

HONORARY

Charles Sumner Lilley, on whom the degree of Master of Arts was conferred in 1896, died April 16 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

He was born in Lowell, Mass., December 13, 1851, the son of Charles and Cynthia (Huntley) Lilley. He received his education at the public schools of Lowell and from private instruction, was admitted to the bar in 1877, and practiced in that city until his death, except for the years of service upon the bench. He was a member of the Massachusetts Senate in 1880, 1881, and 1886, and of the Council in 1884. From 1893 until his resignation in 1900 he was a justice of the Superior Court of the state.

April 14, 1891, Judge Lilley was married to Clara Bonney of Lowell, who died in 1895. A daughter survives her parents.