The Priest Case

Frederick Franklin Priest, a graduate of the College in 1908, took his own life in Winchester, New Hampshire, sometime in October. His body was not found until January 21. A funeral service for Mr. Priest was held in Winchester on February 8. Representatives of the class of 1905, with which Mr. Priest entered Dartmouth and with which he was always affiliated, and delegates from the College were present at the service. The class of 1905 through its secretary, Arthur E. McClary, of Malone, New York, arranged for burial of the body since there are no relatives who could accept this responsibility.

Administrative officers of the College pay high tribute to the excellent work done on this case by F. H. Toombs of the Federal Transient Bureau in Keene. From the time that the body was discovered by a hunter who was tramping through the woods two miles from the center of the small village of Winchester, Mr. Toombs assumed active direction of the search for relatives and of notifying the College and class officers of the details of the case. He discovered that Mr. Priest had been employed at the American Railway Express Company in Boston from 1918 to 1933» when he left its employ. His whereabouts as far as they were concerned were subsequently unknown. During this period he had lived in Watertown, Massachusetts, with his mother. In October of last year he moved to the Technology Chambers, Boston, and left there on October 10. No trace can be found of his movements after that time.

Investigation by the Federal authorities in Keene disclosed that he had strapped himself to a small pine tree in the woods aboutt two miles from Winchester and had shot himself through the temple. The date of his death is uncertain but it is believed that it occurred in the early part of October.

The most definite information at the time of discovery of the body was his Dartmouth diploma which he had carried in a bag and which, with the pistol, was lying at his feet. There was also an envelope in the bag containing a rose from his father's grave in the Evergreen Cemetery at Winchester. It seemed possible that Mr. Priest had decided to take his life near his father's grave in order to be buried in the same lot. For this reason the body was interred in the family lot there, although a receipt for a burial place in Watertown was discovered among his few personal effects.

Mr. Priest had attended reunions of the class of 1905, had been a contributor to the Alumni Fund, and had often been seen at alumni gatherings in Boston. He had no family.