Thayer School's Beloved "Bobby" Fletcher
ROBERT FLETCHER WAS born August 23, 1847. HE died . January 7 at the age of 88 after a brief illness of pneumonia at his home in Hanover.
There are few who read this page who do not remember Bobby Fletcher during some of those sixty-five years of his life which were devoted to his school and his students, one of whom has written: "Few can point to alife work of such singleness of purpose or such signalsuccess. But why pile on words? We all love our Bobbymany of us have received our life's inspiration fromhim."
He was graduated from the United States Military Academy in June, 1868. After a year of service with the Field Artillery, he was appointed Instructor in the Department of Mathematics at the Academy. He resigned this position in 1870 to accept the appointment offered him by General Sylvanus Thayer as Director of the proposed Thayer School of Civil Engineering at Dartmouth.
Director Fletcher came to Hanover at the age of twenty-three charged with the responsibility of instituting a school of civil engineering. Although he had visited other technical schools, there were at that time few accepted standards of civil engineering education to guide him. The standards of specialization which did exist were denied him by General Thayer's far-sighted policy of offering a course in the fundamentals and principles of engineering theory and practice superimposed on a foundation of college training, now referred to as a liberal education. The classical course which he had followed at C. C. N. Y. for three years and the scholastic work at the Military Academy had equipped Robert Fletcher with technical training almost identical with the prerequisites now required of students entering Thayer School. But he was equipped by nature and by his years of rigorous training and discipline at the Academy with attributes far more indispensable than any specialized learning. He was then, as throughout his life of service, a man of exceptional clarity of purpose, of tireless physical energy, of great mental vigor. These characteristics coupled with a lovable nature, a breadth of understanding and a fearless courage of his convictions, made Professor Fletcher a leader in engineering education and brought to him the unanimous love and respect of his students and associates.
No words could better express the spirit of the man than these lines which he himself quoted in a paper written two years ago: "Fast as the rolling seasons bringThe hour of fate to those we love,Each pearl that leaves the broken stringIs set in Friendship's crown above.As narrower grows the earthly chainThe circle widens in the sky;These are our treasures that remain,But those are stars that beam on high."
Truly this is so of him.
One of the noteworthy experiences of Professor Fletcher's life was his "circumferential trip around the U. S. A. visiting men of the Thayer School of Civil Engineering and other Dartmouth Men." On this trip he was received and entertained by nearly fifty men who had been his students during these forty-five years. These visits took him to some of the greatest engineering works of the time. It must have been a truly rich reward to him to see these men, whom he had taught as boys, in responsible charge of such projects. For he must have known that his influence on his students transcended the mere technical knowledge and mental discipline imparted to them in the classroom. The high ideals of diligence and integrity with which Professor Fletcher's personality and character endowed his students are the subjects of countless tributes.
Dartmouth conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on him at the age of thirty-three. At the time of his retirement after forty-seven years of continuous service as Director of the Thayer School he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the College.
In the summer of 1930 Dean Marsden wrote to the former students of Professor Fletcher, advising them that his eighty-third birthday was approaching. Over 140 responses were received testifying to the influence which he had on the lives of these men and the love which they bore him. A few excerpts from these letters may be justified.
"I wish to tell you what an inspiration your constantdevotion to the highest engineering and educationalideals has been to me." .... "Many times I have recalled the unobtrusive little lectures you mixed withyour teaching and have heard many others mentiontheir appreciation of these earnest bits of advice all tending to stimulate the best building of sometimes ratherunformed characters. I deem this phase of your greatwork as a teacher as an unusual and outstanding feature. Engineering attainments without character are oflittle value." .... "And my pleasantest memories ofthe Thayer School are linked with your classes in Mechanics, not just the subject matter (and that seems tohave 'stuck' pretty well, too) but of the human interestyou gave the subject and the enthusiasm you inspiredwith it." . ... "I wish to assure you, therefore, of thegreat affection and esteem in which I hold you, both onaccount of your high professional attainments and foryour personal characteristics which have enabled youto discharge so successfully the duties and responsibilities of a long career in engineering education." . . . ."It is my firm belief, that no other teacher of men everhad a more loyal and devoted group of former pupilsthan yourself, and that fact in itself is a tribute to yourcharacter and. personality."
The love and esteem of his fellow men were not the result of a soft or pliable nature. His early training at the Military Academy and his years in sole charge of the engineering school at Dartmouth taught him the value of unwavering concentration, hard work and strict selfdiscipline. That he could be severe when necessary is attested by the fact that on one occasion, judging the applicants for the Thayer School course unworthy, he refused to admit any of them, and there was no class that year. One former student recalls that Professor Fletcher taught his men to spell the word rest, "r-u-s-t." Although he maintained his office in the Thayer School as Director Emeritus until his death, and kept alive his keen interest in the affairs of the school and its graduates, he scrupulously avoided any interference with the policies of his successors, and the only regret he ever expressed was occasioned by the fear that the students were not required to work hard enough or long enough.
It is indicative of the character of the man that so many letters from his former students speak mainly of their own work. His interest in the attainments of others far exceeded the satisfactions of his now professional accomplishments. The brief memoirs of his life which he did write tell little of himself, speak briefly of his work as director of the Thayer School, as president of the Hanover Water Works, as president of the New Hampshire State Board of Health, as director of the extensive New Hampshire-Vermont boundary survey which finally led to the establishment of the state boundary by the Supreme Court. But they dwell rather on the life and conditions of the community in which he lived and in which he took keen interest; on the great engineering works of his time, which fascinated him; and on the accomplishments of his former students.
It has recently been written of a great engineer that he encountered little difficulty in controlling the forces of nature, but that his obstacles were with the men with whom he dealt. This was not the case with Robert Fletcher. His expectation that other men would treat him with the fairness and consideration which he showed toward them made his human relations sincere and pleasant. But he recognized that the forces of nature are inexorable, and his breadth of vision enabled him to apply these inescapable truths to a wide field of activity. This is attested in his many articles, open letters, and papers on: water treatment, hygiene, automobiles, principles of model design, axioms of mechanics, evidences of Christianity, archaeology, vulcanology and many other diversified subjects. Perhaps his outstanding contribution to engineering literature is the paper, "A History of the Development of Wooden Bridges," prepared in collaboration with the late J. P. Snow and published in the Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers for 1934.
In closing tribute the words of a former student, himself a leading figure in engineering education today, seem appropriate: "The quality of the man is such, as ateacher, that I have never known his equal. It is the finecharacter and charm of personality which developed inhis students a respect, admiration and affection whichthe years have not impaired."
Professor Fletcher is survived by his wife, Ellen Huntington Fletcher, his daughter, Mary A. Fletcher, and two sisters, Harriet and Helen Fletcher of Morris Plains, New Jersey. Burial services were conducted at his home Thursday afternoon, January 9.
"Because Man Goeth to His Long Home, and the Mourners Go About the Streets" Photographs of Professor Fletcher taken at intervals through his long career-the first in 1885, the second in 1908, and the last in 1926.
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
