Deaths
[A listing of deaths of which word has been received within the past month. Full notices may appearin this issue or may appear in a later number.]
JENKS, CHANCELLOR L., '86, Pasadena, Calif., May 5, 1937. BOURDON, OSWIN T., '05, Apr. 6, 1937. RICHARDSON, ELWOOD S., '07, Oak Park, 111., Apr. 12, 1937. RILEY, FRANCIS 8., '07, Feb. 26, 1937. BIERY, WALTER L., '12, Bronxville, N. Y., Apr. 17, 1937. GILBERT, ALBERT D., '14, Jan. 15, 1937. WILLIAMS, JAMES R., '14. SHARPE, DR. RICHARD W., '17, New York City, Apr. 7, 1937. MANNING, BERNARD G., '23, Northampton, Mass., Sept. 3, 1936. TUTHILL, LYNDON G., '25, Mar. 13, 1937. PEPPER, WILLIAM M. JR., '27, Plainfield, N. J., Mar. 4, 1937. WOODRUFF, DR. HARRY W., '29, St. James, Mo., Jan. 1, 1937. KNIGHT, HOWARD W., med. '99, Feb. 18, 1937. DEWEY, REV. HARRY P., hon. '98, Babson Park, Fla., Apr. 26, 1937. GILLETTE, WILLIAM, hon. '30, Hartford, Conn., Apr. 29, 1937.
ALUMNI NOTES
Necrology
Class of 1881
REV. GEORGE WILLIS PATTERSON died in the Garfield hospital in Washington, D. C., April 2, 1937. as the result of a shock. His home since 1933 had been with his son in Castine, Me. His health had been usually good, except that he had been practically blind—cataracts—for over three years. He was visiting his son in Washington at die time he was stricken.
Patterson was born in Hanover, N. H., December 16, 1857, the son of James Willis Patterson, who was at the time a professor in Dartmouth College, later United States senator, and still later the commissioner of education for the state of New Hampshire. He fitted for college at St. Johnsbury Academy. After graduation he studied law one year each in Hanover, New York City, Concord, N. H., and Worcester, Mass. After his admission to the bar in Massachusetts, then in New Hampshire, he practiced law for one year in Lancaster, N. H. He then studied theology for two years in Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1888. He then served as pastor in Congregational churches in Bristol, N. H., Hamilton, N. Y., East St. Johnsbury, Vt., Randolph Center, Vt., and Castine, Me. From Castine he went to Europe in 1918 in some form of war work, and since then he lived in Washington, D. C., being employed in the bureau of war risk insurance until failing eye sight caused his resignation and return to Castine in 1933, as first noted.
Patterson had fine literary taste, and with Beckett shared the college prizes in English composition. He was a poet even in his college days, and continued throughout his life to contribute both prose and poetry to the public press. The last known to the Secretary was dated December 16, "JSo. "One Candle Only."
"I do not quarrel with my fate, New life begins at seventy-eight. Then light one candle, only one. To show a better life begun."
Patterson married Miss Lilla Olive Davidson September i, 1885. She died in September, 1936. They had four children, all of whom survive: Arthur Willis, a lawyer in Castine, Me., whose two sons are sophomores in their father's college, the University of Maine; Margaret (Mrs. Fellows) of San Francisco, Calif., who has one son; Gordon, of Palo Alto, Calif.; Donald Gillis (two years a member of Dartmouth *983) of Washington, D. C. In his college days he was known popularly as "Pat," or Young Senator."
Class of 1884
JOSIAH FRENCH HILL was born in Concord, N. H., July 25, 1863. He was the son of Isaac Andrew and Sarah Ann (Sanderson) Hill. His grandfather, Isaac Hill, was owner and editor of the New HampshirePatriot, governor of New Hampshire, and U. S. senator from that state.
Hill had his preparatory work in the public schools of Concord, and entered Dartmouth with the class of '84. He was a fine student, a quiet, likeable fellow, highly regarded by his classmates. At graduation he had a Commencement appointment and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was an Alpha Delta Phi.
For a year after graduation Hill taught in the Concord High School, filling a temporary vacancy, and worked as assistant to the county clerk of Merrimack county. In 1885 he began the study of law in Boston. At this time he entered the employ of the Union Pacific R. R. From 1886 to 1892 he was located in Omaha, Neb., where he served the road as assistant to the auditor general and to the first vice president. In '93 he was in New York City, employed by the receiver of the U. P. R. R. After two years he went to Washington, D. C., to become assistant to the vice president of the Southern Railway Co. In '96 he was made secretary of the Southern and located in New York City. In 1900 he left railroad work to become associated with Lee, Higginson & Co. in Boston as manager of their statistical department and expert on security values, especially of railway properties. In 1902 Hill made a report for the Commission on Commerce and Industry of the state of Massachusetts on the income and accounts and financial conditions of the N. Y., N. H. & Hartford and B. & M. railways. In the same year and for some years succeeding he was lecturer at Harvard in the course on corporation finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration.
Hill remained with Lee, Higginson & Co. until January, 1931. When the crash on Wall St. came in 1929 he was in the center of the fight to save his company from the impending wreck, and for more than a year he did an almost superhuman work. With the collapse of the Kreuger bubble, in which his firm had large investments, his arduous work was increased, and took so much of his vitality that he suffered a nervous breakdown from which he never fully recovered. He died April 8, 1937, at the McLean Hospital in Waverly, Mass. After cremation, his ashes were buried in Blossom Hill Cemetery, Concord, N. H.
December 28, 1887, he was married to Blanche Theodora Ford of Concord, who died in 1933. A daughter, Miss Theodora Hill, survives her parents.
Hill's business interests were large, and he held many directorships in companies in which he was a stockholder. This together with his membership in a dozen or more social and business organizations stamps Hill as a man of influence and high repute in the community in which he lived and wrought. He had a fine mind, and used it for the well-being of those about him.
For the class of '84 his work as class agent for the Alumni Fund was outstanding. Appointed agent in 1922, he kept the class near the top of the list until 1931, when his health forced his retirement. He was secretary pro tem of the class in 1923-4 and its president in 1929-31. He was a member of the Loan Fund committee from 1914 till this was finished in 1924. He always contributed generously to class and college projects, and gave of his time and strength unstintingly to forward class interests. He was probably more closely connected with college affairs than any other '84 man, and was highly regarded by the college administration. Hill was most highly esteemed by his classmates. He was unanimously elected president of the class in 1929 so that he should preside over our 50-year reunion in 1934. The men felt that in doing this they were not only doing him the honor he so richly deserved, but were also giving expression to their esteem and affection for him. Hill was one of '84's really great men, and was so regarded by his classmates.
Class of 1886
For the fourth time since our 50th Year Reunion in June, 1936, the family of 'B6 men who are still in the body has become smaller. Marden, Pitman, Chaffin, and now Jenks have gone on.
The New York Times of May 8 prints this special telegram from Chicago, which mentions only a few of his community services: "CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON JENKS, retired Chicago lawyer, former president general of the national society of the Sons of the American Revolution, died on Tuesday [May 4] in Pasadena, Calif., it was learned today. He and his wife, the former Janet Lyons, had been visiting at the home of a niece, Mrs. Frederick B. Carter. His age was 74.
"Mr. Jenks was born in Chicago. He was of the tenth generation of a family which settled in Lynn, Mass., in 1642. He formerly was the president of the Evanston Board of Education, the Evanston Township High School Board, the General Association of Dartmouth College Alumni and the North Shore Festival Association, and had been active in other civic associations. He had composed many musical works. His home was in Evanston.
"Survivors besides his widow are a son, Herbert, and a daughter, Mrs. Ervin Poklen of Carmel, Calif."
Those of us who heard Chan during our Appreciation Hour at Hanover, and also those who were not present but have read his words on page 8 of our 50th Year Report, can never forget his personal message to us as he goes on ahead. In part his words were:
"I am not indulging in platitudes; religion and science and philosophy and reason are all working together to pull down the barriers between the seen and the unseen, the here and the hereafter. With Bill Hatch, 'We Wonder,' but not as those who have no hope. In the baccalaureate address this morning the statement was made that to wonder is to take the first essential step toward knowledge. While now we see through a glass darkly, yet it is a glass and not an opaque wall. The glass is transparent and our duty is to cleanse it of that which hides its transparency. Then we shall see as we are seen.
"It is not fancy which prompts us to declare that we are experiencing a one hundred per cent reunion. '86 is all here. Some of us have put out to sea before the others. It is for us who still wait on the strand, to resolve that at this appreciation (not memorial) meeting, there shall be no moaning of the bar."
A few weeks later, in July, when Marden left us, Chan wrote me: "I remember Marden's benediction at our Reunion dinner almost word for word; it was not a farewell, but merely 'Aufwiedersehen,' till we meet again." And now on May 4 Chan put out to sea to meet Marden.
Class of 1905
OSWIN TUTTLE BOURDON died suddenly in Boston April 6, 1937, of heart trouble, from which he had been suffering for the past few years.
He was the son of Denys B. P. Bourdon, and was born in Newton, Mass., February 26, 1883, and attended the Newton schools. He was a member of Kappa Kappa Kappa, and was with the class only during freshman year, leaving to go into business.
For several years he was associated with his father, who was the proprietor of the Notman Photographic Co., whose chain of studios was widely known throughout the East, having offices in the principal cities. About fifteen years ago he became connected with the costume and designing business of Miss Wilson in Boston, retaining this position until his death.
Bourdon always retained a deep interest in the College and the class, and while he was unable to attend the class reunions he made it a point to be present whenever he could at class dinners, and kept up his contacts with his classmates.
Services were held April 8 in Boston, and also the same day at the Congregational church in North Haven, Conn., the home of his mother's family, where interment was made. He was married in 1905 to Helen Gould Brown of Boston, and is survived by a daughter living in Australia, a brother, Octave Bourdon of West Bridgewater, Mass., and two sisters, Marguerite Bourdon of New York City and Mildred Bourdon of Newton, Mass.
Class of 1907
ELWOOD SEWARD (Dick) RICHARDSON died at West Suburban Hospital, Oak Park, Ill., April 12, 1937.
The son of Norman Tillinghast and Martha Isabel (Seward) Richardson, he was born in Chicago, August 16, 1883, and coming to Oak Park as a small boy had lived there most of his life. He was a descendant of Hannah Dustin of colonial fame and a relative of William H. Seward, secretary of state in Lincoln's cabinet. He fitted at Oak Park High School and was a member of Chi Phi.
After graduation he was with Rand, McNally & Co. in Chicago for a time, and later for a short time in the investment securities business in Chicago. For the rest of his life he was in the business of railway supplies, being at the time of his death district manager for the Oxweld Railway Service Company.
He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Founders and Patriots Society of America, a life member of the Art Institute, and a member of the Chicago Athletic Club.
June 15, 1910, he was married to Alice A. Bentley of Oak Park, who survives him as does also his mother. There were no children.
FRANCIS BRADFORD RILEY of Newton Highlands, Mass., died February 26, 1937.
He was born in Boston, September 30, 1884, the son of Joseph Cains and Harriet (Christian) Riley. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for two years, entering his Dartmouth class at the beginning of junior year. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta.
For some time he was a commercial engineer for the New York Telephone Co. in New York City, later a consulting engineer in Boston, later engaged in manufacturing in South Boston, and then president of the Riley Loom Co. of New York City. In 1917-19 he was assistant to the District Chief of Ordnance.
In 1913 he was married to Eva M. Crain, who survives him, with six children.
Class of 1912
WALTER LAWRENCE BIERY, known to his classmates as "Hutch," passed away on April 18, 1937. He died of a heart attack while playing golf at his club, the Leewood Golf Club, in Crestwood, N. Y.
He was born in Providence, R. I., March 28, 1889, the son of Francis William and Margaret (Regan) Biery, and prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy. In college, he was active in athletics, playing on the baseball team. He was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. He graduated with the degree of A.B. and Phi Beta Kappa, and in 1913 from the Tuck School.
After graduation he made advertising his lifework, associating himself first with the Butterick Publishing Co. and after three years with the McCall Publishing Co. He became one of the senior members of the McCall advertising staff, and handled many of the important accounts.
In 1917 he sought to enter military service, but was rejected on account of trouble with his eyes. He was, however, a member of the New York National Guard in 1917-19.
January 22, 1922, he was married to Lily A. Redatone in New York, who survives him, with his mother, two brothers, and four sisters.
Funeral services were held from Christ church in Bronxville on April 20.
Class of 1914
JAMES RUSSELL WILLIAMS died at his home in Quincy, 111., March 30, 1937.
The son of Dr. W. W. and Anna (Tatman) Williams, he was born in Unionville, Mo., July 31, 1891. He was a member of the class during the first two years of the course, becoming a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He then transferred to the University of Chicago, where he spent junior year.
From 1913 to 1920 he was president of Ellington Electric Co., and since that time had been connected with H. M. Sheer Co. of Quincy, manufacturers of poultry special tries, being first vice president and treasurer and later president.
June 1, 1916, he was married to Florence Halbach of Quincy, who survives him, with two sons and a daughter.
Class of 1917
DR. RICHARD WICKHAM SHARPE died at Bellevue Hospital, New York City, April 7, 1937. Funeral services for Richard, native Trojan attached to the staff of Bellevue Hospital, were held April 10 from the residence of his mother, Mrs. Emma W. Sharpe, 201 Eighth St., Troy, N. Y.
Richard was taken ill with scarlet fever at Bellevue Hospital, where he had been interne since July last year. As a surprise and token of affection, fellow members of the staff painted his room while he was in the contagion hospital.
Born in Troy, N. Y., May 3, 1894, he was the son of Emma White Sharpe and the late William F. Sharpe. He was graduated from Troy High School, Dartmouth College, 1917, and the Medical College of Virginia at Richmond. While in college he joined two fraternities, Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Dartmouth and Phi Chi at Richmond, as well as two honorary societies—Sigma Zeta and Brown Sequard—at the latter place.
His college career was interrupted by the World War and it was not until some years later that he resumed his education. During this period he gained wide experience in civic drives and in connection with fund-raising activities. Among other posts, he served as manager of the Redpath Chautauqua in Chicago, where he became affiliated for a time with the late Ruth Bryan Owen and other notables.
Richard is survived by his mother; his wife, the former Eugenia Folliard of Norfolk, Va., and a sister, Mrs. George Wood Anderson of New York City.
Class of 1925
On March 13 we lost one of our most promising and active classmates, LYNDON GRANT TUTHILL of New Suffolk, N. Y. Those of us who knew him will feel this loss deeply. Lyn did not graduate, but his sister writes that "he loved Hanover and hated to leave."
He had been ill with chronic nephritis since last September, went to the hospital January 26, and displayed unusual courage, despite his knowledge that he had only a short time to live. Lyn was married November 30, and had built a new house into which he moved January 1.
Lyn managed his father's lumber and coal business, Goldsmith & Tuthill, a firm almost one hundred years old. He was vice president of the First National Bank of Cutchogue, an original commissioner of the Fire District, member of the National Republican Committee, of Peconic Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Junior Order of Mechanics, and the Cutchogue Chamber of Commerce. Vitally interested in politics, he was head of the Republican town committee, and a power for good government on Long Island, particularly the eastern section.
Lyn upheld the high traditions, and was a credit to the name, the College, the community, and the many interests which he served. We extend our sincere sympathy to those close to him, and regret the passing of a true friend with such a bright promise of the future.
[Tuthill was bom in New Suffolk, N. Y., August 7, 1902, the son of Howard Grant and Jennie (Conklin) Tuthill, and prepared for college at Blair Academy. He was in college the first two years of the course.]
Class of 1929
HARRY WALTER WOODRUFF JR., who disappeared from St. Louis on December 29,1936, was found dead near St. James, Mo., April 27, 1937. At the time of his disappearance Harry was resident eye specialist at the St. Louis City Hospital.
He was born at Joliet, Ill., May 27, 1907, the son of Dr. Harry Walter and Jennie (Coventry) Woodruff, and prepared for college at Joliet High School. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
He studied medicine at Harvard, receiving his degree in 1933. He was then an interne at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, and the Ancker Hospital, St. Paul, Minn., and was appointed to his position in St. Louis, July 1, 1936.
He was unmarried, and is survived by his parents, by a sister, Mrs. Rupert Barnes, and by three brothers, George Woodruff '18, Lewis W. Woodruff '23, and Robert Woodruff '23, all of Joliet.
Honorary
REV. HARRY PINNEO DEWEY, upon whom the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred in 1898, died at Babson Park, Fla., April 26, 1937.
He was born in Toulon, Ill., October 30, 1861, the son of Samuel Mills and Cornelia (Phelps) Dewey, and graduated from Williams College in 1884 and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1887. Entering the Congregational ministry, he held three pastorates with distinction: South church, Concord, N. H., 1887-1900; Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1900-07; Plymouth church, Minneapolis, Minn., 1907-35. He served as trustee of Williams College, Carleton College, and Andover Theological Seminary, and held many places of honor and responsibility in his denomination.
June 4, 1889, Dr. Dewey was married to Elizabeth Fearing Fletcher of Newton, Mass., who survives him, with four daughters.
ARTHUR FOOTE, who received the degree of Doctor of Music in 1935, died at Phillips House, Massachusetts General Hospital, April 8, 1937.
He was born in Salem, Mass., March 5, 1853, graduated from Harvard in 1874, and after a year of graduate study received the degree of A.M. in 1875.
He devoted his life to music, obtaining his musical education under Prof. John K. Paine and B. J. Lang. He was an organist and teacher of pianoforte playing, and was organist of the First Unitarian church of Boston from 1878 to 1910. He composed and published many orchestral compositions and other musical productions.
July 7, 1880, Mr. Foote was married to Kate G. Knowlton of Boston, and they had one daughter, Katherine. He was a member of the Harvard Musical Association and the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
WILLIAM GILLETTE, actor and playwright, who received the degree of Doctor of Letters in 1930, died at the Hartford (Conn.) Hospital April 29, 1937.
The son of Francis and Elizabeth Daggett (Hooker) Gillette, he was born in Hartford, July 24, 1855. He entered the University of New York, but did not remain long. Later during his professional life he took special courses at M. I. T. and Boston University.
He began theatrical work in 1877, and for many years was with stock companies successively at New Orleans, New York, Boston, Cincinnati, and Louisville. For a season he traveled with the John T. Raymond Co. He early began the writing of plays, and in later years acted in his own plays almost exclusively. Perhaps his most distinguished success was as Sherlock Holmes in the dramatization of Conan Doyle's masterpiece. Other notable work was done in "Secret Service" and "The Admirable Crichton." He retired in 1936, and spent his last months at his home in Hadlyme, Conn. He never married.
