Class of 1885
Otis Hovey of New York City spent a day in Boston recently in connection with his duties as Director of the Engineering Foundation, to which he was elected last October. The Foundation is organized, in the language of its charter, "for the furtherance of research in science and en-gineering or for the advancement in anyother manner of the profession of engineering and the good of mankind." One of his duties as director is to visit each research project which is being conducted with the assistance of appropriations from the funds of the Foundation. Two of such researches are being prosecuted in the vicinity of Boston, one being conducted at Harvard University, on sampling and testing of earthen materials, under the direction of Dr. Arthur Casagrande, who has had the advantage of the best European training obtainable in his specialty, and the other at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on seepage and erosion due to the flow of water through earthen materials, under the direction of Prof. Glennon Gilboy, an expert in the research problems of the relatively new science of soil mechanics. Hovey spent a full day in conference with his above-named associates and approved the progress being made and gave assurance of the continued financial support of the Foundation, which annually appropriates about $40,000 to research work in connection with engineering problems.
MR. HOVEY'S IMPORTANT DUTIES
After his day in conference, Hovey had dinner and spent the evening with the Secretary and Mrs. Bayley reminiscing. As would be expected, Hovey is greatly enjoying the duties of his new position, which keeps him in close touch with the important modern engineering problems.
A letter from Henry Austin brings the sad news of the sudden death from heart disease, on March 27, of Annabel (Holland) Whitcomb, wife of our classmate, Arthur W. Whitcomb, at their winter home, 536 5th St. North, St. Petersburg, Fla. They were married December 21, 1891, in Des Moines, lowa. Their home residence for many years has been in Evanston, 111., where her funeral and burial will take place. The sympathy of all his classmates and friends go out to Whitcomb in his terribly sudden sorrow and bereavement.
Henry and Mrs. Austin plan to leave St. Petersburg, Fla., for their summer home in Warner, N. H., on April 37, where after gathering together his "herd of two cows" for the summer, he expects to attend the Secretaries Meeting at Hanover on May 13 and 14, representing, as president, the Dartmouth Association of Florida. Henry feelingly remarks that "if stock and bondvalues continue to drop lower and lower,my dirt farming may by my salvation, forat least I can raise potatoes enough to eat—provided I do not eat too many at one time." Many of us share a similar feeling of uncertainty and discouragement due to the boondoggling of our muddle-headed "New Deal" administration—it brings great comfort, however, to see indications that the patriotism of so large a number of the majority party in Congress has finally led them to cease to be mere "rubber stamps" for a dictator-president.
Secretary, Kimball Bldg., Tremont St., Boston
