Tuck and Dartmouth

R-R-IHE FOLLOWING editorial comment is reprinted from the Boston Herald of

Most of the obituary notices and editorials on the late Edward Tuck, who died last Saturday in Paris at the eminent age 0f gg, have emphasized his cosmopolitanism. He was undoubtedly a most urbane and cultured gentleman and an adornment to the great city where he chose to live most of his long life, and which he reverently regarded as the intellectual center of the world. His many gifts to the French people, which included practical things like hospitals, parks and playgrounds as well as invaluable collections of modern and ancient art, were evidences of affection which was sincerely reciprocated. But he never forgot the state where he was born, or the college from which he was graduated in 1862. The building at Concord of the New Hampshire Historical Society, for example, was his gift. His remembrances of Dartmouth, which took many forms, are estimated to have entailed expenditures of more than $6,000,000.

Thus while he himself was immersed in the variegated life of a European metropolis, his mind was constantly reverting to the scenes of his youth, and he was ever anxious that other New Hampshire boys might share his good fortune in enjoying familiarity with the heritage of a great civilization. President Hopkins has well expressed the strong attachment Mr. Tuck felt for Dartmouth: "The story of his devotion to the college and its high ideals could be told without mentioning a single gift. For his love for Dartmouth and the love which Dartmouth had for him transcended material things to the point of spiritual relationship that is as near eternal glory as may be achieved by mortal man." The naming of a planet for him by a French astronomer assures him of a niche in universal history, but that honor probably did not please Mr. Tuck as much as did his brotherhood with thousands of Dartmouth men.