Franklin McDuffee Dies

FRANKLIN MCDUFFEE '21, professor of English and Dartmouth poet, died suddenly on January 8, at the age of 41. A victim of carbon monoxide poisoning, he was found dead in his Valley Road garage when neighbors investigated the noise of his automobile motor running late at night. He had been in ill health for several years, during which time he had been forced to interrupt his teaching for periods of recuperation.

Professor McDuffee, who wrote the verses for Dartmouth Undying and who won poetic renown when his Michelangelo took the Newdigate Poetry Prize at Oxford in 1924, had been a member of the Dartmouth English department for the past 15 years. He joined the teaching staff in 1924 as instructor, was made assistant professor two years later, and in 1936 was promoted to a full professorship, receiving an honorary Master's degree from the College at the same time. He had taught the course on the Romantic poets for a number of years and during the past year had also taken over a large part of the teaching of Shakespeare.

Professor McDuffee was one of the rare Americans ever to win the Newdigate Prize at Oxford, a distinction gained by Matthew Arnold, Oscar Wilde, and other leading figures in English literature. Following his graduation from Dartmouth in 1921 he studied at Balliol College, Oxford, for three years, the first two years as recipient of the Richard Crawford Campbell Jr. Fellowship from Dartmouth. While there he also won in 1923 the Elton Exhibition, a difficult series of examinations on Shakespeare and English literature. In addition to his prize-winning poem. Michelangelo, he was the author of Hakluyt Unpurchased, other verses which appeared in Oxford Verse in 1924, and much unpublished work.

Dartmouth immortality will be Professor McDuflee's as author of the words for Dartmouth Undying, frequently selected as one of the most beautiful of American college songs. As a Dartmouth undergraduate he won the Perkins Literature Prize, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, headed The Arts, and received his degree summa cum laude as one of the most poetically gifted undergraduates in recent Dartmouth history.

Professor McDuffee was born in Rochester, N. H., on May a, 1898, the son of the late Willis McDuffee '90, editor of the Rochester Courier, and Dora Haley McDuffee. He is survived by his mother and sister, Miss Maude McDuffee, of Rochester and Victorville, Calif. Funeral services were held at the Church of Christ, Hanover, on Friday, January 12, with burial in Rochester.

FRANKLIN MCDUFFEE '21 Professor of English and Dartmouth poet,whose sudden death on January 8 was agreat loss for the College community.