Lewis Parkhurst Dies
Generous Benefactor and Former Trustee of College Played a Vital Role in Building Modern Dartmouth
THE death of Lewis Parkhurst '78, Dartmouth's "elder statesman," on March s8 in Winchester, Mass., marked the passing of a man whose name will always be associated with the administration of the College during the period of its greatest growth. Friend and adviser to three Dartmouth presidents, Mr. Parkhurst gave generously of his time and money to the College from the date of his appointment in 1908 as Alumni Trustee, during Dr. Tucker's administration, until his retirement in 1941 as the senior member of the Board in President Hopkins' administration. At the time of his death he was 92 and was one of Dartmouth's oldest living graduates.
As a Trustee, Mr. Parkhurst was responsible for Dartmouth's budgetary system and other financial procedures and he was a leading director of the development of the modern Dartmouth plant. In 1911 his best known gift to the College, Parkhurst Hall, provided Dartmouth with the first centralized administration facilities in the history of American colleges.
A member of one of New England's oldest families, Mr. Parkhurst was born in Dunstable, Mass., July 26, 1856, the son of Thomas and Sarah (Wright) Parkhurst. He was a direct descendant of Ebenezer Parkhurst, who came from England to settle in Dunstable in 1690. During his youth the family moved to Brookline, N. H., where his father became engaged in lumber operations. From 1871 to 1874 he attended Green Mountain Academy in South Woodstock, Vt. While a student there, he taught school in Felchville and also served as an instructor in mathematics at the academy itself during his senior year.
Mr. Parkhurst was enrolled at Dartmouth in 1874 as an "academical student," one of the 367 in the College so classified at that time. During the winters as an undergraduate, he taught school, the first such employment being in Weston, Vt. There he became acquainted with one of the other young teachers in the town, Miss Emma J. Wilder, whom he later married. During his sophomore year he taught school at Provincetown, Mass., and in both his junior and senior years he was a member of the teaching staff of the school in Hanover. A member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, he was active in college athletics, being particularly interested in walking, a popular sport at the time. He won the three-mile walk three times and the one-mile walk twice. He also served as president of the Athletic Association and was class football captain as well as a member of the class crew.
After his graduation, Mr. Parkhurst accepted a position as principal of a grammar school in Fitchburg, Mass., with the intention of making teaching his life work. He served there two years, and then spent one year as principal of the high school in Athol, Mass. It was at this time that he married Miss Wilder, to whom he was devoted until her death in March, 1945.
In 1881 he became principal of the high school in Winchester, Mass., the town in which he was to make his home during the remainder of his life. It was here that he became acquainted with Mr. Edwin Ginn, founder of the textbook publishing firm of Ginn and Company. Although he had been invited to return to Fitchburg as principal of the high school, he decided to leave the teaching profession in 1886 for a position in the Agency Department of Mr. Ginn's relatively new company. Mr. Parkhurst was admitted as a partner in 1888 and was later assigned the task of supervising and planning the construction of the company's Athenaeum Press in Cambridge, Mass. After Mr. Ginn's death in 1916, Mr. Parkhurst played an impor- tant part during the days of the company's greatest expansion until it became one of the largest enterprises in the history of publishing. He retired from the company in iggg after 46 years with the firm. In addition to being treasurer, Mr. Parkhurst was in charge of all manufacturing during most of those years.
Upon his election as an Alumni Trustee of the College in 1908, he served first as a member of the Committee on Finance until 1911, when its name was changed to the Committee on Business Administration. From 1920 until his retirement in 1941 as a Life Trustee, Mr. Parkhurst was chairman of the Executive Committee. He also served as a member of the Committee on Physical Development of the Plant and the Committee on Investments.
One of the best characterizations of Mr. Parkhurst's devotion to Dartmouth was given by President Hopkins when the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him at the fiftieth reunion of his class in 1928: "For two decades vital contributor to the strength of Dartmouth's governing board and wise collaborator with three administrations: deviser of the College budget system and conservator of its financial affairs: generous donor, commemorating here the life and character of a beloved son: first among the Trustees insistent in emphasizing the need of a new Library and from the beginning active cooperator in all plans to this great end."
Mr. Parkhurst was also active for a time in Massachusetts politics. In 1908 he was elected as a representative from the Middlesex District to the Massachusetts legislature, serving on the Joint Senate and House Committee on Railroads. He was president of the Republican Club of Massachusetts in 1915-16; delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1920; and a member of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1921-22.
While a state senator, Mr. Parkhurst became interested in a report on the bad conditions then existing at the state prison in Charlestown and devoted much of his time during the twenties in publicizing the need for a new state prison. After a long fight, he finally enlisted sufficient support so that in 1927 the state legislature appropriated $100,000 for the start of a new prison colony at Norfolk. The work was continued from year to year very much along the lines proposed by Mr. Parkhurst. His interest in Norfolk continued long after it was built and he donated the library there. In recognition of his efforts for penal reform, Mr. Parkhurst was appointed in 1935 by Governor Curley to investigate and report on the Massachusetts prison system.
In addition to Dartmouth, both Winchester and his wife's home town of Weston, Vt., were the beneficiaries of Mr. Parkhurst's generosity. In Winchester he served on the committees which directed the building of the Unitarian Church and two new school buildings. He gave an organ to the Unitarian Church and a library to the high school. The Winchester World War I Memorial is largely the gift of Mr. Parkhurst. He was also very active in a campaign to improve and beautify a section of Winchester along the shores of the Aberjona River. In recognition of his service to the community, the Winchester board of selectmen named a new grammar school in his honor on March 21 of this year.
In Weston, an old tavern was converted into a Community Club by Mr. and Mrs. Parkhurst and one of their relatives. Other improvements made possible there by the Parkhursts were a new library, the preservation of an old church, a new parsonage, and a school playground.
Mr. and Mrs. Parkhurst were the parents of two sons, Wilder L„ who died in his sophomore year at Dartmouth and for whom the College's Administration Building is named, and Richard Parkhurst '16, former chairman of the Boston Port Authority and recently a consultant for the Economic Administration in Washington. A grandson, Stephen R. Parkhurst, is a member of the Class of 1952, and a granddaughter, Margaret, is a student at Smith.
Mr. Parkhurst was a member of many clubs including the Union and University Clubs of Boston; the Dartmouth Club of New York; Winchester Club; Rangeley Country Club, Rangeley, Me.; and the Megantic Fish and Game Club. He also served as a trustee of the Winchester Savings Bank.
Private funeral services were held from the Parkhurst home, Oak Knoll, on Wednesday, March 30. The College was represented by Edward S. French '06 and John R. McLane '77 of the Board of Trustees and by Sidney C. Hayward '26, Secretary of the College. Burial was in Wildwood cemetery, Winchester.
LEWIS PARKHURST '78
