1905
No issue of these notes would be complete without some new item about Rufus Day, Chancellor 0f Cornell, indicating that the Goddess of Retirement is finding him a rather refractory prospect. This time, we observe him in the headlines as addressing 500 medical scientists and laymen, identified with cancer work. It was at a New York dinner in connection with John D. Rockefeller's munificent gift of additional buildings to the Memorial Cancer Center of that island city which the Dutch once used as a pasture. Rufus commented on the ideological conflict which is being generated by the rise of the common man.
Really heartening, especially from the pen of a professor, is Professor Knight's article on "Our Greatest Issue"—pseudo-liberalism. It is in the December issue of this Magazine. You've probably read it. If not, do. With wit and needed bluntness, he diagnoses and exposes to view an insidious condition in our country. The practice of delegating every detail of our living to the National Government (which means a little group of men) has been receiving too much parlor approval and too much kitchen neglect, until it is undermining the house we live in. The editor's idea that such a clear-seeing professor should not be concealed in the cloisters of the College was a good one. Our observations from our half century of experimenting with both ideals and nostrums will probably unanimously confirm this step.
Admiral Cluverius, chairman of the Worcester (Mass.) School Committee, recently complimented an advisory committee which is promoting the adoption of the Linn survey of the city's schools. Judge James Donnelly, as a member of this advisory committee, shares in the commendation.
Dr. Raymond Root and his sister of Georgetown, Mass., visited in Hanover recently.
Bob Harding, who has done so much for the Class, has been obliged to restrict his activities, although he still goes to business. He is afflicted with one of those Latin diseases called Angina Pectoris. Maud, who is an excellent Professor of English, would worry much less if Bob had chosen a disease in her language and ours. We all hope Bob will be careful not to overdo, which is to say that we want hijn and his good nature with us a long time.
Each year, the College sets up area committees of alumni to interview applicants for admission to Dartmouth and report to the College as part of the selection process. JudgeHarry Peyser is now Chairman of the Portsmouth (N. H.) Committee which has undertaken this considerable and important task.
Edith and John Furfay received a surprise visit on Christmas day from their daughter, an airplane hostess. She flew in from Chicago. John's hands and knees are incapacitated with arthritis. This confines him to his home. He can't write, but reads a great deal. If any who are retired would like to write him from time to time, it would be a kindness much appreciated, although he cannot write in reply. . ,
Walter May reports a balance in the Class Trust Fund of $1,586.87 as of December 23. This is now being transferred to Class Treasurer Gib Fall. Judge Donnelly is the surviving trustee.
In presenting career sketches of members of our class from time to time, as MAGAZINE space permits, we will follow no particular order. We shall try to present men from near and far, those best known and those least known, the more distinguished and the less distinguished but equally deserving. All will be presented eventually, it is hoped. Upon reaching our 50th Reunion, we should know each other so well by this method that our interest in one another will have increased and comradeship will be the more enjoyable.
These sketches will reflect no deep biographical or historical study, but will be the best that can be done with the material, talent, and time available. They are offered in the belief that the life story of any one is interesting to every one.
EDGAR GILBERT
First in our series of stories to help renew acquaintance within the Class is the story of Edgar Gilbert, of Morristown, N. J., the oldest of us, because he worked ten years before entering college. It is an interesting story of another 'O5 contribution to cancer research. ,
Coming to college with a moustache had its dangers in 1901, although, a generation earlier, coming to Dartmouth without one would probably have been evidence of femininity. In Ed's case, however, it was an asset, because it reflected a decade of experience and resulting wisdom for which we beardless ones respected him. The faculty, too, were inclined to take his advice, whether from respect for or fear of his advanced age of 26 is not known.
Son of a shoemaker, exceptional student in Methuen (Mass.) High School, Ed aimed to become a doctor, but had to go to work at 16 because of his father's death. This deprived him of his senior year of high school. For ten years, he worked in the electrical department of the Arlington Wool & Worsted Mill in Lawrence, as an allaround mechanic, where Robert Frost 96, now America's most esteemed poet, was his workmate and chum.
Meanwhile, the loss of his sister, a brilliant young school teacher, from tuberculosis, stirred his interest in the creosote remedies for tuberculosis. He boned up for entrance examinations, passed them, entered Dartmouth as a member of the famous Class of 1905, and graduated a Phi Beta Kappa student!
Opposing, at the Thornton Hall Delta Alpha initiation banquet, a suggestion for some discourtesy to the Dean marked Ed as a freshman with whom even upper classmen must reckon.
He was chosen Vice President of the Freshman Debating Club. He became a member of the Aegis board and then its business manager. In his senior year, he was chosen a member of Palaeopitus, being chairman of its committee on bonfires. During the visit of the Earl of Dartmouth, Ed was chief indoor usher, senior outdoor marshal, and acting chief marshal of the cornerstone-laying-parade and banquet. He proposed to President Tucker the bonfire and organized the nightshirt parade, at which the Earl's few simple and sincere remarks touched us all. Ed was given the Earl's autograph, and ushered the Countess, Lady Dorothy, Mrs. Tucker and her sister, and Mrs. Winston Churchill—an inspiring experience.
Elected President of our Class in our senior year, just after graduation Ed was unanimously chosen "permanent" Secretary-Treasurer—no easy job. Edgar Gilbert became "Mr. '05." In this capacity, he served us as alumni for ten years. He built a Class fund to $700, hoping that it could be increased to an amount whose interest would meet all Class expense and which could ultimately revert to the College. He held this office until a three-man Class Committee was formed in 1915 in order to divide the work.
But there was another side to Ed's college career than office-holding. From the first, he began earning money. Even in his freshman year, he tutored, first individuals, then groups, in math, trigonometry, solid geometry and algebra. His clientele was not merely "low-hangers," but also men who were later to become Phi Betes. They came from upper classes, too. His pupils often numbered 30 to 40 at a session. He kept pitchers twirling and football teams unbroken. Hundreds of Dartmouth men were taking advantage of his instruction. As a freshman, he was an important member of the faculty, without portfolio, and had faculty support in this.
Now AS TEACHER
In his junior year, Dartmouth was called upon to help Concord (N. H.) High School out of an emergency. It needed a submaster. Ed was selected. With some urging from President Tucker, Dean Emerson, and some of the faculty, he accepted, he thought for a month or two, but the assignment lasted almost his full junior year. Absent through the week, Ed had to return to college weekends and attend summer school in order to keep abreast of the Class in college work. And in his senior year the College faculty, particularly Professor Hull, were very considerate of him so that he could catch up. Not only this, but he made Phi Beta Kappa.
In his senior year, his versatility took another turn. He reorganized the dormant Y.M.C.A., by converting it to an independent "Dartmouth Christian Association," a pattern which still continues. This change removed the barrier to Catholic and Unitarian students which then existed. With Gilbert and Lillard leading and founding dormitory Bible classes, the new organization promptly grew to more than 300.
Meanwhile, Ed found time for interest in the fraternity situation. He observed in freshman year that 40% of the class, or 60 of our 179 men, were non-fraternity. There were only a dozen fraternities then. At senior year, he observed that only 11% of the fraternity group had made фBK, while 20% of the non-fraternity group attained that scholarship distinction. Teaming up with Charlie Eichenauer, Cap Kelley, and Don Gates, he proceeded in sophomore year to make the 40% group about as influential in Class politics as the 60% group. As evidence of impartiality, however, Ed joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in senior year. New fraternities were formed and many of the 40% joined up after freshman year.
Ed Gilbert's career as an alumnus is equally interesting with his undergraduate career.
Just before graduating, he had contracted to become submaster of the Methuen (Mass.) High School. He was soon flooded with teaching offers. President Tucker, Dean Emerson, and Professor C. D. Adams offered to make a place for him on the Dartmouth faculty to continue the Christian Association work. There were two other bids to the College faculty, and seven others to schools in Boston, New York, and Chicago. Meanwhile, Ed wrote a history of Salem, N. H. Just why is not known. There were no witches there.
Now As PROMOTER AND GENERAL MANAGER
While he was teaching at Methuen, an improvement upon the German creosote, formerly used in the treatment of the disease which cost Ed's sister's life, was developed in America. In 1909, Ed reverted to his boyhood interest in the medical profession. He organized the Lyster Chemical Company to make this new product. He was its General Manager for 11 years until he sold it. During World War I, his company supplied this product for all the world except Germany and her allies, and for long after it was this hemisphere's sole source of supply. He had small factories in New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Quebec. At the same time, Ed began experimenting with his product in cancer cases as well as tuberculosis, and doctors who used it, usually after all other methods had failed, began to register a number of remarkable cures.
For camera-film developing, a chemical called hydroquinone is a necessity. There was an extreme shortage of supply during the war and for a time afterward. Ed invented an economical way of producing this and put up a plant to do so for America's supply. Eastman Kodak quickly bought this and the Lyster Company in 1921, and made Ed its General Manager of the new Eastman Chemical Company, making both the new and old product.
After three years in this capacity, in Rochester, N. Y., Ed, being more interested in promoting his medical product and Kodak more interested in photography, went to Morristown, N. J., and set up the Gilbert Laboratories, whose President and Treasurer he has been for 25 years now. In 1930, he organized, also, the Gilbert Research Institute for the continued study of tuberculosis and cancer. His small plant is, nevertheless, one of only two in America as a source of the pharmaceutical products derived from and including creosote and guaiacol. His son, Frederick, who attended the University of Virginia, is active in the business, for Ed is 74, wearing the same moustache and looking as young as any of the Class now.
ALWAYS AS LEADING CITIZEN
The Gilbert family, likewise, is no small attainment for Mr. Ed and Mrs. Effie. It comprises four children and five grandchildren. Their daughter, Maud, graduated from Mt. Holyoke in 1928. Bertha and Lois graduated from secretarial schools. Bertha's son is acquiring distinction as a boy soprano.
For one who does many things remarkably well, Ed Gilbert has nevertheless been guided by a lifetime desire to help others, especially the underdog, the tubercular and the victims of cancer. He has been an enthusiastic, hard worker, but also patient. Parallel with his business career he has been a civic leader in Morristown and Hanover Township, a President of the latter's Chamber of Commerce, and for 20 years President of its Republican Club. In 1922, he organized the White Plains (New York) High School Band, of which Nancy Parkinson was to be a drum major some years later. Music and gardening are his current hobbies. He is now writing a book entitled Thirty-Seven Years of Cancer Study.
President Tucker ranked Ed Gilbert high among the "Men of the College" in our day. Cheerfully overcoming obstacles which would defeat many another, teacher in two schools, promoter and chief executive of three business enterprises, a family man, and leading citizen in civic enterprise, still an active enthusiast, guided at each step by a desire to help the underdog, he missed his boyhood aim to be physician. But 'O5 can take pride in the service to his time which its oldest member has accomplished, and Ed has no reason to hang his head. No more interesting story of a useful life, lived to the full, could be found in the "Tales of Arabian Nights."
EDGAR GILBERT 'O5, whose life story appears here as first in a series, is President of the Gilbert Laboratories, and founder of Gilbert Research Institute.
Secretary, 335 Statler Office Bldg., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, 8027 Seminole Ave., Philadelphia 18, Pa. Class Agent, 6 Lakewood Rd., Natick, Mass.
