USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 42
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Unselfish to a degree, he was truly a person who found his hap- piness in making other people happy. He will be remembered by his friends for a most refreshing sense of humor, for a sensitive- ness that could have been a handicap in his profession, but which permitted of an extraordinary appreciation of and sympathy for the problems of others, and for a code of principles that knew no compromise.
H. R. S.
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HARVARD CLASS OF 1897
ARTHUR ORLO NORTON
I CAME to Harvard in 1894," writes Norton, "after six years of study and teaching in the Illinois State Normal University (legal title of the first public normal school founded in that state. ) I was then twenty-five years old, inevitably, but to my regret, quite beyond the age for association with the frolicsome young- sters of nineteen and twenty who formed the great majority of the Class of 1897. As a consequence, I know few members of the Class, and met most of these only later when they, like myself, joined the Harvard staff. In compensation I made lifelong friends and many acquaintances among men nearer my own age in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Law School.
"Shortly before taking the A.M. degree, I was invited to be- come an instructor in the history and principles of education in the Harvard Department of Education. My acceptance of this position determined the rest of my professional life. Teaching has been my career. I have never regretted the choice.
"I remained at Harvard as instructor and assistant professor until 1912, when I came to Wellesley as head of the Department of Education. I served at Wellesley until my retirement in 1938, when I became emeritus. In 1919 I was invited to give a course in the history of education at Harvard and continued this service in addition to my work at Wellesley until 1932. During most of the years from 1899 to 1912 and from 1919 to 1932, I also gave a course in Radcliffe College and in the Harvard Summer School.
"Under this heavy schedule of teaching, research held a minor place in my program. I usually managed, however, to keep some investigation underway. The 'accomplishment of which I am (modestly ) most proud' in this direction is the discovery in 1909 of clues which led to the identification of the long-forgotten text- books and reference books used by Harvard students during the years from 1640 to 1700. With these clues in hand, the problem became one of search for actual copies among thousands of an- cient volumes in various college libraries and in the collections of historical societies. This search, with the help from time to time of graduate students, I continued intermittently until 1934.
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The result was two hundred and twenty-eight volumes, certainly the property of Harvard students of the 1600's; fifty-five volumes rated as 'probables' and 'possibles,' and a number of students' notebooks of that period. A further result was the first clear pic- ture of the Harvard curriculum in the seventeenth century. The results were published, with many plates, in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Colonial Society in 1935. Seven Chapters of Samuel Eliot Morison's Harvard in the Seventeenth Century are based on this study.
"Since my retirement in 1938, I have continued to live in Wel- lesley. During the last four years I have given much time to a study of the history and present operation of our town govern- ment. Burrowing in manuscripts of town records stretching back to 1636, surrounded by all the editions of the Massachusetts laws, beginning with the 'Liberties' of 1641, plus a goodly library of other volumes and ancient and modern local maps galore, I have acquired a complete new education. Among other things I have learned both the procatarctical and proegumenal reasons for much that we do today in our town meetings. I have learned also that the immediate reasons are not always what they seem. Not the least result of my study is a much larger vocabulary.
"My durable satisfactions are: my wife, a rare creator of beauty in house and garden, whose many other talents and skills I could sing at length; my field of work with its opportunities for continual growth of the worker (durable dissatisfaction, so much to do, so little done); my colleagues at Harvard and Wellesley during my thirty-nine years of service. What a galaxy of inspir- ing. teachers and distinguished scholars! My students were a fountain of buoyant young lives, continually renewing my own youth.
"In short, life has given me much of the best that our civiliza- tion has to offer, and little direct contact with the defects, dis- eases, and woes that beset it. In return for this happy lot I have given my best efforts to teaching. That has meant continuous hard work, but teaching, though among the greatest of the arts, does not furnish dramatic or heroic material for a Class Report."
Norton, the son of Orlo Warren and Almira Josephine (Palmer )
-
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Norton, was born August 9, 1869, at Stillman Valley, Illinois. He received an S.B. magna cum laude from Harvard in 1897, an A.B. in 1898, and an A.M. in 1899. He married Alice Jean Lyon, July 2, 1903, at Norwich, New York. Their daughter, Priscilla Norton (Mrs. Chester Bennett), born July 30, 1906, died December 1, 1945.
In World War I, Norton was chief of the Information Section, Bureau of Industrial Housing, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. In the second World War, he served as an air-raid warden in Wellesley.
He is the author of Readings in the History of Education and Mediaeval Universities, published by the Harvard University Press in 1909; The First State Normal School in America, and the Journals of Cyrus Peirce and Mary Swift, published by the Har- vard University Press in 1926; Harvard Textbooks and Refer- ence Books of the Seventeenth Century, published by the Colo- nial Society of Massachusetts in 1935.
He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science and a member of the Colonial Society of Massa- chusetts.
GEORGE HAROLD NOYES
I HAVE become convinced, from a long study of weather and other natural factors," reports Noyes, "that it is not to man's best advantage to ignore moderately the truths which nature pro- vides. Nature tells us the truth, while man indulges in many eva- sions of truth. Many of us do not yet know enough to come in out of the rain. The weather never plays us false. It has so many variations that it is never abnormal; it is normal for it to be ab- normal. Man is assuredly greatly modified by his weather en- vironment - stagnant weather, stagnant people, temperamental weather, temperamental people. The government, which our heedlessness permits in Washington, has never been able to regu- late or unregulate, to control or decontrol, the weather.
"I take a little pride in having been of help, vital as well as trivial, to millions of my neighbors. I am confident that I have
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contributed toward their comfort, safety, and happiness. Some have been hurt when our diagnosis was wrong. But when one trespasses on thin ice, the victim should not accuse the weather man as being 'all wet.'
"My real, deepdown satisfaction is my family, four respectable children and their MOTHER, their four respectable spouses and the seven grandchildren, whose youth will help keep us ever young."
Let children learn the mighty deeds, and teach them to their heirs.
Noyes was born October 12, 1875, at Georgetown, Massachu- setts, the son of George Warren and Mary Isabella (Beecher) Noyes. He came to college from the Haverhill High School in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He was in college five years, and re- ceived his A.B. in 1899 as of 1897.
"I had a very quiet and uneventful college life," he writes. "I enjoyed tennis, skating, bicycling, single-scull rowing, and music. I was chorister in Appleton Chapel, Christ Church, and occasion- ally in other nearby churches. I am a member of the Congrega- tional Church."
Noyes married Frances Louise Fugate, June 14, 1900, at In- dianapolis, Indiana. Their children are: Harold Beecher, Har- vard '24, born December 15, 1902; Mary Frances (Mrs. Ely), born April 1, 1908; Elizabeth (Mrs. Stockman), born August 23, 1910; and James Leonard, '34, born February 14, 1913. One of Noyes' grandchildren, Cheever Hamilton Ely, Jr., is also the grandson of the late Charles Hardy Ely, '98, and the son of Chee- ver Hamilton Ely of the Class of 1927.
Noyes was in the weather service of the United States Govern- ment from March 16, 1898, until his voluntary retirement June 30, 1945.
"I held subordinate assignments in the U. S. Weather Bureau," he writes, “in Washington; Topeka, Kansas; Boston; Parkersburg, West Virginia; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Boston again; New Haven; and Jacksonville, Florida, until the summer of 1904, when I estab- lished an office in La Salle, Illinois, where I continued until
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June, 1906. Thereafter I was in charge of the offices of the Bu- reau, and was the local 'weather man' in Lexington, Kentucky, Trenton, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio, until I took over my last assignment, which was assuming charge of the Boston office with the six New England States under my supervision from Oc- tober, 1933, until I retired, after more than forty-seven years of duty, on June 30, 1945.
"I had a weather report in the local press every day, and wrote several occasional reports, interviews or broadcasts, and, monthly, formal statistical and narrative weather reports."
Noyes is a member of the American Meteorological Society and of the Committee to Visit the Blue Hill Observatory.
LEWIS OGDEN O'BRIEN
L EWIS OGDEN O'BRIEN was born May 15, 1873, at New York City, the son of Henry Stanton and Mary Elizabeth (O'Brien) O'Brien. He studied under private tutors, attended the Univer- sity of South Carolina for a year, and then entered Phillips Exeter Academy. There he was manager of the football team which de- feated Andover, breaking a succession of defeats, and was promi- nent in other activities. He entered Harvard in 1893, and took an A.B. with the Class at the end of four years. He was interested in debating and was one of the organizers of the Sound Money Cam- paign Club in 1896. He then spent three years in the Law School, receiving an LL.B. in 1900. He was at one time president of the Southern Club.
Entering the practice of law, O'Brien became associated with the firm of Winthrop & Stimson in New York and later formed the firm of Fitzgerald & O'Brien with an old friend. This firm was later dissolved. He served as Deputy Attorney General until a change in administration and was soon thereafter appointed As- sistant United States District Attorney by Henry L. Stimson, later Secretary of War. The arduous task of preparing the case against Charles W. Morse, whom he did not live to see convicted, impaired O'Brien's health and resulted in his death on December 21, 1908, at Briarcliff, New York. He was unmarried.
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+ WILLIAM MORGAN O'CONNOR
W ILLIAM MORGAN O'CONNOR was born August 23, 1875, at San Francisco, where he died March 20, 1911. The son of Cor- nelius and Anna (Roach) O'Connor, he was prepared for college by tutors. He was in the Lawrence Scientific School from 1893 to 1897. He then became engaged in mining in the West. He made an extensive trip through northern Alaska, crossing with dogs from the Arctic Ocean to the Kenhehuk mining country, and in 1906 returned to San Francisco to enter the real estate business. He was described by a friend as "a most companionable fellow, game and always ready to make new acquaintances, and to renew old ones." He never married.
+ ROBERT EDWIN OLDS
R OBERT EDWIN OLDS, Under-Secretary of State during the Cool- idge administration, died in Paris, France, on November 24, 1932, after a distinguished career as an international lawyer. The son of James Edwin and Lillian May (Goodrich) Olds, he was born October 22, 1875, at Duluth, Minnesota, and prepared for Harvard at the St. Paul, Minnesota, High School. He received an A.B. summa cum laude in 1897, having been considered the first scholar in the Class. After three years at the Law School, he took an LL.B. in 1900. He immediately started practising with the firm of Davis, Kellogg & Severance, perhaps the leading law firm of the Northwest. He became a member of the firm, which changed its name to Davis, Severance & Olds when Frank B. Kellogg was elected to the United States Senate.
In January, 1918, Olds went to France, where for a year he was counselor of the American Red Cross. He also served for a year and a half as European commissioner in charge of the American Red Cross operations abroad. In 1923 he served as North Ameri- can representative on a commission appointed by the twelfth International Conference at Geneva to formulate a plan for world organization for the Red Cross. That year also he became the American member of the arbitration tribunal appointed to adjust
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financial claims between Great Britain and the United States under the treaty of 1910, on which he served until 1925. During 1924-25 he was a member of the commission appointed by the League of Nations to report a plan of international cooperation for the relief of disasters. While in Europe he was influential in enlarging the American Library in Paris, being named in 1924 president of the Board of Trustees.
By 1925 Frank B. Kellogg had become Secretary of State under Coolidge, and in that year Olds was called to the post of Assistant Secretary. Two years later he was made Under-Secretary. In 1928 he resigned and returned to Paris to practise law. He was a member of the Reparations Commission under the Treaty of Ver- sailles and in 1930 was one of the two American representatives for the council meeting in Paris of the International Chamber of Commerce. He was also resident trustee in Paris of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and continued to represent the Red Cross at conferences. In 1931 he was chosen a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. He was also a member of the Permanent International Commission created in the treaty between the United States and Finland, the Economic Consultive Commission of the League of Nations, and the board of governors of the American Hospital, and was vice-president of the American Memorial Day Association.
He was survived by his wife, the former Rose Wilhelmina Nab- ersberg, whom he married September 16, 1902, at St. Paul.
BERNARD SUTRO OPPENHEIMER
L IFE begins with conception and usually ends in heart failure," writes Oppenheimer. "So, when I made this surprising dis- covery early in my medical career, it seemed well worth while to devote myself to prolonging life by preventing and relieving dis- orders of the heart and circulation. In 1910, with Sir Thomas Lewis, I began with an investigation of the site of origin of the heartbeat, and now at seventy I find myself engaged in research at Columbia on the cause and relief of high blood pressure and coronary artery disorders which so often terminate life.
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"As I look back, I am filled with regret at my sins of omission; i.e., the many opportunities which I have neglected. My sins of commission somehow do not worry me. As I look forward, I have some fear that the conflict between Democracy and Communism may end disastrously. The atomic bomb is an example of the failure of modern civilization to keep pace with the advances in pure and applied science. It is a real menace.
"Frankly, I have no philosophy except the practical one of do- ing my bit every day, and very little religion. I do take pride in my beloved family, in my friendships, and in the modest results of my research work.
"Finally, the influence of Harvard College has abided with me and has always been a great inspiration. That indebtedness can never be repaid; it can be expressed only by stimulating myself and others to carry on the ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, and truth."
Oppenheimer was born June 20, 1876, at New York City, the son of Leopold Oppenheimer and Laura Sutro, Hunter College '72. He prepared at the Cambridge Latin School. After four, years with our Class, he received his A.B. degree magna cum laude in 1897 with honors in natural history. In 1901 he was granted an M.D. at Columbia. As an undergraduate he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Upsilon.
He married Enid Muriel Simmons, August 29, 1919, at New York City. Their son, Peter John Sutro, Harvard '42, was born June 20, 1921. In World War II, Peter was a research associate. at the Radio Research Laboratory at Harvard from June, 1942, to January, 1946. From March to September, 1945, he was a sci- entific consultant to general headquarters in the Southwest Paci- fic Area. Oppenheimer himself served on the Medical Advisory Board of the Selective Service from 1941 to 1946. He was also a member of a Special Medical Advisory Board to re-examine re- jectees disqualified for cardiovascular disorders in 1943. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit, citation, and Selective Service Medal in the name of the Congress of the United States in 1946. In World War I, he served in the United States, England, and France as a medical officer. He was chief of the Medical Service,
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Evacuation Hospital No. 61 in France, and was discharged with the rank of colonel in the Reserve Corps.
As a physician, Oppenheimer has been engaged in private practice, hospital practice, and teaching. He has been president of the Alumni Association of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of Columbia University; clinical professor of medicine at Columbia; and consulting physician at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He was formerly chief of the Department of Medi- cine at the Montefiore Hospital in New York and is at present con- sulting physician. He has served as consulting physician to the Mount Vernon Hospital in New York, and as chairman of the Committee on Medical Education at the New York Academy of Medicine. He has held the post of director of the New York Tu- berculosis and Health Association and of the New York Heart Association. He is a member of the Council on Heart Disease.
He is the author of sixty original scientific articles in the field of internal medicine and cardiovascular disorders. He is a mem- ber of the Association of American Physicians, Society for Experi- mental Biology and Medicine, and New York Academy of Medi- cine.
His clubs are the Harvard Club, Delta Upsilon Club, West- chester Country Club, and Phi Beta Kappa, all of New York.
GROSVENOR PORTER ORTON
O RTON was born at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, June 3, 1874, the son of William and Agnes Johnson (Gillespie) Orton. He prepared at the Westminster School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and spent two years as a special student with our Class. He then attended the Bussey Institution for two years.
He started in business as an engineer with the New York Tele- phone Company, where he remained until 1902. He then spent eight years with Western Union, of which his father had been president for many years. In 1910 he took an interest with a Wall Street firm, but soon gave it up in favor of travelling. After an ex- tended European trip, he settled in Montecito, Santa Barbara, California.
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This information is taken from our Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report. The Secretary has learned with regret that Orton has been seriously ill for some time and that he is unable, therefore, to return a questionnaire.
+ WINFRED HORTON OSBORNE
W INFRED HORTON OSBORNE was born January 29, 1874, at Balti- more, the son of Cyrus Pearl and Ella Sophia (Smith) Os- borne. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, and entered Harvard in 1891, remaining two years. He re-entered in 1895 and graduated magna cum laude with our Class. He was the recipi- ent of the Bowditch scholarship and the Price Greenleaf scholar- ship and at graduation was awarded honorable mention in mathe- matics. For a time he was associated with the National Bridge Company, Indianapolis, and later taught mathematics at Purdue University. In 1903 he was obliged to retire because of ill health and never completely recovered. He died at Worcester, Massa- chusetts, on March 7, 1921. He was unmarried.
SAMUEL ROOSEVELT OUTERBRIDGE
O UTERBRIDGE, the son of Augustus Emilius and Ellen Lydia (Roosevelt) Outerbridge, was born August 5, 1875, at Staten Island, New York. He prepared at St. Luke's School in Bustleton, Pennsylvania. After four years in the Lawrence Sci- entific School, he received an S.B. in 1897.
He married Amie Willets, September 25, 1906, at Skaneateles, New York. Their children are: Joseph Willets, born August 22, 1907; and Marion Ellen, born November 7, 1910. There are seven grandchildren. Joseph is a member of the Harvard Class of 1929. Outerbridge's brother, Frank Roosevelt Outerbridge, was gradu- ated with '96.
During World War II, Mrs. Outerbridge worked for the Nassau County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Outerbridge is a member of the Harvard Club of New York and Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club of Oyster Bay, New
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York. He writes that he has little to report since he retired in 1931.
For a report on his business activities since 1897, Outerbridge refers to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report, in which he wrote: "Since May, 1898, I have been in the steamship business, in 1902 being admitted to partnership in the firm of A. Emilius Outer- bridge & Company, agents of the Quebec Steamship Company, Limited, running the Bermuda and West Indian steamship lines. In March, 1915, I withdrew from the partnership and entered the establishment of Furness, Withy & Company, Limited, steam- ship agents, owners and brokers, with which concern I was asso- ciated until November, 1921. After resigning from Furness, Withy & Company, I formed a partnership with R. R. Leaycraft, for the transaction of a general sales agency and commission business.
"In 1911 I became interested in the Hamilton Insurance Com- pany of New York and am on the Board of Directors, and am a di- rector in the Pantasote Leather Company."
* FERNANDO PACHECO E CHAVES
TT is one of the minor tragedies of undergraduate life at a large university that, in a class as large as ours, many men remain relatively unknown to their classmates. Coming to college from far-away places, they lack the early friendships formed in our nearby preparatory schools, and are apt to lead rather isolated and lonely lives unless an aptitude for some one of the several athletic activities, musical organizations, or undergraduate publi- cations brings them to the friendly attention of their fellows. Fortunately, our classmate Fernando Pacheco e Chaves was not such a one. Coming from Sao Paulo, Brazil, his early friendships were limited for the most part to a few upperclassmen of like ori- gin with whom he associated in a real companionship. But, dur- ing the two years of his stay at Harvard, his friendships increased rapidly, and in after years he looked back upon his college days with a real happiness and a strong affection toward his alma mater.
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The son of Elias Antonio Pacheco and Anezia da Silva (Prado) Chaves, he was born September 26, 1875, at Sao Paulo. After leaving college in 1895 and spending two years in European travel, he returned to his birthplace and settled at Ribeiras Pielo in his native state, where he acquired and conducted a coffee plantation.
A letter from his daughter, Maria Pacheco e Chaves, at Copaca- bana, Rio de Janeiro, brought us welcome news of his later years, though sad in its opening announcement:
". . . I am very sorry to inform you that my father died on the 11th of this month ( August, 1944). He had just arrived from Sao Paulo, where he had spent about three weeks on business, having had the opportunity of seeing his sons and grandchildren. The day following his arrival in Rio he was not feeling well, and ten days later died as the result of a heart attack. Although he was sixty-nine years old, he was always active in his work. For ten years he occupied the position of lawyer to the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, where he was greatly esteemed by his colleagues. He never forgot his Harvard days and often spoke about the happy times he had there. So great was his love for Harvard that he sent two of his sons there for a period of study in 1920."
Pacheco e Chaves was married December 10, 1896, to Alzira de Barros at Sao Paulo. She died in 1940. Their children are: Fernando Miguel, born December 20, 1897 (died in 1926); Elias Antonio (married Julia Peneira de Tonga), born November 30, 1898; Antonio Olyario, born November 19, 1901; Mario; and Maria. His children and grandchildren survived him.
So passes another of our friends and classmates, one who was successful in his accomplishments and happy in the memory of his days spent among us in our common youth. May his two Har- vard sons, spurred by their inheritance and tradition, send us, in turn, Harvard '97 grandsons to the delight of their grandfather, were he here to see, and to the joy of us all.
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