USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 44
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During World War I he participated in Liberty Loan drives and Red Cross work, and in the recent war he was active in War Loan drives.
+ LUCIEN HAYNES PETERS
L' UCIEN HAYNES PETERS died March 27, 1943, at Leominster, Massachusetts. He was born December 18, 1872, at West Roxbury, Massachusetts, the son of Francis Alonzo and Mary Elizabeth (Austin ) Peters. He came to Harvard from Hopkinson's School in Boston.
It is unfortunate that he did not remain in college longer. He left in our sophomore year and punched cattle in Cherry County, Nebraska, in the vicinity made famous by Old Jules. Later he went into the employ of the Boston & Albany Railroad, where he remained for several years, retiring from the service as the road's foreign freight agent.
It was my good fortune to be a classmate of his at school when
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we played on Bob Stevenson's Interscholastic Championship football team. Not a natural athlete, Peters nevertheless gave his best efforts and was dead game, and no small credit was due him in the winning of the championship.
Of a somewhat shy and retiring nature, he would have been a good match for the late Calvin Coolidge as a conversationalist, but once he got started on a subject in which he was interested he would open up and invariably come out with some dry and hu- morous remark.
After leaving the Boston & Albany Railroad, he retired to a small farm in southern New Hampshire. To any of his class- mates or friends who chanced to drop in on him the door was al- ways open and to them he extended the hospitality of his modest house and simple farm. He never married.
G. H. W.
+ MICHAEL FRANCIS PHELAN
M ICHAEL FRANCIS PHELAN, former Congressman and at one time chairman of the Massachusetts State Labor Relations Board, died in Lynn, Massachusetts, on October 12, 1941. The son of James and Rebecca (Griffin) Phelan, he was born October 22, 1875, at Lynn, and attended the Classical High School there before coming to Harvard. After graduating, cum laude, with the Class, he entered the Law School, where he took an LL.B. in 1900. He practised law in Lynn and in 1905 was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic party. In 1913 he was elected to Congress from the Seventh District, which had been for many years Republican. He served for four successive terms, and voted for the entry of the United States into the first World War. His most important Con- gressional work was as a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency, which framed the Federal Reserve and Federal Farm Loan Acts.
After leaving Congress, he went back to his law practice, with offices in Washington, Boston, and Lynn. In 1937 Governor Hur- ley named him to the Merrimac Valley Sewage Commission.
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Later he was appointed chairman of the State Labor Relations Board, of which he was a member at the time of his death. His entire life was an expression of his belief that every citizen should serve the state to the best of his ability.
On June 22, 1904, at Lynn, he married Mary Theresa Van Depoele, who, with their three children - Louis Allgood, born March 8, 1905; Mary Prudence, born October 31, 1910; and Mi- caela Constance, born December 30, 1912 - survived him.
WILLIAM HENRY PHELPS
YINCE 1938," reports Phelps, "I have dedicated my time to the S study of the birds of Venezuela and I have my own private museum in Caracas with a curator and several collectors. I am associated in this with my son, W. H. Phelps, Jr. Many of my arti- cles have been published in scientific journals and ninety birds new to science have been described from my collection. I am preparing works on the birds of Venezuela.
"My business career of forty years was only an interlude in my scientific interests.
"My children and I presented a building to the Sociedad Ven- ezolana de Ciencias Naturales for its home, and on the recent fiftieth anniversary of my arrival in Venezuela, I offered to pre- sent a library building completely equipped with books to the town of San Antonio, my first residence in Venezuela. Here I was married and my two eldest sons were born."
Phelps, the son of Dudley Farley Phelps, LL.B. '67, and Louise Lander Prince, was born June 14, 1875, at New York City. He prepared at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. He was at Harvard for four years at the Lawrence Scientific School, and received his S.B. cum laude in 1898 as of 1897. As an undergradu- ate he was a member of the Institute of 1770 and rowed No. 7 on the Freshman Crew and later on the Class Crew.
He was married to Alicia Elvira Tucker in San Antonio de Ma- turin, Venezuela. She died in June, 1929, at Caracas, Venezuela. He married Mona Holesco Halck, November 5, 1935, in New York City. His children are: John Prince, born May 23, 1900;
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William Henry, Jr., born December 24, 1902; Luisa Catherine (Mrs. Cot), born September 19, 1907; and Albert Tucker, born December 11, 1910. There are seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Phelps' brother, the late Dudley Farley Phelps, attended Har- vard College as a special student from 1892 to 1894, and the Har- vard Law School from 1894 to 1897.
During World War II, Phelps served as secretary of the North American Association of Venezuela. His grandson, William Wal- ter Phelps, was in the service.
Phelps is president of the Compañia Anónima Sindicato Phelps, Caracas; member of the Bankers Club of America, Explorers Club, American Geographical Society, all of New York, and an associate benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History of New York. He is a member of the American Ornithologists Union, Wilson Ornithological Club, Cooper Ornithological Club, Linnean Society of New York, Sociedad Venezolana de Ciencias Naturales, Caracas, Academia de Ciencias, Caracas, Academia de Ciancias, Bogotá, and Club Ornithológica La Plata, Buenos Aires.
He has recently been appointed by the trustees of the Ameri- can Museum of Natural History a member of the staff as research associate in birds. He has received from Nelson A. Rockefeller, late Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs, a war service certifi- cate for services rendered while serving as a member of the Co- ordinating Committee for Venezuela.
ALEXANDER PHILLIPS
R OGER is somewhat terrifying," declares Alexander Phillips.
"He asks for almost too much. What are our 'accomplish- ments; what are life's 'durable satisfactions?' Well, I have no ac- complishments to report. I have written no books, as perhaps I once intended to do, but I have widely enjoyed the books of others. I have designed no skyscrapers or palaces, though my de- gree from the Beaux Arts possibly pointed in that direction. Yet I have, intelligently, I hope, enjoyed those reared by more indus- trious men.
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"My 'durable satisfactions' are, I am sure, my memories of travel, fox hunting, and reading. Perhaps I experienced a scat- tered few of those high moments while dazzled by the fantastic gold and red pinnacles of the Grand Canyon; while galloping across the grass fields of Leicestershire; one misty dawn follow- ing the Great Wall as it crawled like a serpent up over the arid hills of China; my first glimpse of the Taj at Agra; from above a sea of clouds watching the sun rise over the Himalayas; on many June afternoons year after year seeing the setting sun glisten the façade of St. Mark's so that the shadows of the bronze horses began marching out toward the Lagoon.
"I think I can count many steadfast friends. Fortunately I have had no great sorrows. The older I have grown the less need I seem to feel for dogmatic religion. Perhaps I have walked too continuously on the sunny side of the street, but I have had a happy life - for what more can one ask? I hope it may go on for a few more years."
Phillips, the son of Henry Moses Phillips, Norwich University, and Julia Bowles Alexander, Vassar College, was born September 10, 1875, at Springfield, Massachusetts. He prepared at the Bel- mont School in Belmont, Massachusetts. He spent four years with our Class, receiving his A.B. in 1897. The following year he stud- ied in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, obtaining an A.M. in 1898. While an undergraduate, he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Monthly, a member of the Signet, O.K., Fencing, and Hasty Pudding Clubs, and Institute of 1770. In 1899 he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied at the École Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1900 to 1905, re- ceiving an A.D.G.F. in the latter year.
He practised architecture in New York City from 1905 to 1917. He was retired in 1919. From 1917 to 1919 he was an assistant in the Intelligence Service of the War Trade Board.
He is a member of the Beaux Arts Society of New York; Société des Architectes Diplomes par le Gouvernement Français of New York; Harvard Club of New York, University Club, New York; Loyal Legion; Essex Fox Hounds Club, Peapack, New Jersey; Colony Club, Springfield, Massachusetts; Reading Room, New-
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port, Rhode Island; and Everglades Club, Palm Beach, Florida. He is unmarried.
JAMES DUNCAN PHILLIPS
O N the death of Mr. Mifflin," writes Duncan Phillips, "I was elected vice-president as well as treasurer of Houghton Mif- flin Company. From that time on, for fifteen years, I had the full financial responsibility for the success of the company. The work was pretty strenuous, but the finances were soon straight- ened out, and the company became very successful. It was in ex- cellent shape to weather the Roosevelt panic of 1932 to 1937 - rather better able to weather it than I was myself, for I had a se- rious break in health in 1936 and recognized that I had to ease off.
"During the previous years, I had been able to take some ex- cellent vacations, however, and visited North Africa and the Near East as well as Spain, France, and Italy. In 1930, with my wife and a friend of hers, I went all the way from Capetown to Cairo. Most people think that there is a railroad all the way, but four fifths of the distance has got to be done in motors without any roads, or by water on the Nile.
"In 1936 I was invalided off for eight months and never took up the load seriously after that. I resigned as treasurer in 1940, and as vice-president the following year, but have continued to be a director of the company.
"Since 1930 I have given much attention to the affairs of the Governor Dummer Academy, the oldest boys' boarding school in the United States. I found Mr. Eames, who has proved such a successful headmaster. The Board of Trustees has been re-organ- ized with a group of successful men, and we have raised nearly half a million dollars, built two large buildings and several smaller ones, and been given space already developed for several new football fields. I am president of the Academy.
"Not being able to loaf successfully, I have amused myself by writing books. I wrote a history of Salem in the seventeenth cen- tury before I retired, and have followed that with another of Salem in the eighteenth century, and am just completing a vol-
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ume on Salem's great commercial era. I also wrote Richard Derby, Merchant of Salem; East India Voyages of Salem Vessels before 1800; Salem in the 90's; and Chestnut Street Forty Years Ago. I have also written a lot of magazine articles and made a number of historical addresses for New England towns and cities. I get a lot of fun out of this historical work, and do not hesitate to do what I can to bring out the historical truth of my period, most of which I find reflects seriously on the current glorification of Thomas Jefferson. The trouble with this writing business is that it keeps developing so many more things that you want to do which you will never have time to finish. In the course of writing, I have developed quite a historical library and have more books about Essex County, Massachusetts, than most people. This writ- ing business also develops a correspondence, for people keep writ- ing me from all over the country asking historical questions, and that keeps me pretty busy. My historical work has brought me elections to the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, and other organizations. Associations with the men in these organizations, as well as the fine boards of direc- tors with which I have been associated, has proved a very 'durable satisfaction,' but perhaps the most 'durable satisfaction' of my life has been that there has never been a moment when I was awake that I didn't have twenty things which I wanted to do, and which I didn't have time for. I am utterly unable to understand the word 'bored.' Life is brim full of interests.
"I built a beautiful library onto my house in 1930 in which to store my books, and it has been a great joy to me. It is needless to say that I am still living in Topsfield, still running my farm, and most of the men who came to work for me thirty years ago are still working for me and making life easier for Mrs. Phillips and myself."
Phillips, the son of Stephen Henry Phillips, '42, and Margaret Duncan, was born February 5, 1876, at San Francisco. He pre- pared at the Salem High School in Salem, Massachusetts.
"During my college career," he writes, "I was on the track team for four years and won a second and a third at the inter-collegiate games, and half a dozen Yale and Pennsylvania medals. I was
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graduated magna cum laude, with two honorable mentions in history and English. I was a member of the Class Day Commit- tee, the work on which probably prevented me from getting final honors in history."
Phillips attended the Law School during 1901-1902. After leaving college, he became an officer of the publishing house of Houghton Mifflin Company as manager of the Educational De- partment. He married Nannie Jenks Borden, March 20, 1907, at Headcorn, Kent, England. His brother, Stephen Willard Phillips, is a member of the Harvard Class of 1895.
"I was a member of the Salem City Council and chairman of its Committee on Finance," Phillips continues, "and a member and later chairman of the Topsfield School Committee. During the first World War, I was captain of the Machine Gun Company of the 15th Regiment of the Massachusetts State Guard, which was called into action during the Boston Police Strike. Mrs. Phillips ran the Topsfield Canning Club. I was also chairman of the Committee of Public Safety in Topsfield. For a number of years I was a trustee of the Orchard Home School and the General Theological Library. I am still a trustee of the Essex Institute, and a member of the New England Historical Genealogical Soci- ety, and the Newcomen Society of America. My clubs are the Union Club of Boston, Eastern Yacht Club, Harvard Clubs of Boston and New York, and the Club of Odd Volumes.
"During World War II, I was asked to be chairman of the Public Safety Committee, but I had to decline as I could not stand the strain. I kept up a steady correspondence with a dozen boys and sent food to prisoners of war. I also bought bonds at unfair rates."
HARRY EDWARD PICKERING
I HAVE spent the second twenty-five years since graduation in the same manner as the first," reports Pickering; "namely, in the manufacturing end of the textile industry. During the late war, the problems of production were many and complicated, but I can report that I have survived and am enjoying fairly good health.
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"I have travelled in the United States and Canada only, and my spare time has been devoted to my home and family."
Pickering, the son of James William Churchill and Julia Thomp- son (Dow) Pickering, was born November 18, 1874, at Man- chester, New Hampshire. He prepared for college at the Lowell High School, Lowell, Massachusetts, and at Phillips Academy, Andover. He was with our Class four years and received his A.B. in 1897.
He married Marie Vesta Lovering, March 20, 1901, at Lynn, Massachusetts.
JAMES RHODES PIERSON
Y ou will note that my activities are mostly commercial," writes Pierson, "and to me this is not irksome.
"I believe there is one omnipotent God, who, when man was created or evolved through His divine will, endowed him with an immortal soul, a free will, and a speculative and reasoning mind to discover the hidden mysteries of the universe and to rule over all, subject only to natural laws. Therefore, man should walk in the paths of God and keep His commandments.
"In the beginning God kindled within man His pure fire divine, and man, through his search for truth, has gradually been coming out of the night and is now entering an era when the drudgery of existence is lessening and when there will be more time for leisure and advancement in knowledge. I want to have the strength and wisdom to walk and to dwell amongst men.
"I believe that for a successful democracy all voters should meet a standard qualification and that there should also be a na- tional head tax. I want to see tax exempt the homes which thrifty citizens may acquire on one or more limited units of land whether in the city or country, and whether a hovel or a castle, or a nom- inal shelter tax levied on each unit of home land. I want to see low taxes, spending by people and not the government."
Pierson, the son of John Fred and Susan Augusta (Rhodes) Pierson, was born October 24, 1874, at New York City. He pre- pared at the Berkeley School in that city. He was with our Class
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for two years as a student in the Lawrence Scientific School. He married Nelle Elizabeth Gabathuler, June 29, 1929, at Daven- port, Iowa.
"I remember well my friendly acquaintance with Professor Shaler and a number of other professors," he writes, "and with I. L. Hill, who, living in Cambridge, tutored many boys. He and I became very friendly, and, liking mathematics, I did some tutor- ing myself in trigonometry before leaving college. I didn't return to college in the fall of '95 because I went west with William B. Wolf, who was business manager of the Crimson, and became interested in business in California."
Pierson has been engaged in mining, real estate financing, iron and steel businesses, manufacturing, and estate administration. He was president of Pierson Son, Incorporated, Ramapo Land Company, Incorporated, Pothat Water Company, and Harnden Court Company. He has been vice-president of the New York Stamping Company and New York City Marble Cemetery, and secretary of the Ramapo Foundry & Wheel Works, and New York Association for the Protection of Game. He is the author of arti- cles on economic subjects. His clubs are the Advertising Club of New York, Harvard Engineering Society, Harvard Club of New York, Metropolitan Club, New York Yacht Club, and The Strollers. He is a member of the Holland Lodge (F. & A. M.), Society of Colonial Wars, St. Nicholas Society of New York, Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and Colorado Mining Association.
+ SAMUEL HALE PILLSBURY
AMUEL HALE PILLSBURY died May 19, 1938, at Milton, Massa- S chusetts. The son of Samuel and Joan Hastings (Spaulding) Pillsbury, he was born December 29, 1873, at Foxcroft, Maine, and prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy. He was associated with the Class only during 1893-94, going immediately thereafter into the Law School, where he received an LL.B. in 1897. He was well known among us in spite of his short associa- tion with the Class, and will be remembered for the expression of his keen sense of humor in the Lampoon. He practised law in
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Boston with the firms of Tower, Talbot, Hiler & Pillsbury; Pills- bury, Dana & Young; and Burnham, Bingham, Pillsbury, Dana & Gould, successively. He was prominent in the affairs of his com- munity and during the first World War served in a legal capacity on the Draft Board.
He was survived by his wife, the former Helen Farrington Watters, whom he married on June 1, 1912, at Swampscott, Massa- chusetts, and their three children - Samuel Watters, born March 1, 1913; Sarah, born July 8, 1914; and Frederick Watters, born December 28, 1922.
+ LENDALL PITTS
L' ENDALL PITTS, well-known artist, was born on November 20, 1876, in Detroit, and died March 9, 1938, at Boston. The son of Thomas and Louise (Strong) Pitts, he attended St. Paul's School before coming to Harvard, where his talent was widely recognized through his drawings in the Lampoon. After gradua- tion he went to Paris, where some of his best work was in the field of color etching, a little-known and difficult art, in which he be- came an expert. For a time he led a sequestered life, and one of many hardships. During the entire period of the first World War he served with the Red Cross. Though he loved France, his work showed little French influence. Rather, it contained more of the frankness of the Dutch Hals and the strange romanticism of the Swiss Böcklein. His landscapes reveal his preference for moun- tains rather than plains, for his eyes, like his clear mind, turned towards the heights. In his death, the world lost an original and distinguished artist who had won international recognition.
He was survived by his wife, the former Elizabeth Stevens Mc- Cord, also a well-known artist.
+ HARRY CLARKE PLUM
H ARRY CLARKE PLUM was born August 25, 1871, at Poughkeep- sie, New York, the son of William Henry and Rachel Sallas (Enoch) Plum. He attended St. Stephen's College, Annandale,
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New York, before coming to Harvard. He took his A.B. cum laude with our Class. He was assistant principal of the Poughkeepsie High School and principal of the Cherry Valley, New York, High School before being ordained to the diaconate in 1911. He then became rector of Trinity Church, Granville, where in 1902 he was advanced to the priesthood. The following year he went to Christ Church, Kingham, Kansas, as rector and later became rector of St. Peter's Church, Minneapolis, Kansas. In 1909 he re- turned to the Diocese of Albany and became rector of St. Luke's Church, Mechanicsville, New York. In 1912 he accepted a call to St. Faith's School, Saratoga Springs, as rector and principal. Under his leadership the school achieved high scholastic rank, being a certified school of the Board of Regents of the State of New York and becoming in 1918 an authorized school of the Episcopal Synod of the Province of New York and New Jersey. His work, always directed towards high ends, brought him great esteem.
Plum died on August 10, 1922, at Hull's Cove, Maine. He was survived by his wife, the former Edith Greeley, whom he married at Brewster, New York, on June 15, 1897, and four daughters - Margaret Heartfield, born August 31, 1898; Dorothy Alice, born June 16, 1900; Eleanor Mary, born July 30, 1902; and Elizabeth Laning, born October 27, 1904.
+ WILLARD NORMAN POLAND
W ILLARD NORMAN POLAND was born June 5, 1873, at Boston, the son of John Carroll and Henrietta Huldah (Holmes) Poland. He prepared for college at the Boston Latin School. He took an A.B. with the Class in 1897 and then entered the Law School. After being admitted to the Bar, he established a law practice, specializing in corporation and patent law. He made his home in West Roxbury, where he died on October 31, 1915. He was survived by his wife, the former Susan Fordham Hart, whom he married at Boston on October 18, 1906, and their son, Willard Norman, Jr., born October 2, 1909.
Throughout his life Poland displayed integrity, kindness, and a
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highly developed sense of justice. He was much interested in civic affairs and held several important positions in the West Roxbury Citizens' Association. He was also a member of the Republican Ward and City Committee from Ward 23, Boston, and served as its treasurer for one year.
HERBERT POPE
P OPE, the son of John Lang and Frances Emily ( Whipple ) Pope, was born December 16, 1870, at Cleveland, Ohio. He prepared at the Cleveland High School. He was with our Class two years as a special student and entered the Law School in 1895, from which he received his LL.B. degree three years later. He practised law in Cleveland for two years and then in Chicago as a partner in the firm of Pope & Ballard.
He married Maud Isabel Perry, December 5, 1900, at Cleve- land. She died January 12, 1912, at Evanston, Illinois. His mar- riage to Anna Mitchell Smith took place April 4, 1916. His children are: Isabel, born October 19, 1901; and Lydia (Mrs. Turtle ), born September 12, 1905. There are three grandchildren.
Pope is the author of articles written for the Harvard Law Review and Illinois Law Review. He is a member of the Chicago University Club, Attic Club, Indian Hill Golf Club, and Biltmore Forest Country Club. His brother, Arthur Pope, '01, is professor of fine arts at Harvard and director of the Fogg Museum.
MILLER BENNETT PORTER
I HAVE always been in the real estate business," writes Miller Porter. "Until 1925 I lived in Denver, Colorado, where I was in business with my father under the firm name of W. W. and M. B. Porter Investment Company.
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