USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 45
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"My father died, and in 1925 I moved to Los Angeles and opened my office under the name of Miller B. Porter, where I am still doing business."
Porter, the son of William Woods and Lucy Bell ( Miller) Porter, was born March 11, 1874, at Moberly, Missouri. He pre-
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pared at Holbrook's School in Sing Sing, New York. He was in college only a year as a special student in the Lawrence Scientific School. He married Bertha Day Bonsall, June 18, 1902, at Den- ver, Colorado. She died December 10, 1943, at Los Angeles. Their son, William Woods, 2d, '25, was born January 21, 1904. There is one grandchild.
In both World Wars Porter engaged in selling bonds and in local activities.
ROBERT BRASTOW PORTER
T THE general practice of medicine has absorbed my time and energies," writes Robert Porter. "The compensations are many and varied; the interests exceptional. On the whole, I am most pleased with my life as a general practitioner of medicine."
Porter, the son of Charles Hunt and Hannah Almeda ( French) Porter, was born October 17, 1876, at Quincy, Massachusetts. He was graduated with our Class in 1897, and from the Medical School in 1902. He has two Harvard brothers: Henry Whitcomb Porter, '96, and the late Charles Hunt Porter, Jr., '92.
He married Kate Leland Lincoln, June 1, 1905, at Quincy. During World War I, he served as an examiner, and in World War II was chief examiner for Board No. 116.
He was a school physician, served on the Board of Health, was local medical head of the Red Cross and Civilian Defense corps.
JOSEPH POTTS
OTTS did not return a questionnaire. He was with the Class P for four years, taking an A.B. in 1897, then entered the Law School, graduating with an LL.B. in 1900. He entered practice with the firm of Parsons, Shepard & Ogden, and in 1909 he began practising independently. During World War I, he was a gov- ernment appeal agent attached to Draft Board No. 136 and was chairman of Legal Advisory Board No. 114, New York City. At the time of our Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report he was a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court and be-
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longed to various legal organizations. Fifteen years later he still maintained a New York office but had more or less withdrawn from active practice.
He was born at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, on September 15, 1873. The son of Marcus Alonzo and Mary Swazey ( Richardson ) Potts, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy.
+ EDWIN BARTLETT PRATT
E' DWIN BARTLETT PRATT was born September 14, 1874, at Quincy, Massachusetts, the son of Edwin Bartlett and Abbie (Tynes) Pratt. He prepared for college at Adams Academy and under a private tutor. After he was graduated with our Class he travelled extensively, spending much time in Europe and making one trip around the world. On September 5, 1908, at Marshfield, Massachusetts, he married Fay Maynard Hitchcock. They had two children: Elizabeth, born October 18, 1912, and Matthew, born August 6, 1914.
For several years before his death Pratt was in poor health and lived quietly on his farm near Marshfield, where he died on October 10, 1919.
CARL FRANK PRESCOTT
A FTER graduation," reports Prescott, "I served in various capac- ities with the Burlington Railroad until 1905. From then until 1913, I was with the Red River Timber Company in St. Louis as secretary-treasurer. After 1913, when the Timber Com- pany surrendered its charter, I went through a short period of loafing and then took a trip to Europe. I was there when World War I broke out.
"In 1915 I entered the office of Halsey Stuart & Company in St. Louis. In August, 1917, I went to Officers Training School at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, was commissioned the following Novem- ber, and in January went to France. After further training there I served at the front for several months with the 60th Coast Ar- tillery in the Vosges Sector, the St. Mihiel drive, and through the
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Argonne. I was not wounded and was discharged in February, 1919.
"In 1926 I returned to my boyhood home in Salina, Kansas, where I have since been engaged in wheat growing.
"Little of interest to members of the Class has happened to me since our last Class Report. I have been busy with farming and local activities. My health has been good. I have never married and until her death in February, 1946, I lived with my sister. That event completely altered my outlook and plans for the future, which are now very uncertain."
Prescott was born January 30, 1874, at Salina, the son of John Henry and Mary Emily (Lee) Prescott. He prepared at St. John's Military School in Salina. He was with our Class four years and received his A.B. at our graduation. He has two Har- vard brothers: the late Henry Lee Prescott, and Frederick Clark Prescott, both members of the Class of 1894.
During World War II, Prescott served on several local com- mittees in support of the war effort. He is chairman of the Agri- cultural Committee of the Salina Chamber of Commerce and member and president of the Board of the Salina Public Library.
HERBERT BANCROFT PRIEST
H ERBERT BANCROFT PRIEST, the son of Joseph Andrew and Mary Jones (Bigelow ) Priest, was born February 6, 1875, at Little- ton, Massachusetts. He died at his home in Ayer, Massachusetts, March 15, 1943. He prepared for college at the Boston Latin School. After graduating cum laude with our Class, he entered the Medical School, where he received an M.D. in 1901.
After ten years of practice in Groton, Massachusetts, he re- moved his practice to Ayer. In June, 1917, he volunteered as a lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps. The following Novem- ber he was promoted captain and served in the Philippines and later in Siberia as surgeon with the 27th Infantry. He was dis- charged in April, 1919, with the rank of major. He remained in the Medical Reserve Corps as an acting lieutenant colonel and was on call at Fort Devens.
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Priest resumed his practice at Ayer. He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Worcester North District Soci- ety, Massachusetts Medical Legal Society, and served on the staff of the Community Memorial Hospital in Ayer. He was interested in the Unitarian Society, Boy Scouts, civic affairs, and philately. He married Edith Houghton, September 6, 1911, at Littleton. Their son, Houghton Bancroft, was born March 8, 1913. Mrs. Priest, their son, and two grandchildren survived him.
Priest could have had no name more felicitous than his own to express his nature and his chosen profession as he conceived it. In the most valid sense he was a lay priest of medicine. His voca- tion of doctor was for him a "calling" to minister to the sufferings of his fellow-beings with all the skill and conscience of his un- selfish devotion. Modest and unassuming, he was intrinsically Yankee in his reticence and brevity of speech. Unitarian, devoid of all ritualism, he was devoutly dedicated to his humane tasks. In long-ago college days, I recall his calmly-peering, investigating smile of friendliness, which recently I was happy to encounter again in his wisely cogent advice as my doctor at Littleton, near Ayer. Threatened for years by a severe heart malady, he men- tioned it only once to a close friend, saying that he was always ready to die. Of him, we, his classmates, may as truly say, in Hamlet's words to Horatio, that "the readiness is all," and dying another name for being ready to live immortally.
P. M.
+ GEORGE SELBY PROUTY
G EORGE SELBY PROUTY, in our 25th Anniversary Report, tells briefly of his birth at Spencer, Massachusetts, on November 22, 1874, his schooling at Phillips Exeter Academy, his graduation from Harvard in 1897, and of his vocation as a shoe manufacturer during the subsequent twenty-five years. The business was a noteworthy family enterprise, which had passed its one hundredth birthday, and he wrote with interest and pride of the amazing changes which had occurred in the methods of manufacture, in- cidental to the substitution of machinery for hand work. At that
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time he was still unmarried, but we learn that when he died in Watertown, Massachusetts, on March 23, 1945, he had survived by two months his wife, who left him with two children, George Selby, Jr., and Olivia. Details of his marriage and subsequent events have never reached our Secretary. His brother writes that his latter years were spent quietly with his family. He was the son of Charles Newton and Jenny A. (Richardson) Prouty.
Many of us remember George Prouty as a modest, reserved man, who seemed to have a real but undemonstrative interest in our reunions, in Yale football games, and Commencement festivi- ties. It may be surmised that he was one of a small circle of inti- mates who will miss his quiet, friendly presence.
D. C.
+ PAUL HECTOR PROVANDIE
P AUL HECTOR PROVANDIE, former Mayor of Melrose, Massachu- setts, died on April 7, 1931, in that city. The son of Charles Alexander and Mary Emma (Caron) Provandie, he was born in Boston on February 25, 1875, and came to Harvard from the Melrose High School. He was in college during 1893-94 and then entered the Medical School, where he received an M.D. cum laude in 1898. He was then appointed assistant instructor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard and subsequently assistant instructor in hygiene in the Lawrence Scientific School. He studied chemistry and sanitary engineering, in addition to teach- ing and began practising in Melrose, where he became the leading physician and surgeon. He was for several years chairman of the Board of Health and was elected to the School Committee. At the time of the 25th Report he had been a state medical examiner for eighteen years and was a member of the Melrose Hospital Staff. In 1923 he became mayor of the city and served two years. Except for these two years, he was a member of the School Com- mittee from 1914 until his death.
During the first World War he trained at Plattsburg, New York, and was commissioned a lieutenant. He then went to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he was promoted captain and where
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he gave instruction in first aid. Joining the Harvard Medical School Unit, he went overseas before the United States entered the war and was assigned to a British Base Hospital in France. He received a commission as captain in the British Army.
When Provandie died, the Melrose schools closed in his honor and flags were flown at half-mast. He had achieved a position of prominence through hard work, devotion to both his civic and professional duties, and his infinite capacity for making friends.
On July 22, 1912, at Collingwood, Ontario, he married Mar- garet F. Bell, who, with a daughter, Margaret, born July 19, 1917, survived him.
WILLIAM HIRAM RADCLIFFE
C APITALIZING on several years of electrical engineering work in the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York, where I put into practice the rudiments I learned in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University," writes Radcliffe, "I came to New York City and established a course in electrical engi- neering in the United Correspondence Schools that later devel- oped into the Consolidated Schools, of which I became general manager. This led to editorial work on several prominent electri- cal and engineering journals, and later to the position of technical writer for the Sprague Electric Company, all in New York City. During this time, I wrote several engineering books, among them a three-volume set on Practical Electricity, published over my name by the McGraw-Hill Book Company. I then settled down to a permanent connection with the Trades Publishing Company, which now covers a period of thirty-three years and of which I have been president for the last eighteen years.
"Since my wife passed away after a very happy married union of over thirty years, I have been living a bachelor's life, which also has been as satisfactory and enjoyable as I could expect under the circumstances. Largely contributing to this have been the two fine children she left me, a boy and a girl. The former is now a successful certified public accountant with numerous business accounts and holds the position of head of Standard Sound Sys-
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tems. The girl occupies an important position in the Department of Christian Education of the Presbytery of Brooklyn-Nassau. Together we occupy a large comfortable house surrounded by spacious grounds which I own in Brooklyn.
"Aside from devoting considerable time to my business inter- ests in the publishing field as president of the Trades Publishing Company and occasionally contributing serial articles on technical and semi-technical subjects to other periodicals, I have published on my own account by way of diversion, two unique publications in their respective fields, the 'Sight-Seeing Map of the Hudson River,' and 'Key to the Gospels.'"
Radcliffe, the son of Philip Filmore and Helen Catherine (Ham) Radcliffe, was born November 30, 1873, at Kingston, New York. He prepared for college at the Riverview Military Academy in Poughkeepsie, New York. He married Alma Deta Teal, April 26, 1899, at New York City. She died May 27, 1930, at Brooklyn. Their children are: Phyllis Sherman, born June 16, 1900; and William Hiram, Jr., born July 3, 1901.
HERBERT WILBUR RAND
I WAS never 'officially' a member of the Class of '97," writes Rand. "I was grafted into it in my graduate-student days. I did not, at the time, know any member of the Class. I was never enrolled in Harvard College. As I recall it, my Harvard A.B. was conferred automatically when I satisfied requirements for an A.M. in 1898.
"As a teacher and investigator in biology, I have devoted my life to the study of life.' In contrast to the tremendously dramatic story of 'life' as it has developed on earth during the past half- billion years, beginning with microscopic particles of living sub- stance and culminating in such mighty creatures as dinosaurs, elephants, whales, mice, men, and Harvard professors, the story of my own life sinks into utter nothingness.
"Some cave man, or more likely some earlier pre-human ape man, used his prehensile hand to grasp a stick and poke some- thing. In so doing, he invented a tool, and thereby initiated all
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that human civilization now is and contains. I have done nothing so important as poking something with a stick. I have merely talked about what the ape man and his predecessors did."
Rand, the son of Henry Howard and Ella Augusta ( Davis) Rand, was born July 2, 1872, at Oil City, Pennsylvania. He pre- pared at the Oil City High School. In 1892 he received an A.B. at Allegheny College and a C.E. the following year. Harvard granted him a Ph.D. in 1900. He married Claire Forbes Ham- mond, December 27, 1900, at Detroit. She has since died. He married Marion Josephine MacCallum, July 2, 1928, at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His children: Henry Forbes, born June 13, 1902 (died in August, 1943); and Dorothy Garrison, born February 7, 1904. There are six grandchildren. Henry Forbes Rand, a radio officer in the United States Naval Reserve, was killed in an airplane crash at Norfolk, Virginia.
From 1897 to 1900, Rand was a graduate student and a teach- ing assistant in zoology at Harvard. In the latter year he became a member of the staff of the Department of Biology, where he re- mained until 1938, when he became an associate professor of zoology emeritus. In 1929 he was a Harvard exchange professor to Grinnell, Beloit, and Colorado Colleges.
He is the author of a number of papers on experimental mor- phology, regeneration, and skin transplantation, which have ap- peared in various biological journals. In 1936, with H. V. Neal, he wrote Comparative Anatomy, published by the Blakiston Company of Philadelphia. H. V. Neal and Rand were co-authors of Chordate Anatomy in 1939, which was published by the Blakiston Company. Rand was associate editor of the Journal of Morphology from 1938 to 1944. He was an incorporator and trustee of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research and served as its treasurer from 1926 to 1937.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Society of Zoölogists, American Society of Naturalists, and American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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RALPH RANLET
R ANLET, the son of Charles William and Frances ( Branscombe ) Ranlet, was born October 8, 1873, at Holyoke, Massachu- setts. He prepared at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hamp- shire. After four years with our Class, he received his A.B. in 1897. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Institute of 1770.
He married Constance Blades (Mrs. Henry Beresford) in Sep- tember, 1932, at New York City. He has been a stock broker since 1904, and a member of the New York Stock Exchange for twenty-six years. He belongs to the Links Club in New York City.
+ EDWARD LAMBERT RANTOUL
E' DWARD LAMBERT RANTOUL died at Beverly Farms, Massachu- setts, September 1, 1944. He was born at Salem, Massachu- setts, February 7, 1875, the son of Robert Samuel Rantoul, '53, and Harriet Charlotte Neal. He prepared for college at Hopkin- son's School in Boston, and received his A.B. in 1897.
Athletic by nature, Rantoul was a member of our president Bob Stevenson's champion football team while at "Hoppies," and, in our senior year, was captain of our class eleven. He rowed bow oar on our senior crew and was the winner of the Class championship.
After graduation he became associated with C. H. W. Foster, a prominent Boston trustee, and remained with him until 1905, when he resigned to join the banking firm of William A. Read & Company (now Dillon, Read & Company ). In 1907 he joined the firm of William A. Russell & Company, investment bankers in Boston, was taken into partnership in 1919, and remained with that company until his death. During the war he served as execu- tive secretary of the Trades Committee of the Liberty Loan Committee of New England.
Rantoul married Lois Burnett, a sister of our late classmate, Joseph Burnett, Jr., on June 2, 1904, at Cambridge. Their children are: Mabel Lowell (Mrs. Richard L. Bowditch), born March 23,
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1905; and Harriet Charlotte (Mrs. Sherman Baldwin), born August 31, 1906. Mrs. Rantoul, their daughters, and five grand- children survived him.
He was a member of the Essex County Club, and of the Somer- set and Tennis & Racquet Clubs of Boston.
Eddie Rantoul was a boy of singular charm and of natural simplicity and modesty - attributes which remained characteris- tic of him throughout his life. His invariable cheerfulness was an inspiration to all his friends, of whom there were many who were lifelong, and his delightful smile of greeting made the day a hap- pier one for each and all of them.
A fellow classmate wrote of him:
"He had a splendid, upright character, and I never heard him say a harsh or unpleasant word about anybody. He was a kindly, very capable New Englander of the best type, who always played the game straight and made no errors."
So passed from our midst a much-beloved classmate and a staunch and loyal friend. Our circle narrows as the shadows slant, but Eddie Rantoul will live on in our happiest memories, bright and undimmed through the years.
H. T. N.
+ CHARLES THRESHER RAWSON
C HARLES THRESHER RAWSON was born January 27, 1875, at Bos- ton, and attended the Boston Latin School. At Harvard he completed the work for an A.B. in three years, graduating cum laude, and then studied in the Law School. He established a law practice in Boston and was active in the Republican Club of Massachusetts, serving as warden of caucus and of election. He did not marry. His death occurred on July 1, 1907, at Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the son of Alanson Mellen and Julia Anna (Thorpe) Rawson.
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HERBERT FREDERICK RAYNOLDS
R AYNOLDS writes that since 1897 he has been a lawyer and a judge. He says that he has nothing further to add to his account in our Fortieth Anniversary Report.
He was born November 28, 1874, at Central City, Colorado. His parents were Joshua Saxton and Sarah Ann (Robbins ) Ray- nolds. He was prepared for college at a private school. After four years with our Class, he received an A.B. in 1897, and in 1901 was awarded an LL.B. at Columbia. He is unmarried.
* LANDON CABELL READ
L ANDON CABELL READ was born September 27, 1875, at Augusta, Georgia, the son of William Melvin and Jane Ladson ( Alston ) Read. He was in college as a special student during 1893-94 and re-entered for two years in 1895. After leaving Harvard, he en- gaged in the cotton and oil business in Houston, Texas, and was associated with many companies in that region. Later he was in the cotton machinery business and was interested in the cotton industry in the United States and in Europe. After moving to California in 1903, he developed a process for cracking oil, espe- cially the heavier oils, and a plant for the testing of his process was about to be built in the East when he died in New York City, on May 5, 1919. He was survived by his wife and a son, Landon Cabell, Jr., born August 23, 1906.
WARREN WALES READ
I WAS for thirty-six years chairman of the English Department of the Flushing High School of New York City," writes Warren Read. "On the side, I served during most of that time as assistant examiner for the Board of Examiners of New York City and was active for many years in professional organizations in that system. I retired in 1945.
"Outside of the school system, I was active in civic organiza- tions, chiefly in the Flushing United Association and the Red
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Cross. I organized and was for five years chairman of the North Shore Chapter of the American Red Cross, which covers the north shore of Long Island from the United Nations headquarters to the city line. As my wife was a vice-president of the League of Nations Association, I aided in the futile struggle of that group to prevent World War II.
"I am most proud of the part I have had in shaping the lives and thought of thousands of young people during the forty-six years of my teaching and of the affectionate responses from them.
"The 'durable satisfactions' come from a happy and reasonably successful life, the successes of one's children, and the prospects for their continuing usefulness."
Read, the son of Ephraim A. Read, St. Lawrence University, '70, and Edna Jane Weaver, was born August 30, 1875, at Alstead, New Hampshire. He prepared for college at the Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield, Maine. Before coming to Harvard, he had received an A.B. degree at St. Lawrence University in 1896 and an A.M. in 1899. He was granted an A.B. with our Class with honorable mention in English literature, and studied during 1896- 1897 at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
He married Frances Clara Nearing, December 24, 1903, at Middletown, New York. She died December 10, 1937, at Flush- ing, New York. Their children are: Donald Nearing, born Sep- tember 14, 1908; and Kenneth Weaver, born May 23, 1910. There are two granddaughters.
Read is the author of a number of comparative essays.
+ WILLIAM READ
W ILLIAM READ died March 27, 1942, at Wayland, Massachu- setts. He was born November 14, 1873, at Cambridge, the son of John Read, '62, and Elizabeth Welch, and attended the Browne and Nichols School. After leaving Harvard, he was asso- ciated with R. L. Day & Company and the New England Tele- phone and Telegraph Company, both in Boston. In 1902 he joined the Roller Bearing Company of Boston, which he repre- sented for two years in Chicago. In 1906 he returned to the home
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office in South Framingham and became purchasing agent and assistant treasurer. When the company was dissolved in 1908, he opened an insurance brokerage office in Boston. He retired from active business in 1940 and became associated with the insurance firm of Meade & Gale, Boston.
He was survived by his wife, the former Adelaide Sumner Wood, whom he married at St. Louis on November 7, 1906, their two children - Elise Welch, born February 6, 1909, and William, Jr., born March 7, 1911 - and two grandchildren, Kenneth Read DeWolf and Marion Brooks Huggins.
ALFRED ZANTZINGER REED
T HE Secretary encourages us to air our views in as entertaining a manner as possible," states Alfred Reed. "Anyone who wants to see what I can (or could) do in that vein is respectfully referred to my contribution in the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Re- port. I was, and am, inordinately proud of that literary effort, and I still stand by everything I said or implied there, but advancing years have brought discretion. The garb in which a septuage- narian clothes himself and his thoughts ought to be more sober than the style appropriate to a mere child of forty-seven. A harlequin does not feel at ease when in the company of stuffed shirts.
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