USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : fiftieth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 58
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Weld, the son of Francis Minot Weld, '60, and Fanny Elizabeth Bartholomew, was born February 18, 1875, at New York City. He prepared for college at the Roxbury Latin School in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and received his A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard after four years with our Class. The following year he obtained an A.M. degree.
He married Margaret Low White, November 7, 1903, at Brook- lyn, New York. His second wife is Julia Tiffany Parker, whom he married August 17, 1930. His children are: Marjory Low, born December 4, 1904; Alfred White, born January 23, 1908; Francis Minot, Jr., born December 16, 1909; and David, born January 10, 1911. There are nine grandchildren, six boys and three girls. Weld's three sons attended Harvard: Alfred, '30, Francis, Jr., '32, and David, '34. His brother, the late Christopher Minot Weld, was also a member of '97. Two of his sons, Alfred and David, served in World War II.
During the first World War, Weld attended Officers' Training Camp in 1917, was commissioned captain of Infantry and assigned to the 77th Division. He served at Camp Upton and in France, was promoted to major, 308th Infantry, in October, 1918, and was discharged in March, 1919. He received the Silver Star and Purple Heart. In World War II, he served as a lieutenant colonel and later colonel in the New York City Patrol Corps from 1942 to 1944, principally as commander of the Manhattan Division, com- prising ten companies. He writes that the Corps cooperated with
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the New York police. It was organized along military lines, with five divisions (or regiments ) covering the five boroughs.
Weld is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. From 1936 to 1938 he was president of the Harvard Club of New York, of which he is now a member. He belongs to the Harvard Club of Boston, the Century, Brook, Union, University, Racquet, and Down Town Clubs. He is a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York and of the French Institute.
+ HENRY WAKEFIELD WELLINGTON
H ENRY WAKEFIELD WELLINGTON entered Harvard with the Class but left during his second year because of ill health. After spending two winters in California, he entered the employ of the Silver Lake Company of Boston, of which he was later treasurer. He also helped to establish the Wellington-Pierce Company. On June 2, 1902, at New York City, he married Mrs. Ethel Compton. He died July 29, 1915, at New York City, survived by his wife.
Wellington's parents were Henry Wakefield and Lydia Daven- port (Colburn) Wellington. He was born November 11, 1875, at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and attended Cutler's School in Newton before entering Harvard.
+ EDGAR HUIDEKOPER WELLS
E' DGAR HUIDEKOPER WELLS was one of the most loyal Harvard sons in '97. From the time when he first came to college from Hopkinson's School in Boston until his death at Katonah, New York, on July 1, 1938, the greater part of his services went to the university. As an undergraduate, he concentrated in his studies on English literature and history. He received a detur in his freshman year and a John Harvard Scholarship in his senior year. He received honorable mention in English and history, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, was awarded a dissertation at Com- mencement, and was graduated magna cum laude. Poor health kept him from the greater athletic activity on which his competi- tive spirit would have thrived, but he was a member of the varsity cricket team.
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His health forced him to leave the Law School after two years of study there and necessitated two years of unwelcome idleness. He then returned to Cambridge as an instructor in English. Sub- sequent appointments made him curator of modern English litera- ture in the College Library, assistant dean and later acting dean of Harvard College, secretary for appointments, editor of the Quinquennial Catalogue, acting regent and acting secretary of the Faculty, secretary of the Harvard Alumni Association, and editor of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin. When he resigned shortly after the resignation of President Eliot in 1909, he re- ceived a gold loving cup from the alumni in gratitude for his services.
For a time Wells was a member of the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation and was also associated with the American Red Cross. When the United States went into the war, he went to England as deputy commissioner of the Red Cross and was then commissioned a captain in the Quartermaster Reserve Corps and assigned to the American Embassy as assistant to the military attaché. He received the British Military Cross. After returning to the United States, he became vice-chairman of the Harvard Endowment Fund, executive secretary of the Harvard Club of New York, and secretary of the English Speaking Union. He went into business as owner of a store specializing in rare books, first editions, prints, engravings, and rarities related to the humanities, and remained in this work until the illness which caused his death.
It was his belief that the University was the greatest single in- fluence for good on the American scene, and to this belief he devoted the forcefulness of his dynamic character. In his personal contacts with the students and their parents and with alumni, he sought successfully the maintenance of the University's high standards and the advancement of its interests. His interest in literature resulted in many valuable accessions to the college library. He travelled throughout the country, giving talks which helped to lay the foundation for the formation of the Associated Harvard Clubs. His death was a great loss not only to his devoted friends, but to the entire Harvard community.
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Wells was the son of Frank and Gertrude ( Huidekoper ) Wells, and was born June 27, 1875, at Cleveland. He was unmarried.
* JULIAN PALMER WELSH
J ULIAN PALMER WELSH died February 5, 1910, at Devon, Penn- sylvania. The son of Osgood and Julia Shirley (Turner ) Welsh, he was born March 29, 1874, at Philadelphia. At the age of twelve he developed tuberculosis of the hip and ankle joints, which gave him much suffering throughout the rest of his life and from which he died. He struggled to overcome his infirmity as much as was possible. As a boy, he acquired a great fondness for yachting. He attended St. Mark's Boarding School on Staten Island and the Cutler School in New York before coming to Har- vard. While in college he showed a particular interest in English composition and literature, and contributed to the Monthly, Ad- vocate, and Lampoon. He was a member of the Signet, O.K., Hasty Pudding, and Delta Phi Clubs and the Institute of 1770. After leaving college, he made his home in or near New York except for part of 1903, when he taught in Washington, and in 1904-05, when he was abroad. When his health permitted, he turned to his beloved writing. He was an interested and active member of the Harvard Club of New York.
Though he suffered intensely, Welsh maintained a cheerful disposition. His sense of humor and good-naturedness were never obscured by his pain, and the perseverance which won him his A.B. from Harvard in 1909 was characteristic of him. These qualities, combined with his varied interests and fund of informa- tion, made his companionship a thing of value to his many friends.
STUART WESSON
F OR about seven years after 1922," reports Wesson, "I was resi- dent auditor in several large hotels and clubs in the metropoli- tan district of New York City.
"After the 1929 crash, I spent months in the hospital, but not from the crash, although that flattened most of us. From then
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until the present time, I have been associated with General Motors Corporation at 1775 Broadway, New York City. At this writing I am transfer agent for General Motors and North American Avia- tion, Incorporated, in the Stock Transfer Department.
"All in all my story is a rather drab one and devoid of accom- plishment, but I have seen a lot, and as we approach our Fiftieth Anniversary, I mark with trepidation the course our government is taking."
Wesson, the son of James Edwin and Anna Eudora (Stone- berger) Wesson, was born April 23, 1876, at Lawrence, Massa- chusetts. He prepared at Worcester Academy in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was in college during our freshman year only. On September 22, 1917, he married Elsie Viola Archer at Port Chester, New York.
+ STUART PULLMAN WEST
TUART PULLMAN WEST was born September 18, 1876, at Provi-
S dence, Rhode Island. The son of George and Helen Augusta (Pullman) West, he attended the Mohegan Lake School, Peek- skill, New York, and was at Harvard for four years, receiving an A.B. in 1897. His career was devoted to financial journalism, be- ginning on New York newspapers. Later he wrote a column which was syndicated by the Consolidated Press and appeared in papers throughout the country. He was also associated with Merrill, Lynch & Company, New York brokers. On January 3, 1902, at New York City, he married Eliza von Bretton Zerega, who died in 1925. Their two children died in infancy. He married Mrs. Loren Oldham Cranshaw shortly before his death which occurred on February 18, 1927, at New York.
GEORGE BENSON WESTON
T HE teaching career at Harvard and Radcliffe, which I sketched for our Twenty-fifth Report, continued happily until my re- tirement in 1941," writes George Weston. "At that time I had for ten years been associate professor of Romance languages.
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During that final decade, my work had been wholly in the field of Italian literature, except that in Radcliffe I gave, along with my Italian courses, a course in French as well, thus maintaining unbroken for thirty-eight years the teaching of a subject very dear to me. It was at Radcliffe also that I had the pleasure of giving for thirteen years a course in general literature known as Comparative Literature 1, a course given at Harvard by Professor Barrett Wendell, and which I gave at Radcliffe for a number of years after it had lapsed at Harvard when Professor Wendell retired.
"In dealing with the great figures of Italian and French litera- ture - Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Corneille, Racine, and Molière, to name only a few - my aim was chiefly to make my students understand why these men were great, and to make them share, if possible, my own enthusiasm for them. What suc- cess I had in this endeavor I look upon as my greatest reward.
"I took no 'sabbatical' leaves during my long career. I taught in twenty-four sessions of the Harvard Summer School, and cor- rected College Entrance Examination Board papers for eighteen seasons.
"During various summers spent in Europe between 1923 and 1931 (in the latter year I was the delegate from Harvard at the meeting in Geneva of the International Linguistic Society), I col- lected material for the publications mentioned below, and if life lasts and conditions warrant, I hope to do some further research in Italian libraries with a view to further publications.
"I have continued my lifelong habit of collecting books and manuscripts in the areas of general literature, history, and the fine arts, especially music. In this last-named field I have special- ized in the instrumental works of lesser-known, eighteenth-cen- tury composers, and have had the satisfaction of hearing a number of their works performed by eminent musicians.
"Like most collectors in their latter years, I have often asked myself what will happen to my library. The answer came not long ago when bereavement struck me, and I am turning over all the best of my books, manuscripts, and music to the Houghton Library at Harvard as a memorial to my dear wife."
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Weston, the son of John Ward and Anne Isabel (Morse) Weston, was born October 29, 1874, at Salem, Massachusetts. He prepared at Phillips Exeter Academy, and attended Franklin College in Dresden, Germany, before coming to Harvard. He was with our Class three years and received his A.B. at our gradu- ation. He took his A.M. the following year. He writes that in his year of graduate study he gave the impulse to the founding of the Harvard Musical Club, which, after forty-nine years, is still in existence and affiliated with the Radcliffe Musical Club.
He married Meriel Dimick, December 21, 1912, at Cambridge. She died in Cambridge, August 29, 1945. Their children are: Charles Dimick, born May 20, 1914; and Mary Dean (Mrs. Brinkerhoff ), born April 9, 1923. There are two granddaughters, Nancy, aged six, and Joan, aged three, the children of Charles Weston, who received an A.B. at Harvard in 1936.
During World War II, Mrs. Weston drove for the Red Cross.
In 1930 Weston published in the Scrittori d'Italia (a series of Italian classical authors published by Laterza in Bari, Italy) a two-volume critical edition of Il Morgante, by the fifteenth-cen- tury Florentine poet, Luigi Pulci. He has prepared critical edi- tions of other Italian poets for the same series, publication of which was interrupted by the war.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Phi Beta Kappa, and has been secretary-treasurer of the Dante Society of Cambridge since 1917. He also belongs to the Harvard Musical Association and Faculty Club of Harvard Uni- versity.
STAFFORD BROWN WETHERBEE
TN 1925," reports Wetherbee, "I was taken sick and was confined to my home for nearly three years. Late in 1928 I became a salesman for General Electric refrigeration. Four years later I joined the sales force of the Staples Coal Company, selling auto- matic heat with motor stokers. I remained with this company until 1935, when I retired permanently.
"In 1933 I made a trip to California via the Panama Canal on
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the Grace Line Steamship Santa Rosa, and visited Havana and Cartagena in Columbia and Colon in the Canal Zone. After pass- ing through the Canal, we stopped at Panama City for seven hours, then at San Salvador and Guatemala, but we did not go ashore, as it was too rough. At Mazatlan, Mexico, we took on a lot of bar silver going to the mint in San Francisco to be made into Mexican coins. We stayed overnight at Los Angeles and then proceeded to San Francisco, where we spent eight days, seeing the city from top to bottom, not missing anything of interest.
"At the end of our stay in San Francisco we again boarded the Santa Rosa and returned to New York over the same route and made the same stops in reverse.
"I was surprised at the size of the universities in California, not only in the number of students, but also in the fine buildings and extensive grounds, especially at Stanford University."
Wetherbee, the son of Seth Holden and Lucy Ann (Stafford) Wetherbee, was born May 2, 1874, at Fall River, Massachusetts. He prepared at the B. M. C. Durfee High School in that city. He was with our Class during freshman year only as a special stu- dent in the Lawrence Scientific School. He married Jennie Almy Durfee, June 19, 1901, at Fall River. Their son, Holden Durfee, born June 11, 1902, studied at Harvard as a special student during 1922-1923.
During World War I, Wetherbee worked on Liberty Bond drives, and in the second World War did Red Cross work. He is a member of the Harvard Club of Fall River.
+ PHILIP MANCHESTER WHEELER
PHILIP MANCHESTER WHEELER died on December 5, 1945, at Fall River, Massachusetts. He was born at Adamsville, Rhode Island, on November 3, 1876, the son of Stafford Andrew and Lydia Maria (Manchester) Wheeler. Before entering Harvard, he attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where he received an S.B. degree in 1894. He joined our Class that year and re- ceived an A.B. cum laude at our graduation. The following year
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he was granted an A.M. by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
For nine years after leaving college, he was engaged in probate work in Brooklyn. On October 17, 1906, he married Sophie Eliza- beth Hall at Westport, New York. Their children are: Jean, born August 1, 1907; Stafford Manchester, born July 11, 1910 (died April 13, 1945); and Rhoda, born May 8, 1913.
After their marriage the Wheelers went to live on a farm in Westport, Massachusetts, spending the winters in Fall River. He conducted his business, estate management, from the farm. Con- tinuing to act as trustee for various estates, he made his all-year- round home at Acoaxet, on Buzzard's Bay. There he farmed "in a small way" and entered into the affairs of the Town of Westport with a very real and genuine enthusiasm. He was active on the Town Finance Committee for some twenty years, serving as its chairman a large part of the time, and his advice on matters of town interest and concern was constantly and eagerly sought.
His interest in the affairs of the countryside was an historical one, and his local lore, as well as his counsel, was heavily drawn upon by his neighbors and associates. Of special interest to him were the preservation and maintenance of the old Manchester country store in Adamsville, which had been in his family's posses- sion for over one hundred years, and which had become one of the local landmarks.
Among his friends Wheeler was noted for his wide knowledge of books and for the fine library he had collected in his home. In connection with the administration of an estate in Rhode Island he built and established the Brownell Library in Little Compton, Rhode Island, and took an active part in its management up to the time of his death. He had been closely associated with the Fall River Five Cents Savings Bank for many years as a "corpo- rator," a member of the Board of Investment and, in later years, its vice-president. A resolution, authorized by the bank's corpo- ration in 1945, and written into the corporation records, states in part:
"His good judgment and intelligence, combined with his will- ingness at all times to advise, made him a strong and reliable
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trustee. A gentleman in the best sense of the word, of the highest integrity and moral courage and rare personal charm, he was en- deared to all those who were privileged to know him."
His wife and children survived him. Jean, Vassar '28, married Melvin J. Boe, in 1932. They have two daughters. Rhoda, Vassar '34, was married in 1938 to William M. Sheehan, '29, LL.B. '32. They have one daughter. Stafford Manchester Wheeler, '32, M.D. '37, was commissioned in the Medical Corps, United States Naval Reserve, in 1942. He was on leave from an appointment as asso- ciate professor in epidemiology at Columbia, where he went after teaching at the Harvard Medical School for several years. He was killed April 13, 1945, in Yugoslavia, where he was working with the United States Typhus Commission. He had married Anne Bolling and they had a son and daughter.
Phil Wheeler in our undergraduate days was ever one of our more serious-minded classmates. Crew, baseball, football or track - none of these was for him, although he was one of their most loyal supporters. He was at Harvard for a far more serious pur- pose. It surprised no one when he received his bis in chemistry and was among those to receive their honorable mention at gradu- ation. And it was consistent that he should be awarded a Disqui- sition at Commencement. For such was the quality of his char- acter.
His was a strong, robust personality and yet, in later years, this vigor was softened and sweetened without the loss of any of its virile and forceful quality. At Commencements and Class Re- unions it was always a pleasure to find him once more amongst us, to shake his hand, and be greeted with his slow, sweet smile. It is small wonder that his friends and associates of later years held him in such high regard. His was a useful and a well-rounded life. He was a credit to his Alma Mater and a source of pride to his fellow- classmates.
H. T. N.
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CHARLES HENRY WHITE
I BELIEVE," writes Charles White, "that the most 'durable satis- faction' is to 'do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before thy God.' I think there is little contentment unless we strive for that standard.
"I am a thorough internationalist. It has been my privilege to spend about a dozen years of my life in foreign lands in contact with many classes from the most primitive to the most cultured in five continents. It was a great disappointment to me that this country did not join the League of Nations. I attended several of its meeting in Geneva and enjoyed the use of its splendid library. I think the United Nations could not do better than to take over the property and equipment at Geneva and carry on from where the League left off, but with emphasis not on peace, but on justice. Better call it a League for War on Injustice rather than a League for Peace with injustice rampant in any part of the world."
White was born August 13, 1865, at Hamptonville, North Carolina, the son of William and Sarah Catharine (Nicholson) White. He prepared at Blair's School in High Point, North Caro- lina. He received an S.B., magna cum laude, in 1897, and an A.M. in 1902 after a year's study at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, where he was an assistant in the Mining Department. He had previously taken an L.I. at Peabody College in 1887 and an S.B. at the University of North Carolina in 1894, where he won the Kerr Prize in Geology and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
He recalls the following anecdote from his undergraduate years: "Mr. Cutler, recently appointed chief janitor and not yet acquainted with the professors, found a note on his desk stating that Professor Child wanted to see him. Turning to his assistant, who knew them all, he asked, 'What does Professor Child look like?' 'Oh, he's the man with the terrible face, you can't fail to know him when you see him.' Cutler set out across the Yard to find Professor Child. On the path he suddenly found himself face to face with what he thought the perfect fulfillment of his assist- ant's description. Approaching deferentially: 'I beg your pardon, sir, but are you Professor Child?' 'No,' (a slight pause) 'No. Child
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is a homelier man than I am.' It was Professor Royce. Cutler told me the story."
White married Josephine Pope, June 5, 1890, at Atlanta, Georgia. She died January 10, 1919, at Ledger, North Carolina. He married Sarah Elizabeth MacDonald, June 4, 1920, at San Francisco.
During World War I, he was a captain in the Ordnance De- partment, stationed at the Watertown Arsenal. He remained in the Reserve Corps for five years after the war. Mrs. White was active in Red Cross work and other war services. In World War II, White gave a course in Military Topography, map reading, and the like, at the San Francisco Armory. He supplied the War De- partment with many photographs taken during the four years' geological work in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. He also supplied many large-scale topographic and geologic maps of parts of those states, and information regarding mineral deposits.
He taught in the Mining Department at Harvard until 1917. Since 1919 he has been a mining geologist with practice in the United States, Mexico, Australia, Africa, and Europe. He was a member and secretary of the Vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco from 1922 to 1927, and is a member of the Society of Economic Geology, American Institute of Mining Engi- neers, Le Conte Geological Club, Harvard Travelers Club, Har- vard Engineering Society, Academy of Political Science, American Forestry Association, Save the Redwoods League, and California Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Geographi- cal Society and of the Royal Geographical Society of London. His clubs are the Commonwealth Club of California, and Harvard Club of San Francisco. He is the author of Methods in Metallurgi- cal Analysis, Van Nostrand, 1915, second edition, 1920; Structural Geology, With Special Reference to Economic Deposits, with B. Stoces, Macmillan, London, 1935; Finding Copper: The Geol- ogy of Copper Deposits With a Technique for the Interpretation of Outcrops, to be issued shortly; and of a number of articles on geology and related subjects.
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+ FREDERICK CLEMENT WHITE
F REDERICK CLEMENT WHITE, son of John Gardner and Mary Nichols (Beach) White, was born August 11, 1874, at Cam- bridge. He attended Noble's School in Boston and as a Harvard undergraduate was very active in athletics, playing tennis, base- ball, and football, and rowing on the crew. A lover of the out-of- doors, he belonged to the Harvard Natural History Society and the Harvard Folk Lore Society. His knowledge of bird life was extensive, and he was an authority on the birds of New England. He left college after three years and entered the employ of Beach & Company, a Hartford firm dealing in chemicals and dyestuffs. He was for eight years manager of the company's Boston office before entering the stock brokerage business with Ball & Whicher. He died May 6, 1908, at Boston. He was unmarried.
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