USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > Harvard College class of ninety-seven : forty-fifth anniversary report, 1897 > Part 5
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R. L. S.
ARNOLD SCOTT died at Boston on February 23, 1939 after a long and trying illness, endured patiently and cheerfully with the courage that was conspicuous throughout his life. Born at Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, October 9, 1874, he was the son of George Robert White and Mary Elizabeth (Dow) Scott. His mother, being in poor health, was obliged to try various treatments and localities, with the result that at the age of fifteen Arnold had been the "new boy" in twelve different schools. At eleven he went to Europe and attended, as a regular pupil, schools, gymnasia, and institu- tions of learning in different parts of Switzerland, Germany, and England for seven years. He welcomed two uninterrupted years at Exeter before going to Harvard, but as the Class he joined was in its Junior year, he again, as in European schools, found himself somewhat more on the side lines than of the Class.
In our Twenty-Fifth Report, he mentioned his "different point of view" and accounted for it by saying -"I have been nearly all my life surrounded by friendly enough groups, but groups already formed before I joined or became a part of them, which meant I had ample opportunity to look in from without, as it were, to observe
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and compare them with other groups instead of taking their view- points for granted."
After graduating, Scott attended Harvard Law School and prac- tised law in Boston. He was Assistant District Attorney for three years and later Acting District Attorney in Middlesex County, the northern district so-called, which included Cambridge. He was de- cidedly an independent thinker and tried not to be influenced by the fad of the hour which he felt so often described American opinion. He took great pleasure in boating and was a most genial and in- teresting host and friend on land or sea.
One of his classmates has said with considerable feeling that Arnold was ever a friend in the hour of need and could be counted on to respond with energy, a clear mind and a warm heart.
On June 22, 1907 he was married to Mabel Kate Morrison. A son, Palmer, born December 12, 1908, married Anne Belknap. He and a daughter Elizabeth, born April 23, 1912, together with two grand- children, Duncan Ingraham Scott and Thalia Anne Scott, survive him.
R. L. S.
WILHELM SEGERBLOM died in Exeter, New Hampshire, on November 9, 1941. Although born in Sweden, the son of Peter Nico- laus and Anna Matilda Segerblom, he came to this country with his parents when he was but two years old. Except for his years at college, he spent his life in Exeter, New Hampshire, first as a pupil at the public schools and the Academy and, after graduating from Harvard, as a teacher of chemistry in Exeter Academy until 1937, when he retired to devote his time to editorial work and re- search in chemical education.
After graduating from the Academy in 1892, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, transferring to Harvard, where he received his A.B. degree with the Class of 1897. As head of the Chemistry Department at Exeter he gathered together the notable chemical collection which is now stored in the Thompson Science Building. He wrote a number of books, sundry pamphlets
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Forty-Fifth Anniversary Report
and articles in scientific publications and served as reader, examiner and secretary of a commission of the College Entrance Examination Board on the revision of the definition of the requirements in Chemistry. He was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a charter member of the New Hampshire Academy of Science, and a member of the American Chemical So- ciety. He also helped to found the Journal of Chemical Education, and his work is known not only in this country, but in Sweden, Norway and Germany.
He married Susan Mabel Roberts in 1910. She survives him. R. L. S.
WILLIAM GILMAN SEWALL died on Monday, July 14, 1941, in New York as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was the son of William Bull and Lena French (Ingalls) Sewall; a Bostonian, graduate of Noble and Greenough's School and of Harvard in 1897.
Those who remember his college days will recall Sewall as a very quiet, soft-spoken young man. Few at that time realized that his future lay in Africa among the big game hunters, when he wasn't engaged in developing his 40,000 acres of rubber and wheat.
In place of the usual obituary notice, your secretary is reprinting herewith an account of Sewall which appeared in the East Africa Standard of July 25, 1941 :
So Billy Sewall has passed on, joining that gallant band of warriors who gave their all to put British East Africa on the map as another stronghold of the British race - a band of war- riors whose names should never be forgotten, even in this land of short memories - Delamere, Russel Bowker, Berkeley Cole, Northrup McMillan, Galbraith Cole ... and now Billy Sewall - a stalwart lot.
Billy Sewall came to these parts at the turn of the century to shoot big game in Uganda, the Congo and British East Africa. I first met him in 1906, in Zanzibar, and from that day to the date of his last trip to America it is a grand pleasure to remem- ber that we were seldom apart.
In 1907 we were together in Addis Ababa, and on our way back spent the 4th of June at Jigjiga, when I got that bad form
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of dysentery which one was liable to get in those parts. I only mention this incident to show what a stout-hearted friend Billy was. Near the Webi I "passed out" - and our Somalis refused to help to carry me towards the high country. Billy, a Swahili cook and two Masai carried me 15 miles the first day in the blinding heat, until our Somalis were shamed into helping. Billy continued the journey via Lugh to Nairobi alone and was among the first to do this trip.
After his return from Abyssinia he bought the undeveloped estate of Naitai Emuin, Njoro, and, after many years of hard pioneering, he and Sandy Wright came together for the develop- ment of the property now called Ngata.
He played a large part in the pioneering of wheat and in the establishment of Unga, Ltd. In fact, during all his life in this country he gave unstintingly all of the best that was in him, and also substantial financial support to a very great number of pioneering efforts.
Billy Sewall was an American, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and although he gave all that he could to the country in which he had made his home, including a full service in the last war, he always remained an American.
He was the best of company and had a large range of ac- quaintances, though his friendships were not many. But those who were his friends treasured that friendship beyond all price, and by them his memory will never be forgotten - for there could be no equal to such an absolute loyalty and such an un- qualified friendship as he gave.
British East Africa and Kenya owe Billy Sewall a great meas- ure of gratitude: and when this still young Colony of ours finds its true historian, the name of Billy Sewall shall be "writ large" upon impressive pages.
H. F. W.
FRANCIS GEORGE SHAW died at his home in Chatham, Massa- chusetts, on September 20, 1938. He was born on August 13, 1875, the son of George Russell and Emily (Mott) Shaw.
Those of us, and there must be many, who remember Frank Shaw, or "Sawmill' as we used to call him, must think of him as one of the finest athletic specimens which Harvard produced. Nordic in coloring, massive in build, agile in movement and superlatively
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strong in muscle, he was outstanding whether on the football field or in any group of young men. But his breadth and strength lay not alone in his physique. He was broadminded, also, in any acceptation of the term. Breezy, buoyant, tolerant, friendly, he had the person- ality of a Porthos and the same capacity for embracing all sorts among his friendships.
You may recall that he considered a shooting trip to Chatham with his cronies Charlie Paine, Charlie Hardy and others, fully as important as playing centre in one of the major games, and you may also remember that though born and bred a Brahmin in Boston, he was one of the most democratic men in the Class, an ideal mixer and a loyal friend.
After graduation much of his life was spent in France in the em- ploy of the International Harvester Company. To quote from his 25th Report, "When the U. S. A. declared war I volunteered at the American Embassy, Paris. Was told I was too senile and tottery for work at the front. Offered then and there to clean out the Embassy and everything in it to show just how feeble I was. They would not accept this sporting proposition, so I went to work as instructor for the French Ministry of Agriculture, reclaiming old battle-fields and trying to raise crops with tractors. Did so, but the Germans got some of it."
In 1905 he married Marguerite Hofer of Paris, and his children, Francis George, Jr., and Pauline, were both brought up there, for it was not until some years after the war that he returned to this country permanently, the same old Frank that we knew of old without the slightest trace of continental gloss.
In his 40th Report he writes, "The so-called glittering capital can go kiss itself for all of me. I never want to see that sink again." And so he came back to his own, and since business did not appeal to him, he retired to his beloved Chatham where he said, "Here the grass is now brown and the bay-berries have shed their leaves, and all autumn or winter, as you please, just smiles up at us." But he did not idle his time away. Always an artisan, he developed great skill as a wood carver, became a master of the Arts and Crafts, and
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some of you may have seen his exhibitions of game birds and other wild life.
He died as he had lived, and I can think of no more touching ending than his, for his ashes were scattered on the outgoing tide at Chatham where he had spent so many joyous hours with Paine and Hardy who had gone before him.
R. L. S.
ALBERT SILVERMAN died at Chicago, Illinois, June 1, 1938. For many years he had been in the real estate and building business in Chicago. He left College at the end of his sophomore year, studied law, and afterwards practised that profession in Chicago. A few years later, however, he became vice-president of the Buckskin Fibre Box Co. He remained with that concern until he entered the real estate business, being associated with The E. B. Woolf Realty Com- pany.
He was born at Chicago, November 3, 1875, the son of Charles and Sabina (Heidelbach) Silverman, and prepared at the Harvard School, Chicago. He married Alice Gumbel of New Orleans.
R. L. S.
CLARENCE SNOW of the Class of 1897 died in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 27, 1938. He was a practising physician although his early days were spent in business, first with the General Electric Company in Schenectady. In 1904 he entered the Medical Depart- ment of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1908. He was a pathologist and a member of the State Board of Examiners in Medicine as well as a member of the Board of Health of Salt Lake City. He always took pride in his allegiance to Harvard and his three sons attended the University.
Snow is survived by his wife, Cornelia Groesbeck Snow, and four children: Dr. Eliot Snow, Dr. Robert G. Snow, Willard G. Snow and Dorothy Snow.
R. L. S.
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FRANK GRAHAM THOMSON was born at Altoona, Pennsyl- vania on January 29, 1874, the son of Frank and Mary (Clarke) Thomson; he died after a short illness following a fractured hip, in New York on September 13, 1941. In 1919 he married Miss Abi Caroline Sykes, who survives him. There were no children.
Frank Thomson was intimately known and beloved by a small group of friends; was widely known and respected by Harvard graduates and by members of the Faculty and Governing Boards, who were cognizant of his intense loyalty and generosity to Har- vard, and was probably only a pleasant acquaintance to the ma- jority of his classmates. Few of us, however, when the final record is written, will be found to have contributed to Harvard more freely and wisely in proportion to our abilities and means.
He prepared for college at Groton and passed his undergraduate years without achieving especial distinction in studies or other ac- tivities. His somewhat frail physique forbade athletics; he had no strong taste in music or art or in the literary life to bring him into prominence. His genius for intimate comradeship with a few was based on loyalty, generosity, sympathy and a certain enjoyment of life, and these same qualities refined and tempered by mature ex- perience and increasing knowledge of the world led to later activities and benefactions of which the recipients were to be Harvard and society at large, rather than a few intimates. After graduation he passed two years at the Harvard Law School. He later received his LL.B. at the University of Pennsylvania, was admitted to the bar and practised law in Philadelphia for four years. Ill-health inter- rupted his career, as indeed it dogged his footsteps all his life, and he spent three years in New Mexico on a ranch of which he became part owner. Then came his return to the East, and the establish- ment of a model farm at Devon, near Valley Forge, where he worked at scientific agriculture and horticulture, and the breeding of thoroughbred cattle and horses.
Intensely patriotic and with a sense of social obligation, Thomson interested himself in social and charitable affairs in Philadelphia and became an active member of various boards. He felt, however, that
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it was through the education of young men for service, rather than by attacking evils after they had come to pass, that the greatest good could be accomplished, and his respect - almost amounting to rev- erence - for Harvard as a creator of good citizens led him to establish certain enterprises to promote education in citizenship. From 1909 to 1921 he placed the sum of $50,000 at the disposal of the Department of Government for the improvement of instruc- tion; from 1911 to 1931 he - with his brother, Clarke Thomson - gave an annual sum to support the work of a Bureau of Research in Municipal Government under the direction of Professor W. B. Munro. These wise benefactions undoubtedly helped pave the way to and lay a foundation during thirty years for the establishment by Mr. Littauer of the Graduate School of Public Administration. In addition to these gifts, the records of the Corporation show many others for scholarships in the Graduate School of Education, for special needs of the Department of Government, for the College Library, for improvements in Hollis and Stoughton Halls, for the Department of Music, and for various minor objects. As a splendid climax came the revealing in his will of a bequest amounting to many hundreds of thousands of dollars for the benefit of the Depart- ment of Government.
An eloquent and touching instance of his patriotism and sense of public duty was his enrollment -in spite of dubious health -in - the Military Instruction Camp at Plattsburg, and his subsequent ap- pointment, in 1918, as a Captain in the Quartermaster's Reserve Corps. Probably no other classmate of ours would have prized so dearly an opportunity for active service to help preserve liberty and political and social decency.
Frank Thomson was a good example of a type of man who, handi- capped by lack of health or natural skills, finds in his experience of and love for Harvard an incitement for public service which permits the development of unsuspected power for the accomplishment of noteworthy things. D. C.
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RAYMOND TUCKER died suddenly while playing golf on No- vember 20, 1941. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, Decem- ber 20, 1874, the son of Lewis Raymond and Cora (Johnson) Tucker. He prepared for college at the Belmont School, Belmont, Massachu- setts. His 25th report tells of his going into the insurance business immediately after graduation in 1897. He continued in this busi- ness throughout his life and, except for a brief period in New York City, his business career was wholly in Boston, with his residence in Newton.
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Tucker studiously avoided publicity and, except for his summers spent in Waterville, New Hampshire, he practically never travelled outside of Greater Boston. He was devoted to four things - his family, his friends (who were equally devoted to him), Harvard athletic events, and golf. He never missed a Harvard football game or track meet if he could help it. His death on the golf links came just as he would have wished it. Only a few days before he died, he told one of his friends that he hoped that when his end came it would come suddenly and "with his boots on."
C. J.
WILLIAM HOWARD VINCENT, '97, died December 19, 1937, while on a Southern trip. He had been in good health until his last summer when he developed a serious heart trouble which finally closed his career. Born in Boston, June 28th, 1874, a son of Deni- son Howard Vincent and Abbie Frances Vincent, he prepared for college in the Boston Latin School, entered Harvard in 1893, and graduated with the Class of 1897. While in college he was very active in athletics, particularly in track events, established several records, and was captain of the track team. His genial, happy disposition made him welcome wherever he went, and he was popular with his classmates throughout his college years and known intimately to almost all of the members of his Class, having served as a member of our Class Committee until his death.
After graduating with his Class Vincent entered Harvard Law School and received his LL.B. in June 1900. He was admitted to the
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Massachusetts Bar in the Fall of the same year and immediately started practice in Boston. From 1903 he practised in association with his classmate, Sydney R. Wrightington. In 1917 another classmate, Stanley M. Bolster, joined Vincent and Wrightington and this asso- ciation continued until 1935 when Vincent partially withdrew from active practice. During his active years he did considerable trial work, particularly for insurance companies. His whole life, both in college and in his chosen profession, was marked by great sincerity. His serious, studied effort in all that he did, added to his good sportsmanship and genial character, took him far on the road to success and usefulness. He found time to travel quite extensively both in this country and abroad.
Vincent married Mary True Sanborn of Bangor, Maine, Octo- ber 21, 1914, and she survives him. They have one son, Sanborn Vincent, born March 28, 1916, who was a member of the Harvard Class of 1938.
S. M. B.
HANS VON BRIESEN, born June 12, 1876, died September 16, 1940. Von Briesen came to Harvard following two years at Colum- bia College. After receiving his A.B., he was graduated two years later from New York University Law School, and began practice with Briesen & Knauth, the firm founded by his father Arthur von Briesen, for twenty-six years head of the Legal Aid Society of New York and praised by President Theodore Roosevelt as one of America's best citizens.
An authority on patent and copyright law, von Briesen, who never married, devoted his life to his relatives and friends. All through his successful career his one thought was for others. No one in trouble ever appealed to him in vain. He had a profound knowledge of the classics, was an accomplished musician, and possessed a keen sense of humor inspiring a deep affection among those fortunate enough to know him. To his devoted friends his sudden passing was a grievous blow. "The rest is silence" said his favorite author, but
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in that silence the light of his generous and lovable personality shines on.
The following is taken from a prayer composed at the time of his death :
. .. and especially we praise Thy Holy Name for the life and example of this our companion and friend:
For his honor and uprightness among men,
For his sense of family responsibility,
For his warmth in friendship,
For his unfailing response to all those who sought justice,
For that sympathy which encompassed humanity,
For his abiding interest in the creative arts,
For his gift of humor and his gaiety of heart,
For all those graces of the spirit by which it became his joy to live for others' good."
P. S.
AMASA WALKER, who was associated with the Class in 1893-94, died in New York City on December 26, 1939. He was the son of Robert and Isabel Comey Walker and the grandson of Amasa Walker, who was at one time Secretary of State of Massachusetts, and who is said to have been the first professor of political economy in this country (Oberlin). His uncle, Francis Amasa Walker, was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1903 Walker joined Longmans, Green & Co., New York, where he remained until his death. His associates spoke of him as a wise and charming man, who was held in high esteem by his colleagues and literary associates. He married Anne Blashfield Babcock of Lex- ington, Massachusetts, in 1898. A son, Philip, survives him.
R. L. S.
WALTER COATES WEBSTER died at Larchmont, New York, April 2, 1938, after a long illness. He was born at Downingtown, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1872, the son of Ezra and Gertrude (Coates) Webster. In 1903 he married Eva E. Foster and they had three sons.
Webster came to Harvard after graduating from Haverford Col-
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lege in 1895, where he had been vice president of his class in his senior year. He captained the football team in '94 and was a mem- ber of the cricket team as well, besides participating in a number of social activities. After receiving an A.B. degree at Harvard in '97, Webster went into business. He was manager of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company until 1910, when he became president of the Northampton Portland Cement Company, and also president of the Eureka Slate Corporation of California. From 1913 to 1918 he was general manager of the Nichols Copper Com- pany. In 1918 he took charge for the United States Government of alien property confiscated during the war. After 1920 he became vice president and director of the Pearson Syndicate in New York City. He also had other interests in business and was a member of many social clubs. At the time of our fortieth celebration, he wrote the secretary that he had been forced to retire temporarily as the result of an accident and it is feared that he never recovered.
R. L. S.
EDGAR HUIDEKOPER WELLS was born at Cleveland, Ohio, . on June 27, 1875, and died after a long illness at Katonah, near New York, on July 2, 1938. He was unmarried. No other man of '97 was more widely known to the Harvard community, because scarcely any other man spent himself so lavishly in service to the university.
Wells was descended by his mother from the notable Huidekoper family of Meadville, Pennsylvania; his father was a well-known Boston physician. He entered Harvard from Mr. Hopkinson's school in Boston, and in college devoted himself to the study of English literature, especially Chaucer and Shakespeare, and to his- tory, and to the cultivation of close and enduring friendships in a relatively small circle. Professor Child urged him to pursue the study of Elizabethan literature as his vocation. He was awarded a detur in his freshman year and a John Harvard Scholarship as a senior; was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, received honorable mention in English and History and a dissertation at Commencement, and
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graduated magna cum laude. He played on the Varsity cricket team; he had a competitive spirit which would have won him a place in major athletics had his physique not been so slender. After two years at the Law School, which he had to give up on account of ill-health which exacted a toll of two years of unwelcome idleness, he began eleven years of fruitful service to the University which made him widely known and beloved among the Alumni. The bare list of his activities includes his appointment as instructor in English, as curator of modern English literature in the College Library, as as- sistant dean and later acting dean of Harvard College, as secretary for appointments, editor of the "Quinquennial Catalogue," acting regent and acting secretary of the Faculty. Concurrently with these jobs he was for six years general secretary of the Harvard Alumni Association and editor of the Alumni Bulletin. In 1909 occurred the resignation of President Eliot, and it was perhaps inevitable that the new command should bring with it its own staff officers, but Wells' resignation shortly afterwards was a grievous loss to the Uni- versity, testified to by the gift to him by the Alumni of a gold loving cup.
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