Excerpt from In Memory of William Barton Rogers, L. L. D: Late President of the Society

He saw, and appreciated, and sympathized with us in all the difficulties under which we labored; and I believe if we had not had a man as wise, as kind, as faithful, as far-seeing as Professor Rogers was that this institution would never have reached the point of suc cess in which we rejoice today. He, of all men, was fitted by his mental and moral qualities to undertake the pilotage of a new insti tution like this in the stormy waters which it must perforce pass over before it reaches success. I have known Professor Rogers inti mately in personal acquaintance, for he made me his personal friend; I have visited him in his beautiful and happy home; and I can testify to every word that anyone can utter as to his warm-heartedness, and his excellence. In his character he was a man to be loved; in his studies and in his teaching he was a man to be imitated. He could not be satisfied until he had found the truth, and uttered it. He not only had that enthusiasm for science which made him a discoverer, he had that love of imparting it which made him a teacher. Add tothis that he was always in sympathy with the young. His warm heartedness went out to his pupils; and when we combine these quali ties, that admirable gift for scientific investigation which he had by nature, and that untiring pursuit of and love for truth, with his wonderful capacity as an expositor, and with his warm personal sym pathics, it seems to me we have almost the ideal of a scientific teacher, and the elements of an eminently happy and successful life.

Mr. President, without further remarks I offer to you these resolutions.

Mr. James P. Tolman, president of the Alumni Association of the Institute, then said: Mr. President, In seconding the resolutions which have just been presented, I esteem it a privilege to be per mitted to refer to the relations which the students in the school of this Institute have entertained toward our dear friend. A feeling of warm personal loyalty was inspired in the minds of all who received direct instruction from him. I am a member of the earliest class that identifies itself by the legend, Graduate of the School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In those early days when we occupied narrow quarters in Summer street the numbers of instructors and' of students were both small enough to permit an intercourse impossible in the later days of large classes and many teachers. If we did not then have the advantages that now accrue from special libraries and finished apparatus; if the courses of instruction were incomplete and uncertain, the students being the subjects for experiment, as well as objects for teaching; if we were so unequal in preparation for our work that the time of many must often be sacrificed to the needs of the few; still I question if our intimate relations with the professors, and the Spirit which grew from direct association with them, did not largely compensate for the shortcomings of our course.

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