DEDICATION of MEMORIAL TABLET to ROBERT HENRY THURSTON a Bronze Memorial Tablet to Dr
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N o . 1274 DEDICATION OF MEMORIAL TABLET TO ROBERT HENRY THURSTON A bronze memorial tablet to Dr. Robert Henry Thurston, first president of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was dedicated at the New York monthly meeting, Tuesday evening, February 8, 1910, in the auditorium of the Engineering Societies Building, in the presence of many associates and former students of Dr. Thurston as well as of members of the Society. This bas- relief, the work of Herman A. MacNeil, a former student and per sonal friend of Dr. Thurston, a replica of the memorial tablet pre sented to Sibley College, Cornell University, by alumni and students, was placed in the rooms of the Society through the generosity of members, as an expression of their devotion to Dr. Thurston. The contributions were received by a committee consisting of John Fritz, S. W. Baldwin, Prof. R. C. Carpenter, Walter C. Kerr, E. A. Uehl- ing, Wm. Hewitt and Gus. C. Henning; and the details connected with the acquiring of the tablet, its installation and the arrange ment of the dedicatory exercises, were in the hands of Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys, Chairman, Chas. Wallace Hunt, Fred J. Miller, Prof. R. C. Carpenter and J. W. Lieb, Jr. The program of the evening was designed to cover the various phases of Dr. Thurston’s brilliant career, treated in each case by a speaker of wide reputation who had known Dr. Thurston inti mately during this period of his life. It therefore very appropriately included an address on Dr. Thurston’s relationship with the Society, by Prof. John E. Sweet, President of the Society from 1883-1884 and active with Dr. Thurston in its organization; a communication on Dr. Thurston’s career as a naval engineer, from Rear-Admiral Benja min Franklin Isherwood, U.S.N., Retired, Honorary Member of the Society, which was read by Prof. F. R. Hutton, Honorary Secretary; an address on Dr. Thurston at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, by Rear-Admiral George W. Melville, U.S.N., Retired, Honorary Member and Past-President, of the Society on Dr. Thurston as professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, by Col. E. A. Stevens, 49 50 DEDICATION OF THURSTON MEMORIAL TABLET trustee and treasurer of Stevens Institute and son pf its founder; ou Dr. Thurston’s literary and research work, by William Kent, one of the organizers of the Society and a close friend and co-worker with Dr. Thurston; and on Dr. Thurston as director of Sibley College, Cornell University, by Walter C. Kerr, a trustee of Cornell. The Chairman of the Thurston Memorial Committee, Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys, president of Stevens Institute of Technology, pre sided over the meeting. After the addresses of the evening, members and guests proceeded to the eleventh floor where the tablet was unveiled and presented by Dr. Humphreys, on behalf of the committee, to the Society, for whom it was accepted by Col. E. D. Meier, Vice-President. Colonel Meier declared this to be the first bronze statue of an eminent engineer erected in the United States in a great building devoted entirely to engineering and said that an excellent choice had been made in' Dr. Thurston as a representative of his profession. Dr. Humphreys also presented to the audience Herman A. MacNeil, the artist, who made the concluding remarks of the evening. It was a matter of regret that Mrs. Thurston found it impossible to be present at the meeting. A letter was read by the Chairman, expressing her appreciation of the honor rendered to Dr. Thurston. Messages were also received from President Westinghouse, who was prevented by urgent business from attending, and from Chief Engineer Chas. H. Manning, U. S. N.,and Lieut.-Commander Robert Crawford, U. S. N., associated with Dr. Thurston in the Naval Acad emy at Annapolis. The addresses of the evening follow. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS By Dr. Alex. C. Humphreys, Chairman Member of the Society; President of Stevens Institute of Technology While recognizing that it is not the function of a presiding officer to forestall the speakers to be introduced, I cannot refrain from say ing a few words about my friend and preceptor, Robert H. Thurston. Others will tell you of his widely varied activities, his tremendous capacity for work, which was nevertheless overtaxed, his quickness of brain and speech, his powers of exact determination and expression, his capacity for organization and execution, his eminence as an en gineer and educator. I prefer to think of him as the large-hearted, gentle, lovable, helpful man, the man of vision, the optimist. DEDICATION OF THURSTON MEMORIAL TABLET 51 While a student at Stevens, I was not fortunate enough to have Dr. Thurston’s guidance during my junior year, for then, in 1879, he had not yet recovered from the almost fatal nervous breakdown, which resulted from his strenuous life in many lines of activity. But I came to know him well during my senior year, and had many occasions to be deeply grateful to him for his assistance and encouragement, which I then greatly needed. I never saw him other than cheerfully re sponsive to a request for help, and I was never allowed to feel that I was intruding when I went to him for counsel. While demanding respect and obedience from those under him, his attitude towards them was characterized by a sympathetic desire to be helpful. Wm. Kent, one of the speakers of the evening, in his masterly bio graphical notice of Dr. Thurston in the Sibley College Journal, in writing of the vast amount of work performed at a certain time by Dr. Thurston, says: “And during all this time, I never saw him ex cited or ruffled over his work.” We busy, overcrowded men, know this to be high praise indeed. I met Thurston too seldom after I graduated from Stevens, but when we did meet, I was made to feel that he was really interested in my career, and that he rejoiced and sympathized with me as cir cumstances suggested. I like -to remember that he came down from Cornell at the time of my inauguration as president of Stevens Insti tute, and that it was through him that Cornell University and Sibley College conveyed their good wishes to Stevens Institute and to me at that time. Later in that year he quietly passed away to his well-earned rest. Thurston was a man of vision. Time and again this is shown in his writings, and especially in view of later developments. And this, notwithstanding that his declared results were sometimes afterwards amended, as must be the case with those who are courageous enough to act the part of pioneers. We are, apparently, now only beginning to appreciate in this coun try the practical and commercial value, to say nothing of higher things, of technical and technological education. And even now, those who do have the appreciation are unable to move and guide those who have the power to provide the means for the necessary improve ment in our educational methods. Years ago, Thurston wrote: “ Ger many has substituted for the now obsolete apprenticeship system, the systematic, scientific methods of preparing her youth for the future of their lives in all departments of instruction and industry.” He was a student of political economy and education and pointed 52 DEDICATION OF THURSTON MEMORIAL TABLET out the evils which would come to us unless certain lines of reform werejollowed, the evils which are now upon us and have to be met by patience, wisdom, firmness and common sense. It was said of his father: “Throughout his life, his benevolence, his uniform kindness to [employes and to all with whom he came in contact, and his strong attachment to his friends, made him as universally beloved as he was widely known.” The son was strong in faith though he did not carry his religion in his sleeve. He gave voice to his faith in a certain article which received wide attention, entitled, The Scientific Basis of Belief. It seems to me that the summation of his creed is found in a verse which he included in this article: Strong Son of God, immortal love, Whom we, that have not seen Thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove. Notwithstanding his great and varied accomplishments, it is as the holder of this faith, and as the worthy son of this worthy father, that I love to think of Robert H. Thurston. DR. THURSTON’S CONNECTION WITH THE SOCIETY B y Jo h n E. S w ee t Honorary Member and Past-President, Am.Soc.M.E. We meet tonight to do honor to the first president of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, elected now nearly thirty years ago. I have been asked to tell the simple story of his connection with the Society. It is fitting that we whose fading memories can give only shadowy reviews of past events do the best we can to record the facts as we recall them. To begin at the beginning, we must hark back to the fall of 1879, when the American Machinist was published in a small office at 96 Fulton Street, New York. The journal had been in existence but a few years. It had received contributions from a goodly number of contributors engaged in various branches of mechanical industries and from a wide section of the country. But very few of these contributors were known to the publishers, and fewer still to one another, and the notion came to my mind to get as many of them together as we well could, and give the publishers a surprise party; with a faint notion that it might lead to an organization.