Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 127

his good humor were retained to the end. His was a familiar figure in Worcester, courtly and active. There were few who could speak ill of him. Memorials to him were adopted not only by the Institute, but by the Antiquarian Society, the Free Library, banks, railways, and other institutions that had benefited by his counsel and his beneficence. The sum of the gifts made during his lifetime is not known, but he demonstrated the pleasure that he derived in them. There were many bequests in his will, all of them comparatively small, none larger than the $10,000 addition that he made to the Institute's modern language fund. The bulk of his estate was left to his only son, Stephen Salisbury, Jr.

The retirement of David Whitcomb left Senator Hoar the only surviving member of the original Board of Trustees, which unique position he was to hold for two succeeding decades. Mr. Whitcomb's retirement was necessary because of failing health. Death came within three years thereafter, July 1, 1887, when he was seventy-nine. The great service that he rendered to the Institute was written into the records, and has remained indelibly among traditions of the early years.

To fill the places left vacant by these three, the trustees elected, in November, 1884, Stephen Salisbury, Jr., Waldo Lincoln, and George S. Barton. Mr. Salisbury was then fortynine, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He had travelled extensively and, like his father, had taken an active part in business and civic enterprises, succeeding him in various important posts, including the presidency of banks, and of the American Antiquarian Society. Mr. Barton, a prominent Worcester manufacturer, declined the election. G. Henry Whitcomb, son of David Whitcomb, was chosen to fill the vacancy. He was forty-two at the time, a graduate of Amherst, and one of the pioneers in the manufacture of envelopes.

Judge P. Emory Aldrich was elected president to succeed Mr. Salisbury. The only other immediate changes were among

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