Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 144

'83, Harry P. Davis, '90, Stanley H. Rood, '90, Francis E. Bradford, '91, Ervin W. Howard, '92, Clayton 0. Smith, '92, Hugh M. Southgate, '92, and Edward W. Vaill, '93, all in the department of Physics.

George W. Patterson, '88, Ernest W. Desper, '89, Ellis W. Lazell, '90, John F. Rogers, '91, and Edward L. Smith, '92, served similarly in the department of Chemistry. Arthur J. Bean, '89, was assistant in Drawing; James L. Barnes, '89, George W. Booth, '91, and Nathan Heard, '93, in Civil Engineering; Lee Russell, '88, and Arthur L. Rice, '91, in Mechanical Engineering; and Walter G. Wesson, '86, in Mathematics. Mr. Desper was promoted to instructor after two years and served until 1893. Mr. Rood became an instructor in 1891.

Four other young men, who were destined to become well-known members of the staff, began their teaching during that period. Alton L. Smith, '90, started that year as assistant in Drawing and Laboratory, and became an instructor two years later. Zelotes W. Coombs, another honor graduate from Amherst, came to the Institute from the University of Virginia in 1890. His first assignment was as clerk to the President and assistant in languages. He was promoted to instructor the following year, and in 1894 was granted leave for a year of study in Europe. Joseph Beals, '85, also an experienced teacher, became instructor in Mathematics in 1891. Daniel F. O'Regan, '91, was appointed instructor in Chemistry in 1893, when began the famous Kinnicutt-O'Regan alliance that lasted for nearly two decades.

The end of the college year 1891 brought deep regrets to faculty and students. "Tene" Eaton had resigned. Broken in health, he terminated his nineteen-year service as junior professor of Mathematics to seek the traditional fountain in California. How abundantly he found it is one of the finest testimonials to that state. He outlived all his contemporaries, and enjoyed a full life to the age of eighty-six.

To succeed Professor Eaton came Levi Leonard Conant, thirty-four, destined to become one of the most able and best

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999