Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 181

Board of Education, died March 1, 1896. Judge Aldrich was eighty-one, yet up to a few months before his death he had been as faithful an attendant at trustee meetings as he had been throughout the eighteen years of his service. He had been a vigorous president for eleven years, during which he accomplished much for the Institute. His passing brought sorrow not only to trustees and faculty of the college but to Worcester and the State, which he had served with equal fidelity as associate justice of the Superior Court. Mr. Rice had been a member of the Corporation since 1869. Throughout twenty-seven years his counsel had been helpful to the Board, and he had served on important committees. He also was mourned by the community, for in addition to his service as mayor and as a member of Congress, he was president of the Free Public Library and a trustee of Clark University.

In June, 1895, the Trustees elected Stephen Salisbury to succeed judge Aldrich as president. He accepted with reluctance and on condition that he be relieved the following October, yet he continued to serve in this capacity until shortly before his death ten years later. The successor to Mr. Rice, nominated by the State Board of Education, was Hon. Frank P. Goulding, who joined the Corporation in 1896. He was a leading member of the Massachusetts bar, an authority on water rights and corporation law, and a keen student of ancient and oriental languages. A graduate of Dartmouth in 1863, he had subsequently studied law in Mr. Hoar's office. At the time of his election as a trustee he was fifty-eight. His term of service was but five years, for he died September 16, 1901.

Elmer P. Howe, class of 1871, was elected in 1897 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of judge Aldrich, the second Institute graduate to be so honored. He was then forty-five, and had gained prominence as an expert in patent and corporation law. Having supplemented his Institute training by a course at Yale, he studied law in Boston and in Mr. Hoar's office, and had been admitted to practice in 1878.

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