Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 207

resources. Death played its part in the transition, for it took from the Corporation in 1904 its senior member, George F. Hoar, and in 1905 its president, Stephen Salisbury.

Few if any of Senator Hoar's contemporaries appraised him otherwise than as the foremost citizen of Massachusetts, an estimate that did not diminish with the years. As one of the most valued counsellors among the elder statesmen, he had been offered and had refused some of the highest posts in the United States diplomatic service. He was always accessible, however, to those who were promoting charitable or educational projects, and he served as trustee or director of many institutions. From the day when Dr. Sweetser and Emory Washburn first aroused his interest in John Boynton's proposal, he had been an ardent supporter of the Institute and its program, even though in the later years of his life he had been relatively inactive as a trustee.

Mr. Salisbury's fidelity to the Institute was constant throughout the twenty-one years of his trusteeship. He was its most generous individual benefactor. That some of his contemporaries considered him valuable less for what he was than for what he possessed was not to their credit. A slow, mild-mannered gentleman, he might not have achieved much success in life but for his inheritance from his father, yet he administered his holdings shrewdly, held various responsible offices with dignity, and was wise in his philanthropies. In June, 1905, he had declined reelection as president of the Board of Trustees. He was then seventy. The announcement of his serious illness in November was the cause of much concern, and his death a week later was a shock to the entire community. His funeral was made noteworthy by the number who attended and by the profound eulogy delivered by Dr. Edward Everett Hale.

How had Stephen Salisbury disposed of his wealth? This was a consuming question throughout the city. Many were confident that the bulk of it would go to the Institute. The trustees had left little ground for doubt that they would

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