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health forced Elmer P. Howe to resign his position as trustee after
eighteen years on the Board. The Trustees chose as his successor
George I. Rockwood, '88, president of the Alumni Association, inventor
and manufacturer.
The death of G. Henry Whitcomb, February 13, 1916, broke the
fifty-year continuity of family membership on the Board begun by his
father, David Whitcomb. When he resigned from committee assignments
two years earlier, he had proposed that his son be elected to succeed
him, but the Trustees did not discuss the proposal. Mr. Whitcomb was
reputed to be worth several millions, all of which he bequeathed to
his family. The same year the Board lost the services of Dr. Allyn
K. Foster, who had accepted a call to a Brooklyn church.
Financial problems of the Corporation were still perplexing even with
increased appropriations from the State. Invested funds amounted to
only $600,000 when Dr. Hollis took office, and annual income from this
source was less than $27,000. Tuition and fees yielded about
$74,000. Total expenditures in 1912-13 were about $135,000, of which
$82,000 was for salaries for a staff of fifty teachers. The Washburn
Shops were doing only a small volume of business and about breaking
even, though their indebtedness to the Institute treasurer increased
to $7,300. One of the first tasks assumed by Dr. Hollis was an
exhaustive study of Institute finances, including a distribution of
endowment according to original designations of the donors. This
distribution at the end of the year 1913-14 assigned to endowment for
general purposes $481,750, including real estate valued at $34,750; to
endowment for designated purposes $325,930; and to endowment expended
for plant $698,400. Dr. Hollis also revised the Institute accounting
system to make it conform with a system recommended by the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, adding a few ideas of his
own.
The gain in total endowment in 1913 was from two sources, both of
which were unanticipated. The will of Miss
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