Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 44

Professor Thompson came to Worcester in April, 1868, for long periods of discussion with the trustees. Shortly before sailing for Ireland in May, he submitted a carefully studied memorandum on the scope of the Institute, conditions of admission, faculty, and related subjects. In part, he stated that:

The school is intended to furnish an education based on the natural sciences, the mathematics, and the modern languages. It is not to be a place where boys can learn trades, nor is it to be regarded as an easy road to knowledge. It is believed that a rigid drill in mathematics, a careful culture of the sense of proportion and form by means of drawing, a training of the power of accurate observation in the natural sciences, and the mastery of at least one modern language besides the English, is the best preparation a boy can make for the practical duties of life.

In this memorandum, Thompson also proposed that completion of a high-school course be a condition of admission, that a written examination be required, and that the Institute course be four years. He also suggested the immediate appointment of one whom he had named as professor of theoretical and practical Mechanics, and of Miss Harriet Goodrich as instructor in elementary Mathematics. Miss Goodrich, an alumna of Mount Holyoke, who had been his assistant at Arlington, was appointed by the trustees in June, at a salary of $700. Incidentally, she was Mrs. Thompson's sister, a daughter of Dr. Horace Goodrich, a woman of great mental capacity and of high ideals. She retired after one year at the Institute because of impaired health, but at the time of her death in 1926 had outlived all of her early associates.

At this June meeting in 1868 the trustees also considered two other teachers: George E. Gladwin for the post of instructor in drawing, and Milton P. Higgins for superintendent of the shop. Mr. Gladwin was accepted on a part-time basis, and Mr. Higgins was invited to come to Worcester for an interview.

Gladwin, a man of thirty-nine, had opened a studio in Worcester three or four years previously, having been attracted

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