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Robert DeCourcy WardSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Feb., 1932), pp. 192-194Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/15201 .
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192 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY
It was estimated by those in charge that about 18,000 visited the exhibition hall, demonstrating in the most effective manner that the exhibits were appre- ciated by the people of New Orleans. In a letter to the exhibitors written after the meeting Dr. D. S. Elliott, the chair- man of the local committee, said: "We of New Orleans and Tulane feel that you have helped to sensitize our community to the achievements and potentialities of science, and it is our opinion that you have rendered a splendid service to science .
Quite as interesting and diversified as the non-commercial exhibit was the com- mercial exhibit assembled by Colonel H. S. Kimberly and displayed in the Vene- tian Room of the Roosevelt Hotel. Six- teen firms, including dealers in all types of laboratory and class-room equipment, books, filing cabinets and biological sup- plies and specimens, cooperated in this exhibit. Much of the laboratory equip- ment shown was new, and a number of
appliances were here demonstrated for the first time.
The exhibits serve a most useful pur- pose in illustrating in a broad and gen- eral manner the association 's program. As we look back on former years it is difficult to understand how we ever got along without them.
The program is one thing, the local background quite another. Most impor- tant is the setting by means of which the meeting, of which the nucleus is the pro- gram, is made to harmonize with the background.
Nothing is self-accomplished. A har- monious meeting is the tangible result of well-directed, unremitting, more or less thankless work.
The association appreciates most keenly the unusually efficient and effec- tive manner in which the local commit- tee carried out its work, and tenders them its sincere and cordial thanks for a most unusual and suecessful meeting.
AUSTIN H. CLARK
ROBERT DeCOURCY WARD
ROBERT DECOURCY WARD was born in Boston on the 29th of November, 1867, and died in Cambridge on the 12th of November, 1931. He was the son of Henry Veazey and Anna Saltonstall (Merrill) Ward. Henry Ward, the father, spent much of his business life in Valparaiso, Chili, with the firm of commission merchants, Frederick Huth and Company of London. On retiring he came to live in Boston, then was ap- pointed consul from Chili at the court of Saxony. For this reason Robert was taken to Dresden when six months old, remained there four years, then a year in Lausanne, where his father died, a year in England and returned to Boston in 1874. He attended Boston schools, preparing for Harvard at Noble 's School. Entering college he graduated in 1889, sumntma cunt laude. In his junior year he became interested in studies of the atmosphere through courses taken with Professor Wm. M. Davis.
After graduating he spent a year in Europe, and returning in the autumn of 1890, became an assistant in geography and meteorology at Harvard. Later he became instructor, assistant professor and in 1910 professor of climatology. He was the first one to hold such a chair in America.
In 1897 he married Miss Emma Lane, of Saint Louis, who, with two sons and two daughters, also two sisters, survive him.
Ward had an intense interest in teaching and as a pioneer in his field did an immense amount to bring to- gether and assimilate the knowledge of his subject and put it in form for class instruction. Constantly revising his lec- tures and laboratory work he ever strove to give his students the essential prin- ciples of the subject and the fullest and latest information possible.
He was a great believer in field work, and to gather first-hand knowledge of his subject traveled extensively. He
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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 193
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ROBERT DECOURCY WARD LATE PROFESSOR OF CLIMATOLOGY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
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194 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY
was fond of the sea and in his younger days made nany trips to Europe; he went to South America three times, visited the West Indies, traveled in this country, and in 1929 went around the world.
Besides his teaching, which he kept up with most painstaking care, both in Harvard College and in Radcliffe, he did an immense amount of administrative work. He was on the administrative board of Harvard College for over thirty years, chairman of the board of freshman advisers for many years, also for several years chairman of the depart- ment of geology and geography. In addition he was at times a member of other faculty committees. Too much to require of a man, but he liked the work and did it with painstaking care and good judgment.
Outside of his active professional career he was deeply interested in safe- guarding the country from unlimited im- migration. From the early nineties he instituted and kept up by writing and interviewing an active effort to awaken and educate the American public on this important matter in which he became a recognized authority. With the late Prescott F. Hall, in 1894, he founded the Immigration Restriction League, the first organization of its kind in America. For over thirty years he was a member of the executive committee, part of the time chairman or president of the league. This interest his son Henry is carrying on.
Besides his teaching, administrative and immigration work he did a large amount of writing. He published "Practical Exercises in Elementary Meteorology," 1899; " Climate Consid- ered Especially in Relation to Man, " 1908, with a second edition, 1918; "The Climate of the United States," 1925; "Handbook of Climatology," 1903, a translation of the first volume of Hann's " Handbuch der Klimatologie. " Be- sides these, which are accepted as stan- dard books to-day, he published over 300 longer or shorter papers, and in addition numerous niotes or reviews on
topics connected with his work. His writing was always clear and concise, and is a remarkable proof of his dili- gence and ability. Everything that he did he did well and his publications are accepted by men competent to judge as those of a master in his subject. Read- ers of THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY will ap- preciate the great value of the nnmerous articles contributed by him to the maga- zine.
The death of Robert DeConrey Ward takes a man eminent in his chosen pro- fession and of exceptional nobility of character. Painstaking, carefnl, acen- rate in his work, whether teaching, writing or administrative, there was nothing loose or careless in his attitude. He was always to the point. Of a sensi- tive, nervous, highstrung temperament, he so planned his time that he accom- plished an extraordinary amount of work. Liberally generous with others, he was exacting with himself and un- sparing in devoted service to the univer- sity and to public affairs, in which he took so keen an interest.
He was always interested in the prac- tical application of his subject, climatol- ogy, to human affairs. A cultivated gentleman, with a gentleman's point of view, simple, unassuming, he was an example of what is best in a univer- sity man. As Dean Briggs said to me, "There was nothing finer than Ward anywhere." His going will make a great gap and many a sad heart.
It was my privilege to know Ward intimately, having been in his depart- ment at Harvard for many years, and also for years his next-door neighbor in Cambridge. His loyalty and devotion to his friends was an essential part of his life. His sense of what is right was of the highest order, and I have known him to do things very hard to do because of his keen sense of rectitude. His fine, up- right character, his loyalty and his sense of justice were an influence on all about him and will be an inspiring and beauti- ful memory to his friends.
ROBERT TRACY JACKSON
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