Lowell moved to Brookline, where he lived for many years, both summer and winter, and which was always his home. Here he died on the twenty-second day of June, 1900. His wife had died some years previously.

He left five children,- three daughters and two sons, both of whom are members of the Corporation of the Institute, and one, his successor as trustee of the Lowell Lecture Fund, has taken his father's place on its executive committee.

THORNTON K. LOTHROP.

SILAS WHITCOMB HOLMAN

CLASS OF '76, M. I. T.

(Died April 1, 1900)

Silas Holman was one of the noblest men that I have known. He had a keen intellect; a strength of purpose that triumphed over the limitations of his frail body; a heroic, steadfast, and cheerful spirit, undaunted and unimbittered by keenest misfortune; a kindly, gentle nature; and a pure heart. heart. He He spent the twenty best years of his life in earnest service as instructor and professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working earnestly to inculcate high ideals, enjoying to a remarkable degree the respect and affection of his students and of all his associates. Such as he had, and all that he had, he gave; and those who knew him well will not hesitate to name him among the remarkable benefactors of our Alma Mater.

PERSONAL RELATIONS

He was born in the pleasant country town of Harvard, Massachusetts, January 20, 1856. His father was Silas Whitcomb Holman, of Harvard, a descendant of the Whitcomb and Eveleth families of Bolton and Stowe, who were among the earliest settlers of these old Massachusetts towns, one of his ancestors on the Eveleth side having been the earliest settled minister in Stowe. His mother was Anna Elizabeth Homer, of Boston, a descendant of the Homer and Davis families of that city. Silas was their only child. His father died a few weeks previous to his birth, and dur

ing his infancy his mother took him with her to Cambridge to live. Left thus alone, the welfare of her only son became her main thought. The son responded faithfully. The mother was a woman of charming character, and from her influence and from this mutual devotion came much of his gentleness.

Here in Cambridge he lived and passed his boyhood, attending the public schools, the excellence of which has always been noteworthy; and in June, 1872, he had completed three years of the four years' course of the Cambridge High School. He then determined to enter the Institute of Technology, and gave the long summer vacation to studious preparation and entered the regular course of the Institute in October, 1872, thus becoming a member of the class of 1876. With the beginning of the school year in 1873 certain new regular courses of study were established, one of these being the course in physics; and for this our friend promptly enrolled himself.

My recollections of him at about this time are of a young man of slender figure, but tall, of ordinary muscular strength, full of life, enjoying fun, and awake to all that might properly interest a student. Classes at the Institute were in those days small in comparison with present classes, but '76 with its 127 students was by far the largest class that had entered up to that time. Crowded accommodations caused a very thorough weeding out and the financial panic of '73 forced some good men to withdraw, so that only 42 of its members continued through the four years as regulars and received their degrees; but this was still a large class for those days, and, indeed, not until ten years more had passed did a class of equal numbers enter or graduate. We believe this large class had its fair proportion of bright young men, and among them Holman was