Bowdoin College - Bugle Yearbook (Brunswick, ME)

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TO WILLIAM LeBARON PUTNAM, LL.D. THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE Class of 1910

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WILLIAM LeBARON PUTNAM, LL.D.

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WILLIAM LeBARON PUTNAM, LL.I). For many years, the name of William LeBaron Putnam has stood among those of the trustees of Bowdoin College. “For a quarter of a century, as chan- man of our finance committee, he has borne the burden of our financial problems from the largest responsibility for investment down to the smallest detail of ex- penditure.” He has given unsparingly of time and labor to the interests of his Alma Mater. Bowdoin’s present financial prosperity owes a vast debt to Judge Putnam. The college is stronger and safer for his brains. And her students though they too seldom sec him face to face, are continually confronted with tin- evidence of his service. Judge Putnam was born in Bath, May 12, 1835. At the age of sixteen he entered Bowdoin with the class of 1855. While in college, he distinguished himsel f as a diligent student. Of his marvelous powers of application, some one has said. “He will work twenty-five hours out of every twenty-four”; and this seems to have been true of him while in college. He joined the Chi Psi fraternity: and, though naturally shy, his sterling qualities were universally admired. One of his classmates writes of him as follows, “There were few in the class of whose ap- pearance and manner in our student days, I have a more distinct recollection. Physically he was tall and straight. Intellectually, he was in the front rank of his classmates, not noticeably brilliant but strong, not worried by any recitation, and making us feel that he had a reserve of power. If one had been a prophet, he might have seen in Putnam a future judge. I doubt if those most intimate with him ever saw him greatly excited, or when lie lacked complete self-possession. Judge Putnam as a student not only had the respect of all his classmates for his ability, but, by his bearing towards them, he won from all the most kindly feeling. There was recognition of his weight of character; and no surprise has been felt by those who knew him during his college life, in view of his achievements and the high positions which he has reached and filled.” Judge Putnam graduated in 1855, with the award of Phi Beta Kappa and the assignment of the English oration, an honor given to the first man in the class.