Hanover College - Revonah Yearbook (Hanover, IN)

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NATIONAL HANOVERIANS 18

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Reginald Heber Thomson, class of 1877 Hanover College, was born in the village of Hanover in 1856. He received later the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater and in 1903 the degree of Ph. D. His life has been spent very largely on the Pacific coast and most of it in the city of Seattle, where since 1882 he has been connected with the most remarkable piece of municipal engineering in this country. He has had exclusive charge of the design and construction of Seattle municipal improvements since 1892, requiring an expen- diture of over $30,000,000, including the building of streets, the leveling of hills, the filling of valleys, and a gravity water system conveying the city ' s water supply from a mountain stream 28 miles distant. In addition to all of this he has been interested in municipal and mining engineering at Spokane ; is the consulting engineer of the Water Board of Portland, Oregon ; has been a member of the Advisory Board to the governor of Washington since 1909, and has been active in the work of professional associations. He is located at Seattle, Washington. Walter Lowrie Fisher, class of 1883 Hanover College, practiced law in the city of Chicago from 1888 until called by President Taft in 1911 to become his Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Fisher, by virtue of his great ability and untiring labor has earned the reputation of being the most able member of the Chicago bar. True to the characteristics of Hanover men, ] Ir. Fisher has found time in the midst of his professional duties to render his city and country conspicuous service in many ways. He has been an active factor in the Municipal Voters ' League of Chicago for many years as member of the executive committee, secretary and president. The marked improvement in the government of our great inland city is due chiefly to Mr. Fisher. He has also been vice-president of the National Conservation Association ; president of the Conservation League of America, and vice-president of the National Municipal League. Possibly his greatest service to the city of Chicago has been rendered in his capacity as Traction Counsel. His administration thus far in the Department of the Interior of the United States government gives evidence of the establishment there of the same high standards of efficiency and disinter- ested citizenship which have made Walter L. Fisher one of the great men of America. Union Noble Bethell was born in Newberg, Indiana, September 12, 1859. He graduated from Hanover in 1879, receiving the degree of A. M. In 1885 he graduated from Columbia Law School, being admitted to practice the same year in the District of Columbia and later in Indiana and still later in the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Noble entered the telephone service in 1889, and shortly after taking a position with the New York and New Jersey Company in Brooklyn, he was made secretary and treasurer. He became gen- eral manager of the New York Telephone Company in 1893, and in 1901 was made president of the company operating in Washington, Baltimore and the surrounding territories. Successively he assumed the management of the sev- eral Bell telephone companies operating throughout the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. These companies, grouped inta one operating unit, with Mr. Bethell at the head cover a territory of about 125,000 square miles. There are more than a million and a quarter of telephone stations, with a plant investment of $175,000,000 and over 31,000 employees. Such is the ship of which Mr. Bethell stands at the helm. He has long since proved himself capable of the task. Like other Hanover men, Mr. Bethell was con- scientious and made a study of details, and is to-day acknowledged to be one of the very foremost experts on telephone operation in the world. In recog- nition of this fact and particularly for his work in adapting the telephone to conditions in Japan, the Mikado, in 1909, conferred upon ] Ir. Bethell the Order of the Rising Sun. 17

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Necrology William D. Marshall, class of 1885, died at Seymour, Ind., June 4, 1908. Samuel P. Dale, class of 1865, died at Carson City, Colo., September 14, 1910. Rev. Eberle W. Thomson, class of 1872, died at Fulton, Mo., June, 1911. Rev. W. W. Sickels, class of 1850, died in Indianapolis, November 11, 1911. Thomas J. McElrath, class of 1858, died at Newton, Kans., November 24, 1911. Mrs. Victoria Arbuekle Hunter, class of 1885, died in San Francisco, CaL, June 15, 1911. Rev. G. W. Giboney, D. D., class of 1884, died at Portland, Oregoaa, December 18, 1911. Hon. A. C. Voris, class of 1855, died at Bedford, Ind., December 4, 1911. Rev. John McMurray, class of 1857, died at Georgetown, Texas, January 25, 1912. 19