University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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T is the happy experience of most American colleges to have, at some time in their history, some man who nurtures and loves them with such devotion as to make his memory beautiful for all time. In the history of Western University of Pennsylvania, William Thaw was one of these men. In 11X64 he was one of the largest contributors to the $20,000 endowment of the chair of Natural Sciences, but for years previously he and Josiah King had provided the annual salary. In 1875 lie gave to permanent endowment $100,000. To the )bservatory he gave $30,000. In his will he bequeathed to the University another $100,000. Me contributed other sums from time to time. The writer has not at hand the data which show the exact aggregate, but it is doubtless as much as $400,000. 'The money, large as it was—in that day vastly larger than the same sum would be today—was not. as the record shows, the largest of his gifts; for his anxious thought, his tender solicitude and devotion, his loyal and unwavering affection, were worth even more than the money. As the University enters upon a new period in its history, we ardently hope and confidently expect that both love and gifts will be lavished upon it without stint, in emulation of the worthy example set by this man. to whose memory this volume is dedicated. Chanckllor S. L . McCormick. “My compensation conies to me in the having done somewhat of that which a man with my means ought to do for his kind, with the exceptional satisfaction of having the privilege of giving to the race, so far as mere material means can do it. the labors and results which might otherwise have been delayed or defeated. Wuxi am Thaw. A great man, not only as a philanthropist in the largest sense of that word, but one whose whole life was characterized by that love of truth, which prompted him to noble deeds in behalf of advanced scientific research, and in developing a knowledge of the good and beautiful in nature, lie shall always live in our memory. The monuments he has left behind him have been hewn from the quarries of solid truths—truths that shall live when monuments of granite have crumbled into dust: aye, until the stars themselves have faded, and the new dawn has been ushered in. 8 John Ai.prkd Urashkar.

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