Williams College - Gulielmensian Yearbook (Williamstown, MA)

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l'1lil'lN BURT PARSONS, D, D

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Volume LVII, 1914 Charles Laurence Deke, M.A., Assistant in Geology Was gr:ulu:n,lefl from the University of Wi:-:eonsin with KDBK rank in 1911. Received his M. A. from Wisconsin in 1912. Fellow mul Assislzamt in Geology ut Wisconsin in 1912. Came lo lVilli:Lms :Ls Assistnnlx in Geology in 1912. llflr. Duke is n lm-mher ol' the Ac-nr-ini l4'rnlernit.y :mel the PA :xml EE Societies. Charles Frederick Seeley, Director of the Gymnasium Was Physical Direetor :Lt Leliigll University, from which he wus culled to Williams in 1883. W' 1 Q, fN I Q Sw 1 ,wid

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Volume LVII. 1914 27 Eben Burt Parsons, D. D. 3 March 1835 13 January 1914 Eben Burt Parsons, Doctor of Divinity, died at his home in Williamstown on January '24-, 1913. A native of Berkshire County, he received his early edu- cation in the high school at Pittsfield and was graduated f1'o1n Williams College in 1859. Industry in the search for knowledge brought to him high honors in scholarship wl1icl1 he always cherished as the chief end of undergraduate life. He consecrated his life to the ministry, pursued with zealous devotion the work of preparation in the Union Seminary and at Auburn, and after a brief service as chaplain in the army of the North entered upon the pastorate of the Pres- byterian Church of Baldwinsville, New York, where, for twenty-two years, he faithfully ministered to a devoted parish. In the year 1888 he responded to the call of Williams and became Registrar of the college and Secretary to the Faculty. It was here that the sons of Williams came to know him well, and this brief record of his devotion is a tribute of appreciation of the service that he gave to the College and of the rare quality of his manhood. In these modern days of fuller equipment and of mechanical assistance in the detail of office work it is difficult to measure the accomplishment of his labors. To that portion of his work that was largely clerical he brought infinite patience and untiring industry, and in the other manifold duties of his department he rendered loyal service, un- grudgingly bestowed and distinguished always by the courtesy and forgetfulness of self that were his innate characteristics. He was ever too modest to realize the amount of work that his zeal made possible. Nothing was irksolne if, by assuming it, he could render an act of kindness or further the purposes of the college whose welfare was ever in his thoughts. To him every labor, even of the smallest detail, was an offering of love to his Alma Mattel' and a part of a sacred trust. Prolonged correspondence, tedious interviews with doting but irrational parents, the assembling of information for the records of his department, required industry, tact, and skill, and of these he possessed an inexhaustible store. Years ago, before Dr. Parsons made his home in Williamstown, the writer, then a fresh- man editor of a college periodical and in sore distress for material, asked him for a few alumni notes . A generous supply came forthwith and from time to time afterwards, all written in that familiar hand that college generations of Williams men came to know so well. It was no small task to pen these many items amid countless demands upon his time, but of time and strength Dr. Parsons had enough when there came an opportunity to help his fellow men. We recognize in him, unsparing of self, devoted to the best traditions of the college he loved so well, a conspicuous example of fidelity and loyalty. Respected by all, loved by his friends for the simple faith and trust that made him tender, good, and true, he sleeps scarce an arrow's fiight from the room in Hopkins Hall which we who knew him will always associate with his sweet and gentle spirit. In pace re- quiescat! Sanborn Gave Tenney