Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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Professors George H. Haynes, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Political Science. “ Somewhat apart from the village and nearer the basin of Minas.’’ A little change in wording of this line from Longfellow gives the position of “Jinny” with respect to the other things on the Hill. “ Somewhat apart from mere science and nearer the problems of living ” would be a fitting version. Not forgetting the good that we got out of “Jinny’s” meteoric lectures we look back at them with a smile. It was always a time when the unexpected was likely to happen and it usually did. Either there would be an enlight¬ ening dissertation on the complexity of the married state in relation to woman’s suffrage or a few sarcasms on Schedule K or the Oregon system. Such gentle irony concealed behind a deep and sonorous voice seemed scarcely possible of issuance from a body of such delusive proportions. “ I might remark in pars-sing ” that “Jinny ” hails from Johns-Hopkins, after a few active years at Amherst. We have our suspicions that those Amherst years had “ active ” spelled with a large A and a question mark, although we lack evidence. “ Jinny ” had three whacks at us. Two of them made us read the papers and think we were politicians, and the third had us guessing whether Smith could sue Jones as a common carrier or whether A had a lien on B as a bailee. Most of the time we had to “ lean ” on the way “Jinny” put the question. Be all these as they may, to “ Jinny ” we owe a great debt. It was he who first set us thinking of the great and noble attributes of true manhood and honest citizenship. Beyond the scope of his assigned subjects he taught us to be cultured as he was cultured, kind as he was kind and above all to be a gentleman as he was a gentleman in every sense of the word. And before all science and engineering has been mastered, has he not touched on the things that are to make our lives worth something to the world? 20

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Faculty Levi L. Conant, Ph.D., Acting President and Professor of Mathematics. John E. Sinclair, Ph.D., Professor of Higher Mathematics, Emeritus. George H. Haynes, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Political Science. Walter L. Jennings, Ph.D., Professor of Organic Chemistry. Zelotes Wood Coombs, A.M., Professor of English, French and German. Harold B. Smith, M.E., Professor of Electrical Engineering. Arthur Willard French, C.E., Professor of Civil Engineering. A. Wilmer Duff, D.Sc., Professor of Physics. William W. Bird, S.B., Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Alton L. Smith, M.S., Professor of Drawing and Machine Design. Charles M. Allen, M.S., Professor of Hydraulic Engineering. Joseph 0. Phelon, M.M.E., Professor of Electrical Engineering. Albert S. Richey, E.E., Professor of Electric Railway Engineering. Carleton A. Read, S.B., Professor of Steam Engineering. Edward L. Hancock, M.S., Professor of Applied Mechanics. Arthur W. Ewell, Ph.D., Professor of Physics. Arthur D. Butterfield, M.S., A.M., Professor of Mathematics. Howard Chapin Ives, C.E., Assistant Professor of Railroad Engineering. David L. Gallup, M.E., Assistant Professor of Gas Engineering. Carl D. Knight, E.E., Assistant Professor of Experimental Electrical Engineering. Frederick Bonnet, Jr., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Robert C. Sweetser, S.B., Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry. Clarence A. Pierce, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theoretical Electrical Engineering. Died, Oct. 1, 1911. 19

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Walter Lewis Jennings, Pli.D., Professor of Organic Chemistry “ Beily ” graduated from Harvard in 1889 with some lore of classics and much skill in tennis. Three years later he became the Herr Doctor, and then, in order that he might enjoy the Herr part of it, he studied at Berlin and Heidelberg for two years. With distinctly German tastes in certain lines he came to Tech as Assistant Professor of Physics, being pro¬ moted soon after to Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Now you will find him at the head of the stairs in the “ Chem Building,” very much at the head of the Department. We understand that his only disappointment in his latest elevation is that the pressure of department business detracts from his peregrinations as head of the “ Old Sleuth Detective Agency.” Freshman year the guilty learned to hide in his slop jar when “ Moon- face ” was approaching, being careful first to turn the shoes on his feet and walk from the jar of his neighbor to that at his own desk. Sophomore year we learned that “ if one can whistle, two can whistle,” and that the man nearest the door must needs be an efficient crows-nester. Junior year we approached Organic with fear and trembling, but his lectures on the alcohols exterminated the last teetotaler, and thereafter we had for him, in spite of his pet eight o’clocks, a kindred feeling. Senior year we came to really know him. You must certainly hand it to him that he is SOME lec¬ turer, in spite of the “ errr-ah.” He’s the Chemikers’ “ Little Pater,” and we love him accordingly, even to the indolence which is his only limitaton. Zelotes Wood Coombs, A.M., Professor of English, French and German Coombs is surely a blessing to the Freshman Class. When we were in that premature state we all swore allegiance to his colors. What did we care if the things he said had been by-words of Freshman classes years before we came? What did it matter if we heard about the historic trip to Wachusett or the “ benefits of physical training to the Engineering student ” until they were our by-words? They amused us then and benefitted us, and we cared not a whit who had heard them before. He took an interest in athletics and was always ready to praise or comfort as the case might be. During the past year he made himself famous by the great Umbrella Episode in Boynton Hall. We wish to remember “ Coombsie ” in the years to come, after we leave the old Hill, as we knew him when we were but Freshmen. We will always think of him as a generous hearted, hard working gentleman who remembers every man among us and has a warm place in his heart for the boys who once passed in themes “ with commendable regularity.” 21