Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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ICmt ICrnnarli (Honant TO R. LEVI L. CONANT, Professor of Mathematics, for more than twenty-five years a member of the Institute Faculty, Senior Professor since 1911, was almost instantly killed by an auto truck, October 11, 1916. Levi Leonard Conant was born of old New England stock in Littleton, Mass., March 3, 1857. He prepared for college at Phillips Andover, graduating from Dartmouth in 1879. For eight years he was engaged in public school work in Minnesota and South Dakota, serving later for three years as instructor in the South Dakota School of Mines. The year 1890-91 he spent in graduate work in Math¬ ematics at Clark University. In 1891 Professor Conant was appointed Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Institute, succeeding Dr. T. E. N. Eaton, who had resigned owing to ill health. Prof. J. E. Sinclair was head of the department. He entered upon his duties in September, 1891, and his service was unbroken until his death. In 1 892 he was made Associate Professor of Mathematics; in 1899 Professor of Mathe¬ matics. When Professor Sinclair resigned in 1908, Professor Conant succeeded him as head of the department. In 1915, when the John E. Sinclair Professorship of Mathematics was created. Professor Conant was named its first incumbent. From 1911 to 1913, he served the Institution as Acting President, discharging the ar¬ duous duties of this position most creditably. Dartmouth College conferred upon Professor Conant the degree of Master of Arts in 1887, and in 1893 he secured the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Syracuse University. Busied as he always was with Institute affairs. Dr. Conant nevertheless found time to serve city and state. From 1900 to 1909 he was a member of the School Board of the city of Worcester, the last year being Chairman. From 1 909 to 1914 he was a member of the State Board of Education. Professor Conant was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advance¬ ment of Science, a member of the American Mathematical Society, also of the London Mathematical Society. He published several books. The Number Con¬ cept—Its Origin and Development; Original Exercises in Plane and Solid Geom¬ etry; Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, and Logarithmic and Trigonometric Ta¬ bles. He was engaged upon another work for publication at the time of his death.

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Professor Conant was twice married. A widow survives him. A devoted teacher. Dr. Conant never shirked Institute work outside the class¬ room. From the first he served on many and important committees. He was for years a member of the Committee on Athletics, long its Chairman. He was Chair¬ man of the Committee on Certification of Preparatory Schools from its inception in 1902; taking over later the Chairmanship of the Committee on Admission of Stu¬ dents. He served on other committees, also, and his service was as ungrudging and as conscientious as in the classroom. Pleasant of personality, a broad and excellent scholar, an able teacher. Pro¬ fessor Conant had endeared himself to students and alumni, to instructors and fac¬ ulty, to his fellow-citizens. His death came as a personal loss to hundreds who had known him and had esteemed him as man and as teacher. It was a tragic ending of a life, peaceful indeed, but most useful. For this life was a noble record of achievement, of duties met, of tasks fulfilled, of service rendered. So will his memory live with those among whom he labored, for whom he strove, whom he helped.