JONATHAN INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 437 



Mr. Bovvditch was also a benefactor of the Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology, and a member of its Corporation and of its Financial 

 Committee. 



In addition to all these public interests Mr. Bowditch for many- 

 years had the management of large and important private trusts, es- 

 pecially of estates of widows and orphans, — a charge in which equal 

 reliance was placed, and never misplaced, in his painstaking fidelity, 

 his far-seeing prudence, and his financial skill. It is impossible to 

 overestimate the benefit conferred on dependent families by the ad- 

 ministration of trusts of this class in the hands of men who, like Mr. 

 Bowditch, employ the treasured experience and wisdom of a lifetime 

 for the security and well-being of those who cannot take due thought 

 for tlaemselves. 



It would be difiicult to name any public charity, or any enterprise 

 for the welfare of the community, which has not ha4 aid and further- 

 ance from Mr. Bowditch. He was a liberal giver, and in a good 

 cause he knew how to elicit gifts, even from those whose sympathies 

 are not easily moved. He could, almost in a literal sense, command 

 resources where others might plead in vain. His private character 

 gave weight to his influence. Truth, honor, purity, and benignity, 

 while they were manifested in his relations with society and the out- 

 side world, made him unspeakably precious in the more intimate circle 

 of home, kindred, and friends. Impulsive, but with only generous 

 impulses ; free-spoken, but with the freedom of one who has nothing to 

 hide ; with quick indignation, but only for meanness and depravity, — 

 he has left the memory of a truly noble life, and a void place in the 

 community, larger and more diversified than it is often the lot of any 

 one man to fill. He retained much of his working power and active 

 usefulness till he had passed his eightieth year, though the last few 

 months of his life were a season of decline and infirmity. 



IMr. Bowditch was happy in his domestic life and relations. He 

 married, in 1836, Lucy Orne Nichols, daughter of Benjamin R. and 

 Mary (Pickering) Nichols, and granddaughter of Timothy Picker- 

 ing. She died several years ago. Of their eight children, six, three 

 sons and three daughters, reached years of maturity, and are all still 

 living. 



