ALFRED PERKINS ROCKWELL. . QSS 



Other hand, the freedom from prejudice, the progressive tendency, and 

 the ideal proclivities which belong more commonly to Americans. He 

 seemed to himself to have accomplished nothing;' and yet he had indi- 

 rectly aided a great many men by the elevation of his tone and the 

 breadth of his intellectual sympathy. If he did not greatly help to 

 stimulate the thought of his time, he helped distinctly to enlarge and 

 ennoble it. His death occurred at Brookline on Jan. 16, 1903. He 

 died as he had lived, a high-minded, stainless, and in some respects 

 unique type of American citizen. 



ALFRED PERKINS ROCKWELL. 



The death of Alfred Perkins Rockwell removes one more of the few 

 remaining men who, just entering upon a scientific career, dropped all 

 personal aims at the first call of his country. Fortunately General 

 Rockwell was able to re-enter his chosen profession as professor of mining 

 at the Sheffield Scientific School, where he had been a student after his 

 graduation from Yale University in 1855. In 1868 he was called to the 

 same chair at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he con- 

 tributed not a little to the success of that department. 



Instruction in mining in this country was at that time largely descrip- 

 tive, by lectures, since laboratory methods were not then developed. 



General Rockwell's administrative ability was soon more fully utilized 

 as chief of the fire department of the city of Boston after the great fire 

 of 1872, and subsequently as president of the Eastern Railroad Company. 

 To these civic duties he brought the same high standard of duty, the 

 same loyalty to the right, the same power of organization, which brought 

 him during three years of the civil war from a volunteer second lieu- 

 tenant to brevet brigadier general. Good judgment in placing his forces 

 and courage in leading them to success characterized his services in these 

 positions. While only a captain he was commended by three generals 

 on three occasions within a year. 



The Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal 

 Legion showed its regard for the man and its appreciation of his services 

 by electing him to its council in 1870 and 1871, as its senior vice-com- 

 mander in 1877, and as its commander in 1878. 



His paper on the " Operations against Charleston, 1860," contributed 

 to the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, and his careful and 



