Ivi CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



personal contributions in mone}- have been over two hundred thousand dollars, 

 and no doubt it has been largely due to his personality and to the work he has 

 done for the Cooper Union that generous donors not related to Mr. Cooper have 

 made it the recipient of their munificent contributions to its endowment fund. 



William Earl Dodge. 



William E. Dodge, of New York, was the first person elected by 

 the Trustees of the Carnegie Institution to membership in the Board. 

 Their estimate of his character has been giv^en upon a preceding 

 page, and now a brief summary of the events of his life will be added. 



Our colleague bore the full name of his father, William E. Dodge, 

 once a member of Congress, eminent for his virtues as a merchant, 

 a philanthropist, and a public-spirited citizen. The son was born 

 in New York, February 15, 1832, and throughout his long life was 

 connected, in one capacity or another, with most of the commercial, 

 religious, and beneficent institutions of the metropolis. In many 

 of them he had an hereditary interest. For fifty-three years he 

 was connected with the house of Phelps, Dodge, and Co. , of which at 

 his death he was the senior member. As his j^ears advanced, his 

 influence increased, and his counsel was sought in the promotion 

 of many important enterprises. Originally engaged in the importa- 

 tion of metals, he subsequently took part in various mining and 

 manufacturing industries and in railroad transportation. He became 

 a Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Natural History, and of the 

 Botanical and Zoological Gardens of New York. The Columbia 

 School of Mines honors him among its earliest friends. He gave 

 liberally to many colleges, and among them he was particularly in- 

 terested in the Teachers' College of New York. Of the Young 

 Men's Christian Association in New York he was one of the earliest 

 members, and of the Evangelical Alliance a lifelong supporter. In 

 the promotion of Southern education he was a wise counselor, and 

 the advocacy of international arbitration lay very near his heart. In 

 the lapse of time his services in the United vStates Sanitary Commis- 

 sion ma)^ have passed from remembrance, but they were important, 

 and recently his influence in the monetar)- conference at Indianap- 

 olis was most useful. His good deeds are well enumerated in the 

 following words by Dr. h. T. Chamberlain, who knew him well : 



His executive force was in keeping with his rare perception. In passing 

 from principle to practice, he lost no whit of his preeminence. He knew men. 

 He understood means and measures. Though not of stalwart ph5'sique, his 

 capacity for toil was prodigious. Neither did difficulties appal him, nor delays 



