INTRODUCTION 3 



practically decided to finance Dr. Duncan's research in industrial chemistry 

 when A. W. Mellon made his gift of the Mellon Institute. If Mr. Mellon 

 had not anticipated the Colonel in financing Dr. Duncan's researches, it is 

 almost certain that there would not have been a Boyce Thompson Institute 

 nor a Mellon Institute under that name. 



After the death of Dr. Duncan, Dr. Raymond Foss Bacon, the next 

 Director of Mellon Institute, assumed the place of Dr. Duncan as a friend 

 and scientific counsellor to Colonel Thompson. It was with Dr. Bacon's 

 advice and assistance that plans for Boyce Thompson Institute developed. 

 It w^as also through Dr. Bacon's suggestion that Prof. John Merle Coulter 

 was called in to aid in developing plans for the Institute. 



One of the Colonel's most interesting friendships was that with Colonel 

 Raymond Robins, a well-knowTi social worker. Neither had met before being 

 appointed to the Russian Red Cross Commission in 1917, and both appar- 

 ently avoided meeting as long as possible after going on the Commission. 

 Colonel Robins was said to have asked, "\\Tiy was that several-sorts of a 

 plutocrat, Thompson, appointed on the Commission?" Thompson was sup- 

 posed to have asked a like question about that several-sorts of a socialist. 

 WTien they did meet and exchange views, they found themselves in agree- 

 ment on most matters, even on social views, and especially on the social 

 needs of Russia at that time. As one reads the operation of this Commission 

 as reported in "The IMagnate,"^ he is inclined to believe that if the ad- 

 vice of Thompson and Robins had been followed by the Allies, including 

 our o^^^l country, Russia would have been kept active on the Eastern front 

 and the future history of Russia would have been very different. The 

 Thompson-Robins recommendation that the Allies authorize Kerensky to 

 parcel out the land of Russia immediately to the peasants and let the 

 remuneration for the land rest for later adjustment, brought a loud howl 

 of disapproval from the Allies. Also, the recommendation that Russia be 

 given adequate material help of all kinds fell on deaf ears. Even when 

 Kerensky lost out to the Soviets and Lenin, largely because of his failure 

 to distribute the land to the peasants, Thompson and Robins still recom- 

 mended full cooperation mth Russia. This was still more bitterly opposed 

 by the Allies, and both the magnate and the socialist, now mutually called 

 "Chief" and "Panther," were considered dangerous radicals. A friendship 

 which started and grew under the trying conditions of the Red Cross Com- 

 mission in Russia was intensified with time and association only to be ended 

 by the death of Colonel Thompson in 1930. 



As a boy and throughout life, the Colonel seemed to have two deep-seated 

 longings: a desire to understand the logical order behind life and the uni- 

 verse, and a longing for beauty. Neither of these longings received much 

 satisfaction in the rough, helter-skelter, sulfur dioxide-scorched Butte of 

 that day. The Colonel was very fond of his cultured, sympathetic mother, 

 who also had a keen sense for beauty. His father was stern, with a strict 

 Methodist interpretation of conduct and with little understanding of the 



