ABBOTT LAWUKNCK KOTCII. Sift 



ABBOT LAWRENCE ROTCH. 



Abbott Lawrknce Rotcii was born in IJoston, January (3, 1861, 

 the son of Benjamin Smith and Anna Bif^eiow (Lawrence) Rotch. 

 He was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 (S.B.) in 18S4. In 1891 Harvard recognized the importance of the 

 work wliich lie had already a('('onii)lished by bestowing upon him the 

 honorary degree of A.M. From 1888 to 1891, and again from 1902 to 

 190(>, he held the appointment of assistant in meteorology at Har\'ard, 

 a position which involved no teaching and in which no salary was 

 paid. In 1906 he was appointed professor of meteorology, an honor 

 which he prize<l very highl\-, and which gave him the position on the 

 teaching staff of the university to which he was in every way fully 

 entitled. He was the first professor of meteorology who has occupied 

 that position at Harvard, and he served in this professorship without 

 pay. In the year 1908-09, at the request of the department of geology 

 and geography, he generously put the splendid instrumental equip- 

 ment an<l library of Blue Hill Observatory at the service of the uni- 

 versity, by offering a research course ("Geology 20f") to students 

 who were competent to carry on investigations in advanced meteorol- 

 ogy. This action on the part of Professor Rotch gave Harvard a 

 position wholly unique among the universities of the United States. 

 It brought about a close affiliation, for purposes of instruction and of 

 research, between the university and one of the best-equipped meteoro- 

 logical observatories in the world. To his work as instructor Professor 

 Rotch gladly gave of his time and of his means. He fully realized 

 the unusual advantages which he was thus enabled to offer those stu- 

 dents who were devoting themselves to the science of meteorology, 

 anfl the experience of the men who had the privilege of his ad\ice 

 and help in the work at Blue Hill shows clearly how much they profited 

 by this opportunity. Only a short time before his death he had 

 expressed the wish to bring about a still closer connection, for purposes 

 of instruction, between the university and Blue Hill Observatory. 

 He thus showed his appreciation of the importance of the new field 

 of work which he had undertaken. 



\\'hile thus planning still further u.sefulness for his observatory; 

 in the midst of a life singularly active; with an ever-widening sphere 

 of scientific influence and a constantly increasing importance of his 

 contributions to meteorology, Professor Rotch died suddenly in Boston 

 on .\jiril 7, 1912, in the fifty-second year of his age. His wife, wlio was 



