June 1. 1916.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



485 



The Obituary Record. 



A THJROUGH EUBEI-.R MAN. 



LK B.\KON" C. COLT, vice-president and general manager of 

 the National India Rubber Co., Bristol, Rhode Island, died 

 at his home in that town May 25, the result of a motor ac- 

 cident described in the Rhode Island letter, printed on another 

 page in this issue. 



He was born Febninry 27. 1877, at Bristol, the only son of United 

 States Senator 1. i -It and .Mary Louise (Ledyard) 



Colt. After attending 

 the public schools he 

 entered Brown Uni- 

 versity, and on his 

 graduation from that 

 institution, entered the 

 employ of the Na- 

 tional India Rubber 

 Co. as an apprentice, 

 learning the business 

 thoroughly by prac- 

 ical experience, work- 

 ing successively in the 

 cloth room, the mill 

 room, the c u tt i n _■ 

 room, the making 

 room, the heater room 

 In each he began ai 



bottom, 



Le B.\rox C. Cclt. 



learned the work as 

 did any apprentice. 

 He was appointed as- 

 sistant superintendent. 

 which gave him time 

 for laboratory and 

 experimental work, 

 for which line he developed unusual fitness. Then he became 

 traveling salesman, and in 1904 he was selected as resident manager. 

 At that time the Bristol plant was a somewhat heterogeneous 

 aggregation of buildings with considerable antiquated machinery. 

 Rearrangement, consolidation, new buildings and equipment 

 characterized his management, and the business developed from 

 a maximum number of people on the pay roll of 1,700 to 3,300, 

 and the output of shoes from 18,000 pairs to 44,000 pairs per day, 

 and the insulated wire business from 60,000 to over 200,000 feet 

 per day. 



He was particularly careful about the health and welfare of 

 his employes, and devoted considerable of his energy to bettering 

 hygienic conditions in his plant. About three years ago he built 

 a hospital for the better care of the workers, and personally or- 

 ganized it. As a result of his efforts on behalf of his operatives 

 and his ability to cooperate understandingly with them he was 

 held in high regard. 



In 1904 he married Miss Joujou Edith Converse, daughter of 

 the late Admiral George A. Converse, who, with three children 

 survives him. 



Mr. Colt possessed to a remarkable degree qualities of suc- 

 cessful leadership. The son of a judge of the United States 

 Court, and a nephew of Colonel Samuel B. Colt, president of 

 the United States Rubber Co., he combined in a remarkable 

 manner the judicial instinct of the one and the far-sighted busi- 

 ness acumen of the other. He had the thorough loyalty of 

 those who worked under him, the warm personal friendship of his 

 business associates and the unbounded confidence of all with 

 whom he came in close business contact. He will be mourned 

 by a wide circle of friends. 



CHEMIST. ORGANIZER AND EXECUTIVE. 



In the death of E. H. Pound of the Holland American Planta- 

 tion Company, the United States Rubber Co. has lost one of its 

 most valuable workers. 



Edward Harold Pound was born at Pontiac, Michigan, April 

 12, 1886. Shortly after graduating from the high school, he went 

 to Mexico on the railway survey for the Mazatlan Extension 

 from Durango to 

 the Pacific Coast. 

 Returning in 1907, 

 he entered the Uni- 

 versity of Michi- 

 gan School of For- 

 estry. During part 

 of his time there, 

 he acted as assist- 

 ant in forest bota- 

 ny, and the sum- 

 mer of 1909 he 

 spent in the U. S. 

 Forest Service in 

 Montana. In 1910 

 he left the Univer- 

 sity of Michigan to 

 enter the employ 

 of The Rubber Ex- 

 ploration Co., tak- 

 ing charge of the 

 forestry and botan- 

 ical ends of two 

 extended explora- 

 tion trips in South 

 America. In 1912 he entered McGill L'niversity, Montreal, to 

 take up work in organic chemistry, specializing in biological 

 chemistry, with particular reference to rubber, and graduated 

 with the degree of B. Sc. in 1913. 



Mr. Pound entered the service of the United States Rubber Co. 

 on June 17. 1913, and after a year in charge of the crude rubber 

 division of its general laboratories in New York, was selected by 

 this company for the important post of director of the technical 

 department of the Holland American Plantation Co., which oper- 

 ates its eastern plantations. In April, 1914, he left for his new 

 position in Sumatra to undertake the task of organizing and 

 conducting experimental work on a large scale on the important 

 problems involved in the production of plantation rubber. 



Mr. Pound's thorough training, an unusual experience, together 

 with his good business sense and unbounded energy and enthu- 

 siasm, made his work a success from the beginning. His ability 

 as a judge of men, and as an organizer and executive is shown 

 by the excellence of the technical staff which he gathered around 

 him, and by the smoothness with which this organization was 

 able to carry on its work when Mr. Pound was forced to be 

 absent on business, and later on account of ill health. In Decem- 

 ber, 1915, he was obliged to leave his work at Sumatra for a rest 

 trip in China and the Philippine Islands. His health, however, 

 failed to improve and he died on January 21, 1916, in Hong Kong. 

 Mr. Pound's breadth of vision and keen technical judgment 

 have left a mark on the rubber industry of the East, and have 

 resulted in a degree of achievement which most men would be 

 proud of reaching at the end of a long business career. His death 

 is a distinct loss to the rubber industry, to the company which 

 employed him, and to the associates whose love and loyalty he 

 won by his rare personal charm and uncommon breadth of nohil- 

 itv and character. 



