PROFESSOR ISAAC JUSTUS OSBUN, A.B. 



The work of the above mentioned Chair of Chemistry and Physics 

 ( founded in memory of Henry Chisholm, of Cleveland, by his child- 

 ren ) was divided up and assigned to other Professors for a year and 

 then placed in charge of Isaac J. Osbun, as Professor of Chemistry 

 and Physics. 



Professor Osbun was born in Windsor, Ohio, May 19, 1850. He 

 was for six years a student in Oranville, entering in the Preparatory 

 Department in 1866 and graduating in the Classical Course, with the 

 class of 1872. After a year's work as Principal of the Glendale High 

 School he went to Europe and spent two years as a student in the Uni- 

 versities of Stuttgart, Tuebingen, Heidelberg and Paris. Upon his 

 return he was chosen Principal of the Berkshire Institute, New Marl- 

 borough, Massachusetts, but gave up this position a year later to accept 

 the Professorship of Chemistry and Physics in the State Normal School 

 at Salem, Massachusetts, where he remained for seven years, resigning 

 to take his Professorship at Denison, in 1883. Here he died, Decem- 

 ber 8, 1884, in the first term of the second year of his work. We in- 

 clude here a number of extracts from an article written for the Deni- 

 son Collegian soon after his death by Dr. W. C. Davies, between 

 whom and Professor Osbun there had existed a very intimate friendship 

 from his student days until the end of his life : 



" During his college course, he displayed great love for the sci- 

 ences. Not content to blindly accept the statement of the text-book 

 or teacher, he wanted to work out principles for himself. Lack of ap- 

 paratus he did not allow to become a hindrance, but transformed his 

 room into a workshop. The writer of this article well remembers 

 many a piece of home made apparatus which he borrowed to demon- 

 strate the principles of Physics to his own pupils. [ Dr. Davies was 

 then in charge of the Ckanville schools.] Though home-made, they 

 always answered the pur[)Ose for which they were made, and gave evi- 

 dence of the originality and skill which, in later years, found a wider 



