xl CHARLES OTIS WHITMAN 
August 13, 1908. 
The Corporation and Trustees of the Marine Biological Laboratory, 
in accepting the resignation of the Director, Professor C. O. Whitman, 
have ordered to be put upon their records and to be forwarded to Doctor 
Whitman the following minute: 
The Corporation and Trustees desire to express to the retiring Direc- 
tor their regret that he finds it necessary to withdraw from the active 
directorship of the laboratory, and their appreciation of the inestimable 
value of his services. Since the establishment of the Laboratory at 
Woods Hole twenty-one years ago, he has been continually its Direc- 
tor and he has to a very large extent guided its growth and development. 
He has stood for the principles of cooperation and independence which 
have made the laboratory unique in character and truly national in its 
reputation and influence. His high ideals and his generous apprecia- 
tion of the work of others have been an inspiration to the many biolo- 
gists, who, during these years, have attended the laboratory. 
The corporation and trustees desire that the retiring Director may 
continue to serve the laboratory as honorary director and trustee and 
that his presence at the laboratory may continue to be an inspiration 
in the future as in the past. 
Professor Whitman’s reply was as follows: 
To the Corporation and Trustees of the Marine Biological Laboratory, 
Woods Hole, Mass. 
Ladies and Gentlemen: Your action of August 13, in which you 
express a desire to have me serve the laboratory as ‘honorary director 
and trustee’ is in itself alone an all-sufficient reward for whatever services 
I have rendered as Director. Your goodwill is the all-important 
recompense, and no title that you could confer could add to the weight 
of your approbation. In fact, titles belittle the spirit. Let me have the 
latter without the former—without title or office of any kind. Please 
respect this wish and believe me, as ever, a sincere and devoted friend 
of the Laboratory. 
Respectfully and cordially, 
C. O. WHITMAN. 
The report of the trustees to the Corporation bearing on Pro- 
fessor Whitman’s resignation and on his services to the Laboratory 
expresses so well what many others feel that it is appropriate to 
quote it in large part: | 
Professor Whitman’s resignation as Director of the Marine Biological 
Laboratory, after twenty-one years of service in that: position, impres- 
sively recalls the inestimable value of his services in the establishment 
and development of this institution. If we have today one of the lead- 
