REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 25 



NECROLOGY. 



Melville Weston Fuller. 



It becomes my duty to record here the death of Chief Justice Mel- 

 ville Weston Fuller, Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, who 

 was born at Augusta, Maine, February 11, 1833, and died at his sum- 

 mer home, Sorrento, Maine, July 4, 1910. For 22 years prior to his 

 death, Chief Justice Fuller had been deeply interested in the welfare 

 of the Institution, and only on one occasion was he absent from a 

 meeting of the Regents during the entire period of his service as a 

 member of the board. 



During his long and useful life Justice Fuller served his country 

 faithfully in several civil offices of trust and as Chief Justice of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States. His achievements as a jurist 

 were most adequately portrayed by the resolutions and eulogies pro- 

 nounced in his memory at a meeting of members of the bar of the 

 Supreme Court on December 10, 1910, and at the session of the 

 Supreme Court on January 3, 1911. 



The Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution expressed 

 their sorrow in the following words of tribute adopted at the annual 

 meeting of the board on December 8, 1910 : 



Whereas the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have received 

 the sad intelligence of the death, on July 4, 1910, of Melville Weston Fuller, 

 Chief Justice of the United States, and for twenty-two years chancellor of the 

 Institution : Therefore be it 



Resolved, That we desire here to record our profound sorrow at the severing 

 of the tie that has bound us to him for so long a period of honored service; 

 that we feel keenly the loss of a wise presiding officer, whose vast store of 

 learning and gracious dignity have proved so invaluable in the deliberations 

 of this board, and whose loyal interest in the Smithsonian Institution has been 

 a source of inspiration to his colleagues. 



Resolved, That we share in the grief of the Nation at the passing away of 

 one who was at once a distinguished leader of the greatest legal tribunal of 

 our land, an eminent jurist, a patriotic citizen, a shining example of Christian 

 gentleness, and who also possessed so charming a personality as a man and as 

 a friend. 



Resolved, That we respectfully tender to the members of the family of our 

 late associate our sincerest sympathy in their great bereavement. 



Resolved, That an engrossed copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the 

 family of the late chancellor. 



Respectfully submitted, 



Charles D. Walcott, Secretary. 



