158 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



J. A. WEST: IN MEMORIAM. 

 By S. a. Forbes. 



Mr. James Alexander West, a charter member of this Academy, 

 was born March 29, 1874, at Nokomis, 111. His father, Rever- 

 end James M. West, was a clergyman in the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church. He took his first degree in a scientific course at the Illi- 

 nois Wesleyan University, at Bloomington, in 1899, and received 

 the master's degree from the same college in 1901. In the mean- 

 time he had taken a theological course at Boston University, 

 from which he graduated in 1903. 



After preaching for two years, he returned to scientific work as 

 an assistant in the State Entomologist's office, located at the Uni- 

 versity of IlHnois, under an appointment dated September 1, 1905, 

 and entered also upon a graduate course in entomology for which 

 he would have received his doctor's degree at the commence- 

 ment of 1910 except for the failure of his health in September, 

 1909. He died of tuberculosis April 17, 1910, at Ottawa, 111., in 

 the thirty-fourth year of his age, leaving a wife, Mrs. Mary 

 Josephine (Varty) West, to whom he was married in 1901, and 

 two children aged 6 years and 15 months, respectively. 



Mr. West was a painstaking, thorough, and accurate student, 

 and a faithful, loyal, and unselfish gentleman. He was a clear 

 writer, and an unusually acceptable speaker to general audiences. 

 He made friends easily, was highly regarded by his entomological 

 associates, and was rapidly becoming widely and favorably known 

 throughout his state. Although at the very beginning of his sci- 

 entific career, he had won sufficient recognition and appreciation 

 to bring him, in 1909, an appointment as head of the department 

 of entomology in an important technical college — an appointment 

 which he declined in order to complete his graduate course. He 

 left several papers on scientific subjects in form for publication, 

 one of which has been recently printed as a bulletin of the Illi- 

 nois State Laboratory of Natural History. 



JOSEPH R. PUTNAM : IN MEMORIAM.* 



The death of Joseph R. Putnam, September 7, 1910, removed 

 from the active members of the academy one who has long been 

 identified with the society and who had served as a member of 

 the Board of Trustees for the preceding eighteen years. 



•Reprinted from Bulletin No. 5, Vol. Ill, of The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 



