The Days of a Man 1906 



Carnegie devoting to it the sum of ten millions of dollars, the 



Founda- earn i n g s o f which were to be used for the eStablish- 

 frOtt/or r . r i i r r 



the im- ment of a pension system tor the relief of institutions . 



provement o f higher education (in the United States and Canada) 



l ng et under private management and at the same time free 



from direct control by any religious denomination. 



With the exception of his nephew, Thomas Morrison 



Carnegie, and two business associates, Frank A. 



Vanderlip and Robert Franks, the original board of 



trustees appointed by the donor was composed of 



university presidents, among whom I had the honor 



to be one. 



At the first meeting, held on Carnegie's birthday, 

 November 25, at his personal request Dr. Henry S. 

 Pritchett, then president of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology and formerly head of the Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey, was elected president of the 

 board for life, other officers to be chosen from year 

 to year. Dr. Eliot served as first chairman, I as vice- 

 chairman, and Dr. Charles F. Thwing of Western 

 Reserve as secretary for several years. In 1909 and 

 1910, however, after the withdrawal of Eliot as 

 pensioner under the Foundation, I served as acting 

 chairman. On August I, 1916, having reached the 

 age of sixty-five and become myself a pensioner, I 

 automatically retired from the board. 



At the first meeting we framed a series of rules to 

 govern the pension system. The leading one provided 

 in substance that to each professor in accepted 

 institutions reaching the age of sixty-five, and having 

 taught in a college for thirty years or having for 

 twenty held a title of professor, should be granted an 

 annual pension of about half his average salary for 

 the five years previous, the maximum limit being 



C 188 3 



