138 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7:5— May, 1911 



work with groups of grade teachers in Chicago and was working 

 diligently at the nature-study problem. I think that I made no 

 mistake in my choice, for he gave himself enthusiastically to the 

 difficult task of laying out courses in nature-study for the grades 

 in the elementary school. 



We were very reluctant to lose Mr. Charles from the insti- 

 tution, and I employed all the arguments at my command in 

 trying to convince him that he was better adapted to the work of 

 the Normal School than to that of the University unless the 

 University should attempt to reach the elementary schools di- 

 rectly. 



Mr. Charles made himself very popular in this community 

 as well as in the faculty of which he was a member. He was a 

 public-spirited citizen and lent himself heartily to all schemes 

 for the improvement of our community life and especially when 

 it involved his technical knowledge. 



The next number of our school paper will be a memorial 

 edition devoted entirely to him and to his work. 



John W. Cook, 

 President, Northern 111. State Normal School 



Professor Charles came to the University of Illinois to under- 

 take the new and somewhat difficult task of making a plan where- 

 by agriculture could be introduced into the elementary schools 

 without doing violence to well established pedagogical principles. 

 His undertaking was to begin with nature-study in the lower 

 grades, gradually introducing more and more agricultural ma- 

 terial, until in the seventh and eighth grades for those interested 

 in country life agriculture should predominate, fitting such stu- 

 dents for the election of agricultural courses in the high schools. 



Professor Charles brought to his work an intimate knowledge 

 of biological science, a love for nature in all its forms, and a suc- 

 cessful experience in the teaching of nature-study in the Northern 

 Illinois State Normal School at DeKalb. He came into his work 

 quietly, but with every evidence of interest and promise of success. 



His untimely taking off is not only a sorrow to the friends 

 he made everywhere, but it removes from the field of his specialty 

 one of the most promising men of the country. 



E. Davenport, 



Dean of College of Agriculture, University of Illinois 



