Vol. VIII] IN MEMORIAM: THEODORE HEXRY HITTELL 23 



Dr. George Chismore. 1 1 typewritten pages. Dated March 

 5, 1906. 



Memorial in Remembranee of General Lneius Harzvood 

 Foote. 6 typewritten pages. Dated July 7, 1913. 



He also wrote memorials on Dr. H. W. Harkness and Mr. 

 William Alvord, which were printed by the Academy. 



He was elected a member of the board of trustees of the 

 Academy on January 4. 1909, and served until his resigna- 

 tion on January 18, 1915. Thus, from the time he was 

 nearly seventy-nine years of age until he was nearly eighty- 

 five, he was active as a trustee, and the records will show that 

 in that entire period of service he attended every meeting of 

 the board but one, or possibly two. 



In the Academy campaign of 1904 for the State Constitu- 

 tional Amendment exempting the Academy from taxation, he 

 took an active part. To every newspaper in California that 

 opposed the amendment he wrote letters of argument and ex- 

 planation, and indubitably his cogent statements had a sen- 

 sible effect upon the attitude of the press. 



When the time came for pressing the plan to move the 

 Academy of Sciences to Golden Gate Park, it was Mr. Hit- 

 tell who drew up the amendment to the city charter, which 

 was unanimously accepted iii toto by the Board of Super- 

 visors, and passed by a very large majority of the vote of the 

 people in 1910. 



And thus, in all ways, he gave evidence of his acute, per- 

 sonal interest in the Academy. He was as loyal to this in- 

 stitution as a true patriot is to the country of his allegiance. 



Besides being a life member of the Academy, he was an 

 honorary member of the Society of California Pioneers. He 

 belonged to no other organizations. 



Theodore Hittell was a man of much versatility of talent. 

 Among the principal assets to which he owed his various 

 achievements were perfect health and the ability for long- 

 sustained, arduous work. He was rarely if ever ill during 

 his long life. He carried on for extended periods the equiva- 

 lent of the work of two men, as this record of his life has 

 demonstrated. Though it is probable that the definition of 

 genius as being a capacity for taking infinite pains will not 

 explain the astounding manifestations of real genius, it is 



