ROBERT HENRY THURSTON. 849 



hi.s powers of concentration and to an excellent memory tilled as a 

 storehouse, either with facts or with the location of facts and where 

 successful search for them might be made. These powers joined to a 

 sympathetic nature led him to cover an unusually broad field of activ- 

 ity with his professional writings, and to show an aggregate result of 

 astonishing magnitude. It is. not in his books and papers, however, 

 that his chief monument is to be found, but rather in his direct educa- 

 tional work, and particularly in the organization and development of 

 Sibley College, and in the men who have gone forth into the various 

 fields of active engineering practice so largely indebted to him either 

 for -direct personal instruction or inspiration, or for the oppoitunities 

 which came as the result of the organization and administration of the 

 college under his direction. 



Personal!}" Professor Thurston was s^nnpathetic, warm hearted, and 

 optimistic, and an inspiring friend and leader. He was never dis- 

 couraged by an appearance of failure and believed steadfastly that the 

 great purposes which he was directing and which he was endeavoring 

 to shape to his ideals would all one day work out to the best and 

 highest uses of mankind. As a rule he was rapid in his judgments on 

 matters of a scientific or engineering character, but when the human 

 element was involved, and on matters of l)road policy, he was more 

 slow in forming a final judgment, but. once formed, was tireless in 

 carrying it forward to realization. 



Professor Thurston died suddenly on the evening of October 25, 

 1903, on his O-tth birthday, in the midst of his great work in Sible}^ 

 College, in the full possession of his normal strength and mental 

 activities, and with apparently man}" years yet of fruitful labor before 

 him. 



While it may be too soon to estimate with exactness his place in the 

 galaxy of the great minds which the nineteenth centur}' produced, yet 

 among those whose work adorned the latter part of this century the 

 name of Robert Henry Thurston will have an assured and abiding place. 

 As an engineer, a scientist, an educator, a writer, an investigator, an 

 expert and counsellor, as a pu1)lic servant in many capacities, and 

 as a man and good citizen; all of these fields of activity have been 

 enriched with his lat)ors and with his unswerving spirit of devotion to 

 scientific truth. He has left to the new generation a rich legac}' in 

 work actually accomplished and the example of a scientific man and 

 engineer faithfid and true to the highest principles and standards of 

 life. 



