36 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



After spending two years in the class of 1839 at Tale, he left college 

 to study practical civil engineering, being engaged in the construction 

 of the Georgia Central Eailroad. July 1, 1840, he entered the United 

 States Military Academy at West Point, from which place he was 

 graduated four years later, being promoted to second lieutenant of 

 artillery July 1, 1845. The following year, after having served in gar- 

 rison, and at Fort Columbus, N. Y., he was sent to Mexico, taking part 

 in the battles of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Cherubusco, and Contreras 

 in 1847, being then promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and breveted 

 captain for "gallant and meritorious conduct" in those battles. 



Dr. Coppee was assistant professor of French at West Point Acad- 

 emy from August 22, 1848, to June 22, 1849, and after spending a year 

 at Fort McHenry, Md., he returned to West Point and remained there 

 five years as assistant professor of English studies. On June 30, 1855, 

 he resigned from the Army, and for eleven years was professor of 

 English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, when in 1866 he 

 was elected the first president of Lehigh University. His love for lit- 

 erary rather than administrative labor induced him to resign the presi- 

 dency of the university in 1875, and to accept the chair of English 

 literature, international and constitutional law, and the philosophy of 

 history. Upon the death of President Lamberton in 1893 he again 

 became head of the university, and was acting president when he cued. 



He was an industrious author, his published works covering a wide 

 range of subjects, though pertaining chiefly to history and English 

 literature. 



His genial courtesy and manly disposition, the prudent counsel of his 

 disciplined and well-stored mind, and his devotion to the interests of the 

 Institution will linger in the memory of his colleagues on the Board of 

 Regents. As a soldier, as man of letters, as professor and president of 

 a great university, Dr. Coppee won high distinction, and died leaving 

 a record of well spent years. 



ROBERT STANTON AVERY. 



Eobert Stanton Avery, of Washington City, was born near Preston, 

 Conn., May 1, 1808, and died in Washington on September 12, 1894. He 

 early became interested in mathematics and physical science and in 

 Latin and Greek, and for several years was engaged in teaching school 

 in various parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and also in Ohio 

 and Kentucky. Actuated by a desire for higher education he entered 

 Harvard College at the age of 35 and there devoted much of his time 

 to a critical study of the Scriptures in Greek and Hebrew. After his 

 graduation in 1846 he obtained a license as a preacher, but failing health 

 pre vented active work in that profession. 



From 1853 to 1885 he was connected with the United States Coast 

 Survey, his principal work being computation and reduction of tidal 

 observations. 



