MEMORIAL 137 



nois three months ago, bringing to the boys and girls of the rural 

 schools skillful instruction and effective inspiration. And finally, 

 he elaborated a thoroughly practical plan for demonstration-teach- 

 ing in the rural schools — a system which, with a relatively small 

 expenditure of money, will mean really effective instruction in 

 elementary agriculture. These achievements represent real and 

 substantial gains to the cause which he served so faithfully and so 

 well. 



But there was another side to his life, and there was another 

 type of influence that he exerted over those who knew him well. 

 When a man is in almost constant physical pain ; when he feels 

 that he is gradually but surely losing his grip on the threads of 

 life ; and when, under this condition, he can clinch his teeth as 

 Charles did, and work on steadfastly while only the great dark 

 looms up before him ; when he can mingle with his friends and 

 live in close association with his fellow-workers without once re- 

 vealing, save perhaps through the indirect expressions that no man 

 can inhibit, the physical and mental torture that he is undergoing ; 

 then he has set a standard that deserves the name of achievement 

 if any conquest in this life deserves that name. 



Charles was one of the most finely sensitive men that I have 

 ever known. He shrank from anything that could be interpreted 

 even indirectly as an appeal for sympathy. Only once, fully six 

 months before his death, did he tell of his unceasing pain, and 

 that was only in a moment of confidence — just a momentary 

 and casual reference, and then he was back again to the problems 

 that he was trying to solve. It was only in the little things that 

 we can remember now — and particularly in his quick sympathy 

 with the troubles of others, his instant appreciation of their little 

 triumphs — it was in these that we might have read, had we 

 been sufficiently keen, the subjective tragedy through which he 

 was living. 



W. C. Bagley, 



Director of School of Education, University of Illinois 



When organizing the Faculty of the Northern Illinois State 

 Normal School I elected Mr. Fred L. Charles for the department 

 of Biology because of his warm- interest in elementary schools. 

 The choice finally lay between him and a man of quite extended 

 scholarship but who was devoted more especially to the higher 

 aspects of science work. Mr. Charles had done considerable 



