NECROLOGY. 
FINLEY M. WITTER. 
The death of Professor Finley M. Witter at Biloxi, Mississippi, Octo- 
ber 29, 1909, removed from earthly activities a charter member, a form- 
er president, and an honorary life member of this Academy. 
He had removed to Mississippi to he with his son and daughters for a 
time, but at the time of his death he was planning to return to this State 
and to continue his activities in the old familiar field. 
Professor Witter was horn in St. Joseph, Indiana, August 15, 1839, 
and removed to Iowa with his parents in 1850. The hardships of pioneer 
days which he endured both here and in the far west no doubt strongly 
reinforced and developed his naturally kindly, sympathetic and unsel- 
fish nature which made of his life a life of service to his fellowmen. 
He graduated from the Normal department of the State University 
of Iowa in 1861, received the degree of B. S. in 1869 and that of M. A. 
in 1875, and in 1906 was elected to honorary membership in Iowa Chap- 
ter of the Sigma Xi. He organized the schools of Muscatine, Iowa, th 
1864, establishing the high school, and was elected its principal and su- 
perintendent of the city schools. Forty-eight years of his life were de- 
voted to the schools of Muscatine and of Muscatine county. The greater 
part of this time was given to general educational activities, and he was 
an active member of the National Educational Association and of the 
Iowa State Teachers’ Association. 
Notwithstanding his devotion to his scholastic duties, he found time 
to do meritorious scientific work. He entered upon this work early, and 
was one of the pioneers in this field in the state. Pie found in the nat- 
ural history of Muscatine county a field of unusual richness and it was 
his privilege to make much of it known to the scientific world. Unfor- 
tunately his most extensive manuscripts, describing the Lepidoptera and 
birds, of Muscatine county, together with the greater part of his collec- 
tions, were destroyed in the Muscatine High School fire in 1895, a calam- 
ity which almost broke his spirit. Nevertheless he has left a record of 
work which no student of the natural history of the state can disregard 
in the future. 
