Memorial Address — Dr. George M. Steele. 679 
virtu© was put above pleasure and service above gain. His 
father was a pioneer itinerant preacher who delivered his 
message in twenty-four appointments scattered through six 
states. When on April 13th, 1823, at Stratford, Vermont, a 
boy child came to the parsonage, the father gave him the bap¬ 
tismal names of George and McKendree in honor of two of the 
early bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
In that day the circuit rider’s salary was a mere pittance and 
it was necessary for the children to be put to work. Thus 
George early learned the valuable lessons of labor, economy, and 
self denial, and was hardened for the later experiences of a 
strenuous life. 
His education was obtained at Wesleyan University, which 
he entered in 1846. Stephen Olin was president, a man of im¬ 
perial intellect, of magnetic eloquence and of lofty Christian 
character. The influence of this powerful personality upon 
young Steele was formative and put a high idealism back of all 
of his work. His college course was the product of indom¬ 
itable resolution, and was begun in poverty and completed with¬ 
out financial assistance. 
After his graduation he entered the ministry of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and served various charges for twelve years 
in the Hew England Conference. He soon won a reputation 
as a logical and scholarly preacher. It was at this time that he 
became a member of “The Triangle,” a club celebrated in the 
traditions of Methodism. The other members were Fales Hew- 
. hall, the critical scholar and brilliant divine, and Gilbert 
Haven, later a celebrated bishop of the Methodist church. 
These three met weekly to read Greek and Hebrew together and 
discuss the various problems of knowledge. This intellectual 
brotherhood soon became, as has been said, “A new and trans¬ 
forming leaven in Hew England Methodism and in the broader 
arena of Hew England life.” Their scholarly labors soon 
found expression in magazine articles, pamphlets and books, 
and above all in broadening, uniting, and liberalizing the relig¬ 
ious spirit of the church with which they were connected. One 
who was close to him in these days of intellectual acquisition 
and quickening says, “Probably, where a clear judgment was 
needed for some deep question, Steele had no 1 superior in the 
Triangle, even if he had a peer.” 
In 1865 he was called to the presidency of Lawrence Univer- 
