Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-28
SOME WILLIAMS men
Distinguished Graduates of the
College Recalled.
CAREER OF MARK HOPKINS
Identified With the Institution Sixty
Seven Years.
RENOWNED AS AN EDUCATOR
Work for Science of His Brother
Albert-High Standing Of
the Alumni.
RENOWNED AS AN EDUCATOR
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass, June %. 1907
Williams is sort Of family college;
Hopkins has sat in the executive chair for
forty-one out of the one hundred and four
teen years of its history, and President
Mark Hopkins-"Mark the perfect man."
as they called him-was identified with the
institution sixty-seven years, four years as
a student and sixty-three years as presi-
dent and professor. His grandmother was
a sister of Ephraim Williams. the founder.
He entered as freshman in 1920, gradu-
ated in 1924; became professor of moral
philosophy and rhetoric in 1890; was presi-
dent from 1896 to 1872; pastor of the col
lege church from 1896 to 1883, and a trustee
from 1896 to June II, 1887, when he died at
Williamstown In 1890 he received the
second number of votes cast for the choice
of American educators for the Hall of
Fame of the University of the City of New
York, Horace Mann alone SURPRISING him.
His son, Henry Hopkins, has been sitting
in his fathers chair since 1902: another son,
Col. Archibald Hopkins of Washington. is
president of the alumni. His grand
nephew Rev. John Dennson, now of Bos-
ton, was college pastor for many years.
Work of Albert Hopkins.
Albert Hopkins associated with his
brother, Mark Hopkins in the college all
his life, graduating with the class of 1926,
tutor in 1927 and professor of mathematics,
astronomy and natural history until his
death in 1872 The brothers were thus
working together for more than fifty years
Although Albert Hopkins did not fill
large a place in the worlds knowledge as
his eminent brother he was nevertheless a
man of great distinction and a pioneer in
the natural sciences. He erected at Will
Jamestown in 1898, at his own expense, the
first astronomical observatory l.! this
country, and inscribed over the door the
scriptural text:
Lift up your eyes on high; and behold!
Who hath created these.
On the Intel of the other entrance he in
scribed the words:
For thus saith the Lord Of Hosts: Yet
once 1t Is little while, and 1 will shake
the heavens and the earth and the sea and
the dry land
Upon the face of sun dial which is now
disloeated, but used to stand by the south
| ern door, he inscribed this inquiry Of our
Lord:
How is it that We do not discern the
timer
The observatory is a dumpy little building
of unhewn stone, and the apparatus is
primitive, but it has done great work in
| its time and. as some one has said, rs a
striking landmark in the history of Ameri
| can astronomy" And Prof Hopkins was
quite as active in the other sciences AS
a mathematician he had few superiors;
| he was the leading botanfst in America Of
his day. He was the first college professor
to undertake original research in exped
tons. Early in his career he took a class
of students to Nova Scotia to observe the
phenomenon of the high tides OF the Bay
of Funday and to make tons in the
interest of natural history, and the results
attracted the serious attention of the civil
liked world. He led several other scientific
explorations in different parts of the uni
verse and trained the most skilful observers
and investigators of the generation that fol-
lowed him.
The Ideal Instructor.
President Mark Hopkins was the ideal in
structor. AS teacher he has probably
never been surpassed, and every serious
man who came under his influence at Will
lianrs carried away impressions that were
never lost. He was able to excite an in
terest in the most profound and abstruse
subjects and to make them clear to the
stupidest student, and his lectures were
models OF clearness and exactness. 1t has
been said that Mark Hopkins could state
proposition more clearly than any man
who ever lived. and that would be reputa-
ton enough for the wisest the greatest and
the most learned, For fifty-nine comecu-
tive years he taught classes of young men
at Williams College and during the twenty
years after his election to the nresidency
he was the only instructor of the senior
class, having three recitatons day in
three different courses, besides revising and
marking all the literary exercises of the
college and preaching one sermon every
Sunday. l believe this record is unsur-
passed.
In 1856 the fftieth anniversary of his
election TO the presidency was celebrated in
commencement week and he gave a histori-
cal review of his connection with the insti-
tuition. Among other things he stated that
he had personally instructed 2.229 out of
the $500 graduates of Williams College up
to that date.