The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-09
EDWARD GRIFFIN BECKWITH

At the services Sunday evening at
Central Union church the following ad-
dress in memory of the late DR.. Ed
ward Griffin Beckwith by DR.. n. B.
Emerson was delivered.
Our coming here today is not as
mourners. [ do not stand here to
utter words of eulogy-a star needs no
eulogy. | would rather invite YOU to
join with me in an effort to appreciate
the life and work of the good man who
has gone from our midst--an appreei-
alton directed specially to his charac-
ter as a teacher at Punahou. And if
these remarks seem strongly tinetured
with personality, you will please re-
member there are others in this audi
ence who have shared the experiences
shall mention, and have felt the
stimulus of Mr.. Beckwith s personality
as a teacher, and as a man, and who
would not shrink, as / do not. TO speak
of him in the garb of the first person.
At the birth of Punahou School. in
1S41, the right man to take charge of
1t and to be its principal was found
in the person of Rev. Daniel Dole. of
hallowed memory, who had but then
arrived from the United States. When,
in 1854, this child of his nurture had
outgrown its short clothes and was ex-
changing it's childish gristle for the
bone and sinew of early youth-when,
in fact, it was found necessary to
broaden and strengthen the education
al scheme of Punahou School, in order
to meet growing educational demands
of this communicable right man to
ill the place of the first president of
Oahu College was found at hand in
the person of Edward Griffin Beck
with.
Mr.. Beckwith was at that time no
stranger to this community. The few
years of his principalship at the head
of the Royal School had distinguished
him in the eyes of all-of pupils and
of parents alike-as a teacher of ex-
ceptionally high quality. He was felt
to be "born teacher I well re.
member the feeling, almost of envy
with which some of us-loyal students
end partisans of Punahou, every one
of us-regarded from afar the good
fortune of those who had been privi-
legged with his tuition at the Royal
Scholar envy which was turned
into feeling of self-gratulation when
it was ordained that the benefits Of
Mr. Beckwith S tuition We're to be
ours. This feeling of self graduation,
however. was not unmingled with
feeling of solicitude. almost amounting
to apprehension or fear, lest we were
10 70 al T.,a ct d q III
eiplinarian, martinez, who would
draw the reins so tightly and force our
speed at such pace as to discourage
some of us feeble folk.
This fear was not realized. As a
teacher Mr.. Beckwith was disciple
marian of approved strictness, but also
of approved SAVIOR faire and insight
into human nature; of such generos.
ity, large heartedness, kindness and
sympathy, that respect and love took
the place of fear. Mr.. Beekwith :
coming to Punahou acted on the pupils
of the Royal School like a displace-
ment of the center of gravity, and
many of them transferred their allie
glance to Punahou.
1t has never been my fortune to be
who in the classroom was more alert,
more in command of all his faculties,
than Mr.. Beckwith. His mental oper-
ations seemed to have the quickness
of instinct; and yet, at the same time,
his patience with those of slower men
tai gait than himself displayed no lack
of gentleness and liberation. 1t was
one of Mr.. Beckwith s maxims that
enc did not really understand prop
osition until he could state it in clear
language. His own ideas were clear
and distinct, and his teaching was
eminently fitted to cultivate in his
pupils clearness of thought and of ex-
preston. This characteristic of his
mind was we'll illustrated in his care
full training of the whole school in
orthoepy. It was not his custom to sit
while teaching; he always stood or
walked His mind was SO wide-awake
that he could not sit still.
His manysidedness showed itself
not only in his ability as a teacher
of the humanities and the sciences, as
they were then unfolded, but in his
wonderful ability to weld the voices
of the whole school into very re-
spectacle chorus, as well as in his tai