Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-14
DIR. LEARNED BURIAL
PLANS POSTPONED
Educator Believed to Have
Died of Heart Attack
Sunday Night.

DR.. H. Barrett Learned former pres
ident of the District of Columbia Board
Of Education. whose dead body was
found yesterday in his apartment on
the Leland-Stanford University cam
pus in California, is believed to have
died some time Sunday night from q
heart attack, according to advices re-
ceived here today.
DR.. Learned failed to appear at his
history classes at the university Mon
day but no alarm was expressed at that
time When he was absent again yes
terday, however. Stanford University
authorities went to his apartment in
search of him. They found him dead
in bed and physicians who made the
first examination expressed the belief
, he had died in his sleep some time Sun
day night, probably the victim OF a
, heart attack.
Was Alone at Time.
At the time of his death, DR.. Learned
was alone Mrs. Learned had been Wis
iting relatives in South Manchester,
Conn, and was to have joined him in
California within the next few days
Funeral plans have been delayed pend
ing the outcome Of an inquest which
was ordered
In a resolution adopted today the
Board of Education declared DR..
Learneds death brings a deep sense
of grief and a personal and public loss
not only to the board but to the COM
munity. which he served 50 well and so
unselfishly."
The statement was written by Mrs.
Henry Grattan Doyle. Board members
had been notified of DR.. Learned's death
at a meeting yesterday, after which
they delegated Mrs. Doyle. DR.. j. Hay
den johnson and Henry Gilligan TO
draft a resolution.
The statement also pointed out that
DR.. Learned brought to his duties as
presiding officer "a judicial temperaI
ment a broad knowledge Of educational
problems and the dispassionate view
point of the trained scholar"
Was Ill When He Left.
Harry o. Hine, School Board secre-
tary received letter yesterday from
DR.. Learned, which the educator had
written Saturday afternoon and dis
patched by airmail that evening. In
the letter, which returned to Mr.. Hine
the Introductory statement for the
School Boards annual report, DR..
Learned expressed regret at not having
attended to that duty before he left
Washington. He explained that he was
unwell when he left here and deeply
concerned over several problems which
confronted him.
DR.. Learned's death came exactly one
month after he presented his resigna-
ton from the District Board tof Educa-
ton to the District Supreme Court. On
September IL DR.. Learned wrote the
justices that financial and professional
reasons" made it necessary for him to
return to the faculty of Leland STAN
Dr. Learned himself delivered the letter
to Chief Justice Alfred Wheat of the
District of Columbia Supreme Court.
About to withdraw from the school
board, DR.. Learned had taken into his
confidence only a few of his associates
on that board and DR.. Frank w. Bal
lou, superintendent of schools. 1t was
not until two weeks later, when Harry
O. Hine, secretary of the board, at
tempted to obtain his signature to some
official public school papers, that 1t
was learned he had departed for Cali
fornia.
His withdrawal from the school
board left that body in a quandary
with respect to its officers. Following
the expiration of Mrs. Philip Sidney
Smiths term as vice president last
Spring, both she and Mrs. Henry Graf
tan Doyle, wife of the dean of George
Washington University's junior col
lege, were nominated for that Office.
Dr. Learned's departure from the city
left the Board of Education with no
officers. At its last meeting, last We'd
nesday, however, Mrs. Smith was
chosen temporary chairman.
Educated at Harvard.
Born in Exeter, N. H., on March 81,
1868, DR.. Learned was educated at
Harvard University, the University of
Chicago and at Yale University. He
also did graduate work at the Univer-
sity of Leipzig. On June IA, 1899, he
married Miss Emile Cheney of South
Manchester, Conn.,, who survives him.
He also is survived by three children,
John, Frank Cheney and Horace Bush
nell Learned.
An educator by profession, DR..
Learned was headmaster of a private
school at Plymouth. Mass; a teacher
OF history at the University School in
Chicago; was director of the depart
ment of history. Armour Institute OF
Technology in Chicago. and had been
an assistant professor at Harvard.
He served with the Bureau of InveS-
tigation of the Department of Justice
from 1917 to 1919.
Held Other Posts.
HIS other educational pursuits in
cluded lecturer of history at Sheffield
Scientific School at Yale, lecturer on
history at Wesleyan University and
lecturer and associate professor of Eu-
ropean history at Stanford University.
DR.. Learned first was appointed to
the Board of Education of the District
of Columbia, July l, 1917, serving on
that board with one interval until Sep
TENDER II of this year, when he submit
ted his resignation to the justices of
the District Supreme Court. He first
resigned as a member of the board on
December 81, 1921, and was reappointed
July /, 1925. He subsequently was re-
appointed in 1928 and 1881. Following
the death last February of DR.. Charles
F. Carusi, president of the board at that
time, DR.. Learned. who had been vice
president. was selected president.