Memorial Obituary of Professor Greenough.

The following obituary of the late Professor Greenough was, in accordance with a vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, drawn up by a committee of the Faculty, read aloud at one of their meetings, and spread upon the records of the meeting:

"James Bradstreet Greenough was born at Portland, Maine, May 4, 1833, and died at Cambridge, October 11, 1901. After studying at the Boston Latin School and with a private tutor, he entered Harvard College in 1852, and graduated in due course with the Class of 1856. He became a member of the College Faculty in 1865, as Tutor in Latin; was made Assistant Professor in 1873, and was Professor of Latin from 1883 until his retirement, in consequence of failing health, at the end of the last academic year. He was a member of the Administrative Board of the Graduate School from 1892 to 1895, and of the Administrative Board of Harvard College from 1897 to 1900.

"Mr. Greenough was constant in his attendance at the meetings of the Faculty; but he disliked the formalities of debate, and his voice was seldom heard in this room. He took a more active part in the deliberations of the Administrative Boards and in the meetings of his own Department. In private conference with his colleagues he spoke freely and forcibly. He held strong opinions and advocated them strongly; but he was every ready to revise his views, or to suspend judgment in matters of controversy, and he was quick to recognize the tenability of theories with which he could not at the moment agree. He was earnest and zealous in his work as a teacher, and became deeply interested in the promotion of improved methods of teaching the Classics, in the development of higher instruction in the University, and in the advancement of productive scholarship. His learning was varied and profound; his mind was vigorous and characterized by an uncommon quickness and agility; his intellectual curiosity was insatiable. Both through his books and in personal intercourse with teachers and students he strove to inculcate better methods of reading Latin and Greek, and he was the first to apply the test of translation at sight in the examinations for admission to Harvard College (in the Latin Grammar paper in 1871).

"Early in his career Mr. Greenough was impressed with the importance of Comparative Grammer, both in itself and as an aid to a student of the Classics, and he took up the study of Sanskrit with ardor. In 1872 he established the first courses of instruction in Sanskrit and Comparative Philology given at Harvard, and he continued to conduct these courses, voluntarily, along with his regular instruction in Latin, until the appointment of a Professor of Sanskrit in 1880.

"He was warmly interested in the establishment of the Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, and the success of the efforts to secure an adequate financial basis for this publication was entirely due to him. He laid the project before his classmates, and by his enthusiasm roused their interest to such a pitch that they determined to make it a class affair, with the result that the whole of the amount required came to the University as the gift of the Class of 1856. He also served for several years on the editorial committee of the Studies and was a frequent contributor.

"Mr. Greenough took a leading part in the establishment and organization of the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, now Radcliffe College. He was the first of the College Faculty to feel an interest in the matter, and by personal interviews he secured the co-operation of his colleagues and others, and thus gave practical shape to the enterprise. He was the first Chairman of the Academic Board and continued to be active in the management of the institution until the last year of his life.

"Mr. Greenough had a genius for friendship, and few men have had so many friends. He was the most entertaining of companions, and the warmth and openness of his nature attached to him those whom the charm of his intense and vivacious personality had attracted. His death has deprived the University of an eminent scholar and an indefatigable teacher, and his colleagues in this Faculty of an associate whom they regarded with sincere affection."