Charles Edward Putney Part 6

His clearness of vision, and straight thinking made him a leader whose influence was broad and lasting; while by the gentleness of his manners and by the broadness of his sympathies he won and held the affection of all who knew him.

His loyal devotion to the cause of education was such that he desired nothing more earnestly than to serve and aid those who sought his instruction, and he ever held before the student the highest ideals of a fine, clean, strong and Christian manhood.

His influence continues, and will widen in the years yet to come.

GEORGE E. MINER, '83.

All the way along, from the days when, in the absence of my own father, he initiated me, a little girl of five, into the joys of a dip in the Atlantic to the almost equally happy days in number ten when I learned through him to know the wonder and beauty of Virgil and Cicero, Mr.

Putney seemed to me one of the best and finest men in the world.

How considerate he always was! During the years of my father's pastorate, Mr. Putney was among those who gave unsparingly at all times just the help and cheer that the minister needed.

I think of him as one whose life was a beautiful mingling of gentleness and strength.

CORNELIA TAYLOR FAIRBANKS, '97.

March 26, 1913.

It would be a genuine and great pleasure to us to be with you at the doings of the Alumni a.s.sociation and to meet again all the famous characters expected there, especially the guest of honor. We are glad of this opportunity to renew our profession of allegiance to him. He was our princ.i.p.al during the final year we pa.s.sed at the beloved Academy, the year when, because of Mr. Fuller's absence abroad, he was the acting princ.i.p.al as he afterwards came to be the t.i.tular princ.i.p.al as well.

We have always cherished the sincerest regard and affection for Mr.

Putney,--not only because he was our competent and faithful teacher and our respected princ.i.p.al, but because he was in the truest sense our friend. We owe him a great debt of grat.i.tude which, like honest though insolvent creditors, we can acknowledge though we cannot hope to pay.

Ours was the first graduating cla.s.s that knew him as princ.i.p.al, and we always cherished the fond conceit, that, as he was peculiarly dear to us, so we were a little more to him than any other cla.s.s could be. I hope he will not say or do anything upon this occasion to banish that happy thought from our minds. He will probably try to appear as fond of you as he is of us. He always did have a way of letting you down easy when he didn't want to hurt your feelings. You cannot have forgotten how, when you answered his questions in cla.s.sroom, he always said, "Yes, yes," as though your answer was all that could be desired, even when he followed it by some quiet correction, which when you had taken your seat and thought it over, gradually let you see that you had missed the mark by about a mile. We wish that we could do anything as well as Mr. Putney could teach! Happy is the school that has him for a teacher! Happy are the boys and girls--of whatever age--who have him for a friend!

Sincerely and fraternally yours, FLORENCE AND WENDELL STAFFORD, '80.

Being both a paternal and maternal grandson of the Academy, I subscribe to the above with duty as well as pleasure.

EDWARD STAFFORD, '07.

I hardly know what to say. There is such a mingling of emotions--sorrow for the loss, joy that he has been with us so long, grat.i.tude that it has been my privilege to keep in so close touch with him during most of the years since I, a school girl, first came under the influence that has never lost its hold for a minute.

No one individual has ever had more to do with the shaping of my life than he and whatever little good I have been able to do for boys and girls is largely attributable to the influence that has helped me for so long.

My experience can be multiplied a thousand times and then the story has not been told. We all shall hold his memory in love, and in reverence.

Generations to come will still feel indirectly the help that we have had from him.

I've always seen Mr. Putney as I read those words of Tennyson in his dedication to the "Idylls."

"Indeed he seems to me Scarce other than my king's ideal knight, Who reverenced his conscience as his king, Whose glory was redressing human wrong, Who spake no slander, no nor listened to it, We have lost him, he is gone-- We know him now--and we see him as he moved, How modest, kindly, all accomplished, wise, With what sublime repression of himself-- And in what limits, and how tenderly-- Now swaying to this faction or to that-- But through all this tract of years Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, Before a thousand peering littlenesses.

Where is he Who dares foreshadow for an only son A lovelier life, a more unstained than his?"

Very sincerely, CAROLINE S. WOODRUFF, '84.

Among the many valuable and valued possessions which were mine when I left St. Johnsbury Academy was a clear-cut impression of Mr. Putney as a man, as a friend, and as a teacher. He stood for standards, high standards of behavior and of scholarship. After all these years this image is still clear and vivid. Simple, sincere, and single-minded in his life work, his standards of living have always been a challenge to the best in his a.s.sociates, a challenge which has, consciously or unconsciously, helped us all to higher levels of service. This is our tribute to his memory.

ELIZABETH HALL, '86.

I look back on the old Academy days under Mr. Putney with ever increasing appreciation of him and of his influence over my life. I am glad to add my tribute to his memory and I do so most heartily.

Charles E. Putney was a kindly, courtly, Christian gentleman. He was a wonderful teacher, leading his students through the cla.s.sics by ways that made Latin and Greek no longer "dead" languages but very much alive; and so were the thrilling narratives of the old worthies who almost seemed to speak again in Mr. Putney's cla.s.srooms. Meantime, character building was going on and his insistence of high standards of honor and strict discipline made most of the boys more manly and most of the girls more womanly, and they are grateful to him, as I am, for it all.

Devotion to duty was characteristic of him in school and church, in home and public life. He was a good soldier and to him citizenship meant service. He was a true friend and that meant the helping hand.

I honor and revere his memory. My humble tribute is one of grat.i.tude for his n.o.ble life, which, touching mine, revealed more clearly for my stumbling feet the shining pathway that he trod to worthy self-investment, to truth and G.o.d.

ROLFE COBLEIGH, '86.

From that first day when I went into the Academy office to consult with Mr. Putney as a new student, I have been and shall continue to be under the deepest obligation to one of the n.o.blest spirits and finest teachers whose influence ever has been exerted upon young men and women. His scholarship was accurate and he made Greek interesting. His moral standards were lofty and he made honor and truth beautiful. His soul was sincere and devoted and he made Christ attractive to the mind and will of a boy. He knew how to give encouragement at the critical moment and how to exercise discipline justly so that no sting remained.

He influenced me more deeply than any other teacher of my youth, and my love and grat.i.tude grew as the years pa.s.sed. Mr. Putney did not disappoint me as my ideal of a Christian teacher and lover of young men. It was a great life.

OZORA S. DAVIS, '85.

A teacher projects himself through the lives of his pupils and an inst.i.tution of learning speaks through the voice of its scholars. St.

Johnsbury Academy has been a formative force in the educational life of New England and beyond, and her leadership has been b.u.t.tressed upon sound learning.

Charles E. Putney was a great princ.i.p.al and an inspiring teacher. In the cla.s.sics his well-ordered mind found a congenial field for interpretation and elucidation. Frail of physique, with all the scholar's nerves and sensitiveness, he yet day after day ploughed through the hesitating minds of his pupils with patience and thoroughness. Particularly as a teacher of Greek did he excel. He led his pupils through the necessary technique of parasangs to the mastery of the sublime secrets of this imperial mother of tongues. He possessed the capacity of taking infinite pains and played no favorites among his scholars. I imagine the responsibility of administration irked his gentle spirit and the rawness of self-centered youth must have tried his conscientious soul.

I never thought of him in those days as a veteran of the Civil War, in fact, did not then know of his martial service, but I can see now how that experience must have fed his hatred of disobedience and disloyalty and increased his zeal for the proper development of the minds of his boys and girls in order that they too might become dependable citizens of the Republic.

His was a kindly nature, though to the pupil who first fronted him he seemed stern, yet this was but the sh.e.l.l, in which daily duty encased him. It was always a pleasure to watch his sense of humor expand itself in friendly smile and expend itself in his low chuckle as some particularly atrocious translation fell from lips unused to expressing ancient thought.

It is hard to measure his personal influence by a sentence but it seems to me as princ.i.p.al and teacher, by precept and practice, he showed how desirable a thing it is to perform the daily task conscientiously and patiently.

FREDERICK G. FLEETWOOD, '86.