PENNOCK LAUDED BY PARTNER

Chauncey Chester Loomis '15, the business partner of S. B. Pennock '15, who was killed in an explosion at their plant in Newark has written the following article on his life and work. Loomis was with Pennock at the time of the fatal explosion.

"In the death of Stanley Bagg Pennock on November 27th, Harvard College lost a worthy son. There are few of the alumni who are not acquainted with the great service be rendered his Alma Mater during his three years on the football team. But, owing to his extreme modesty and the reticence with which he spoke about anything he was doing, there are very few, even of his friends, who realize the far greater field of service he had entered on leaving college, and in which he gave his life. In order that none of the inspiration to be derived from a life well and fully lived, cut short by death in the undertaking of new and constructive work, may be lost, it seems well that his Alma Mater should know something of the task he was undertaking, and of which he would have been the last to have spoken.

Chlorination Process Investigated.

"For the past six months, he had been working on the development of a new process for chlorination, one of the most widely used and important reactions in organic chemistry. This process appears to have certain fundamental advantages over any hitherto known. In spite of his quietness, and the anger with which he would have rejected such a suggestion, he had the power of seeing visions. He realized as all too few people in America do realize that a nation's welfare both in war and peace depends very closely on the science and industry of chemistry, and will in the future unquestionably be more and more dependent on it. Therefore, how could a man do bigger work or render a better service to his country than in doing something to strengthen this all-important branch of industry in which our nation is so weak? To this work Pennock gave everything. He was working without a guiding hand in the no man's land of science and Industry; he had to overcome difficulties which no one had ever encountered before; he met phenomena which had never been met before and which carried with them the forces of sudden death and destruction. Only those who have similarly trod uncharted lands know the terrible obstacles of discouragement and disappointment which nature places in the way of the explorer.

Greatest Difficulties Solved.

"The feeling of the man in the desert who sees the longed-for oasis fade into a mirage is very similar to that of the man who sees the patient labor of days turned into so much junk by an unexpected manifestation of the hidden forces of nature. Pennock met all these obstacles in the only way in which they can be successfully met: with a smile. He never acknowledged difficulties and troubles. In this way he surmounted them one by one till the first peak was fairly reached: triumph seemed assured in the first process: from that time on the way would be easier. However, he was not to go further, his life was demanded as the ultimate payment for his services to industry and his country. But he died a winner in the game of life. In his brief 24 years he had gone where very few are destined to go in their whole life; along unexplored paths where he could satisfy his desire for truly constructive work.

"The Things to Try."

"The things that haven't been done before,

Those are the things to try.

Columbus dreamed of an unknown shore

At the rim of a far-flung sky.

And his heart was bold and his faith was strong

As he ventured with dangers new,

And he paid no heed to the jeering throng

Or the fears of a doubting crew.

"The many who follow the beaten track

With guideposts on the way,

They live and have lived for the ages back

With a chart for every day.

Someone has told them it's safe to go

On the road he has travelled o'er,

And all that they ever strive to know

Are the things that were known before.

"The few strike out without map or chart

Where never a man has been;

From the beaten paths they draw apart,

To see what no man has seen.

There are deeds they hunger alone to do;

Though battered and bruised and sore;

They blaze the path for the many who

Do nothing not done before.

"The things that haven't been done before

Are the tasks worth while today.

Are you one of the flock that follows, or

Are you one that shall lead the way?

Are you one of the timid souls that quail

At the jeers of a doubting crew?

Or dare you, whether you win or fail,

Strike out for a goal that's new?

"It seems fitting that Harvard should pay some tribute to this son, whose vigorous life of service was cut so short; should keep his memory fresh as something of an inspiration for her future sons.