Class of 1941, Born Too Late, Will Miss Three of Harvard's Great Traditions

Abbott Lawrence Lowell '77, President of the University, from 1910 to 1933, George Lyman Kittredge '82, the world's authority on Shakspere, Chaucer, and practically everything else connected with English literature, and Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher--Harvard names to conjure with, but the Class of 1941 will not come under the magic of their spell.

Lowell

President Lowell, of course, resigned to be succeeded by James B. Conant '12 and last June, the first class that entered with the new President graduated. Since his retirement President Lowell has been seen but rarely by the average undergraduate. He usually makes an annual visit to Lowell House on his birthday, and a dinner is given there for him.

He has made news principally since 1933 by questions that have arisen in connection with the operation of his automobile. Last year his application for renewal of a driver's license was turned down, only to be granted later. Then in the summer he emerged with a broken nose from one wreck and shortly afterwards dented the back of another car.

Kitty

George L. Kittredge, Gurney Professor of English Literature emeritus. "Kitty," with the white beard as pure as driven snow" to countless Harvard generations, retired at the end of the academic year 1935-36. His English 2 "Shakspere: Six Plays" was one of the most famous courses in the country, and the examination with its long memory question and its 60 to 70 "spot" passages was terror of many finals and mid-years. Professor Kittredge with his spotless beard, and his pearl gray flannel, and his glasses that flew up the lapel to their hanger with never a hitch, and his injunctions against coughing, has devoted this last year to the production of a work containing the lest known text of all the plays of Shakspere. He is frequently seen striding across the Yard, or mounting the steps to Widener's top floor with incredible rapidity, while undergraduates try in vain to beat him to the top via the elevator.

Whitehead

Alfred N. Whitehead, professor of Philosophy since 1924 here, retired at the end of the academic year last June. Seventy-five years old, his retirement, when it was announced last December brought comments of praise for the man and regret at his leaving from all over the world.

He taught at Cambridge University, and the University of London until his appointment here. He and Albert Einstein did considerable work together in the mathematical field, and Whitehead is the author of "Principia Mathematica," and the "Principle of Relativity." He was called one of "the three real persons of genius in the world today," by Gertrude Stein. The other two were Pieassa and Gertrude Stein.

Tomorrow the CRIMSON will print another article in this series of Harvard greats whose influence the Class of 1941 will miss.