1890-92 - University Archives and Records Center - University of ...

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Treasurer of the University, and Mr. Richard Wood was elected
Treasurer pro tempore, and has continued to be so up to the
present time'. The office of Treasurer is one of increasing
onerousness and responsibility, and when held by a Trustee is
of course without remuneration. Your Board owes a debt ot
gratitude to the gentlemen who have for so many years efficiently
borne the burden and responsibility, but it is evident that as the
invested funds of the Corporation increase, and the details ot
administration grow more complex, there must be a system
devised which will ask of no one Trustee a service so much out
of proportion to that demanded of his colleagues. Intimately
connected with the Treasury is the work of the Committee on
Ways and Means, of which, until the close of the present month,
Mr. Harrison has been the efficient Chairman, but from which,
to the great regret of all who are interested, he has just withdrawn.
Mr. Harrison's devotion to the interests of the'University
was conspicuously manifested in his work in this Committee.
Within the last two years its efficiency was greatly increased by
a plan devised by him and sanctioned by your-Board, by which
the Committee was divided into sub-committees, respectively on
University Accounts, Investments, Maintenance of Trust Funds
and Obligation of Legacies, and on Increase of Resources, each
with a Chairman and stated times of meeting; ' and by the
appointment of two stated meetings of the General Committee in
each month except those of summer. Only the Trustees and
the Provost can appreciate the vital importance and grave
responsibilities of the work of this Committee. It is the unseen
and often unregarded force upon which ultimately depends the
maintenance and expansion of every department of University
activity, and upon its Chairman and members devolve the
chiefest cares and labors of the governing body.
The past three years have also witnessed serious losses
from the staff of instruction. In November, 1890, Professor
John G. R. McElroy died after a brief illness. Professor
McElroy became an instructor in the University in 1867, five
years after his graduation, and held successively the posts of
Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and History, Adjunct Professor