1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL. 587geon were recognized in his employment as such by severalrailroads. In other ways he attained distinction. In 1902he was elected to the house of representatives of Colorado,was chosen speaker and for a while was acting governor.He was recognized as a wise counselor and thus was broughtinto contact with the prominent men of the state and nation,among them President Roosevelt, whose personal acquaintancehe enjoyed. He traveled extensively and was veryrecently accorded the rare honor of election to membershipin the Royal Geographical Society of London. He was anactive member and president of the Denver alumni club andwas devoted to Phi Delta Theta. A public funeral was heldin his honor, which was attended by prominent representativesof the medical profession, the state government and fraternalsocieties. In his death we have lost a splendid Phiand a distinguished career has been abruptly ended.JAMBS FARRINGTON GOOKINS, WABASH, '64.In a letter dated February 2, 1904, Bro. J. F. Gookinscalled our attention to the acrostic which appears on page 481of this number of THE SCROLL. Since that page was printedwe have learned with profound sorrow of his death. He diedfrom a stroke of apoplexy in New York City, May 24.James F. Gookins was born Dec. 30, 1840. His fatherwas the Hon. Samuel B. Gookins, of Terre Haute, Ind.,sometime a justice of the supreme court of Indiana. At thebreaking out of the civil war Bro. Gookins was a student atWabash College, which he left to enlist as a private in thenth Indiana volunteer infantry. Later he was volunteer aidde-campon the staff of Maj.-Gen. Lew Wallace. During thewar he was war artist for Harper's Weekly.After the war he was married to Miss Cora Donnelly ofTerre Haute. Having a marked taste for drawing and painting,he went to Europe, where he studied art for several years,and he was war correspondent of Harper's Weekly during theFranco-Prussian war, 1870. Returning from Europe, helocated at Indianapolis, where, with another artist, he opened,in the Ingalls block, the Indiana School of Art, the first artschool known in that city, and which was the foundation ofthe art sentiment that in late years has become so markedthere. He was connected with this school from 1876 to 1878.He was then chosen as secretary of the soldiers' and sailors'monument association, which position he held a year or more.About 1880 he moved to Chicago. His home during recent