ways kept of the alumni of the University. For the alumni, he
always bore that simplest and most beloved of academic titles, "Prexy."
No gentler tribute has ever been paid than the words of his former
pupil, Professor Charles M. Gayley, '78, now of the University of
California, in the Commemoration Ode, read at the Quarter Centennial of
Dr. Angell's Presidency:

"For he recks of praises nothing, counts them fair nor fit:
He, who bears his honors lightly,
And whose age renews its zest--"

To James Burrill Angell must be given a pre-eminent place among those
who have made advanced learning for the young people of the land a
matter of course. More than any other one person he helped to give to
this country one of her proudest distinctions, the highest percentage in
the world of college men and women.

President Angell's long administration of thirty-eight years came to an
end October 1, 1909, when he resigned what had become a heavy burden to
become President-Emeritus. Even now we cannot properly estimate how
distinguished that service was. He was then eighty years old and had
given the University the best that was in him. The death of his wife,
Sarah Caswell Angell, in 1903, was a blow from which he never recovered.
She was the daughter of President Alexis Caswell of Brown University,
and her sympathetic co-operation and especial interest in the women of
the University was no small factor in his success.

For seven years after his resignation he lived in the home on the Campus
he had so long occupied, loved and honored alike by students, Faculty,
and alumni; and watched with interest and appreciation the development
of the University under the new leader. Here he died on April 4, 1916.
No tribute to a great leader was ever more fitting than the long double
file of students that lined the whole way to Forest Hill on the day he
was laid to rest under the simple monument which marks his grave.

No effort was made immediately to find a successor. Dean Harry Burns
Hutchins of the Law School, who had once before served as Acting
President during Dr. Angell's absence in Turkey, was asked to act again
in that capacity. This he did so successfully that on June 28, 1910, he
was unanimously elected to the Presidency. He accepted, but upon the
condition, expressed in his letter of acceptance, that he serve but five
years. The new President assumed his duties when the tide of the
University's progress was at the ebb.