Material from Richmond Mayo-Smith’s course at Columbia, Historical and Practical Political Economy (1891-92), was posted earlier. Below some biographical information from his entry to a four volume collection of portraits and biographical sketches of distinguished university graduates published between 1898-1900 which is followed by the report of his death and funeral ceremony in the Columbia University newspaper, The Columbia Spectator.
The circumstances certainly point to suicide. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography (2004), “Following a crippling boating accident, Mayo-Smith sustained a nervous breakdown and committed suicide a few months later in New York City.”
Here a link to his colleague E.R. Seligman’s 1919 tribute to Mayo-Smith published in Vol XVII of Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1924).
A few pages in the paper by David John Gow [“Quantification and Statistics in the Early Years of American Political Science, 1880-1922”, Political Methodology, Vol. 11, No. 1/2 (1985), pp. 1-18] help to put Richmond Mayo-Smith within a larger context.
Incidentally Mayo-Smith’s wife, Mabel Ford, was the daughter of Gordon Lester Ford, editor of The New York Tribune, and the great granddaughter of Noah Webster according to her New York Times obituary of 4 February, 1938.
The pioneer of applied demand analysis, Henry L. Moore, was hired in 1902 to fill Mayo-Smith’s position. “Genealogically” speaking, we could think of this year’s economics Nobel laureate, Angus Deaton, as a direct descendent in the line: Mayo-Smith to Henry L. Moore to Henry Schultz to Milton Friedman (to name only one of the numerous legitimate heirs of Henry Schultz) down to Deaton, so Richmond Mayo-Smith was Angus Deaton’s great-great grandfather as far as applied consumption DNA can tell.
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MAYO-SMITH, Richmond, 1854-
Born in Troy, O., 1854; received his early education in the public schools and High School of Dayton; A.B., Amherst, 1875; studied in Berlin, 1875-77; and at Heidelberg during the summer term of 1878; Assistant in Political Science at Columbia, 1877-78; Adjunct Professor History and Political Science, 1878-83; Professor of Political Economy and Social Science since 1883.
RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH, M.A., Professor of Political Economy and Social Science at Columbia, was born in Troy, Ohio, February 9, 1854. Through his father Preserved Smith, he is descended from the Rev. Henry Smith, who came to this country during 1638 and took up ministerial work at Wethersfield, Connecticut. His mother was Lucy Mayo. He received his early education in the public schools of Dayton, Ohio and at the Dayton High School, entering Amherst College in 1871 and graduating in 1875. He studied abroad at the University of Berlin during the two years following, and also at Heidelberg during the summer term of 1878. He was appointed Assistant in Political Science at Columbia in 1877, and was promoted to Adjunct Professor History and Political Science in the following year. In 1883 he was elected to his present position in the Chair of Political Economy and Social Science. Professor Mayo-Smith married, June 4, 1884, Mabel Ford. They have four children: Lucy, Amabel, Richmond and Worthington Mayo-Smith. He is a member of the Century, University and Authors’ Clubs, and is not actively interested in politics.
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PROF. MAYO-SMITH
Death by Fall from Fourth Story Window of His Home
Funeral Yesterday Morning
An Appreciation by Professor Giddings.
The sad story of the sudden death of Richmond Mayo-Smith, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy and Social Science is by this time well known. For several months he had been ill with nervous prostration and was taking his seventh year of rest from university work. At six o’clock Monday evening his wife and daughter left him resting in his study on the fourth story of his home at 305 West Seventy-seventh street. Fifteen minutes later he was found dead on the flagging in the rear of the house. It is supposed that in opening the window to air the room, which was very warm, he slipped on the hard wood floor and fell out.
Richmond Mayo-Smith had been a professor of political economy at Columbia since 1883. He was born in Ohio, and was graduated from Amherst College in 1875. After leaving Amherst College he studied for two years in Berlin University. While abroad he also was a tutor in Heidelberg University. His connection with Columbia began in 1877, when he was called to the University as a teacher of history. The year following he was made an adjunct professor, and in 1883, as stated, he was made a Professor of Political Economy and Social Science. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of Great Britain and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was a writer on economic subjects and the author of “Emigration and Immigration,” “Sociology and Statistics,” “Statistics and Economics.” These works were published in 1890, 1895, and 1899.
Professor Mayo-Smith was a member of the Century, University, Authors’, and Barnard Clubs, and of the Amherst College Association. He was a vestryman i’ Christ Episcopal Church, Seventy-first street and Broadway, of which the Rev. Dr. Jacob S. Shipman is pastor.
On Tuesday Acting-President Butler issued the following order :
President’s Room, Nov. 12, 1901.
As a mark of respect to the memory of Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith, for twenty-four years an officer of Columbia University, and in token of the affectionate regard in which he was held by his colleagues and by the student-body, the exercises of the School of Political Science will be suspended until Friday morning, Nov15.
On Thursday, Nov. 14, the day appointed for the funeral of Professor Mayo-Smith, the exercises of Columbia College and of the Schools of Law and Philosophy, will be suspended entirely; the exercises of the Schools of Applied Science and Pure Science will be suspended until 1:30 o’clock P. M.
The Trustees of Columbia College, members of the University Council, and all officers and students of the University, are invited to attend the funeral services of Professor Mayo-Smith in a body, on Thursday morning, Nov. 14, at 10 o’clock A. M., in Christ Church, Broadway and 71st St. Officers and students of the University will assemble in the basement of the Church, entrance on 71st St., at 9:45 A. M. Professor James Chidester Egbert. Jr., is designated to act as Marshal.
Nicholas Murray Butler,
Acting President.
The funeral services were held yesterday morning in Christ Church and were conducted by Chaplain Van De Water and Dr. Shipman. President Low and Acting-President Butler followed the coffin, and members of the faculty and student-body, about 200 in number, followed in procession.
Professor Franklin H. Giddings has written the following tribute:
The death of Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith has made a gap in Columbia’s Faculty which no mere closing-up of the ranks can ever fill or conceal. Some losses are irretrievable. The place that a great man has held may be taken by another. In a nominal sense his work may be done by another; but it is never the same work. Professor Mayo-Smith was a man in whom rare gifts were in a very rare way combined. No one came under his personal influence, or into the circle of his friends, who did not recognize the accuracy of his knowledge, and the remarkable poise of his judgment; who did not soon feel the singular beauty and kindliness of his nature.
At Columbia Professor Mayo-Smith had taught history, political economy and statistics, and he had long served in the University Council. As a teacher he presented every subject with the utmost clearness. He insisted upon accuracy and thoughtfulness in all required work; but his judgment of students was marked by great considerateness and fair-mindedness. Students taking advanced work under his direction were admitted to his friendship and confidence, and he never ceased to take a deep personal interest in their success.
As a scientific investigator Professor Mayo-Smith made important contributions to both political economy and social science. His most distinguished work was in the domain of statistics, and there he stood easily first among Americans, and was recognized by Europeans as ranking with the three or four greatest names on the Continent and in England. The characteristics of his scientific work, as of his teaching, were scrupulous accuracy, perfect clearness of presentation, and that balanced judgment which is the highest mark of the scientific mind. He never attempted to make figures prove anything. With endless patience he sought to read in them their own sincere story, to discover so much of truth as he might; content always to admit that neither he nor any one else knew half the things that scientific investigators are commonly supposed to have discovered.
To all these interests of the teacher and the scholar Professor Mayo-Smith added the activities of the citizen, which he discharged in a way that was an inspiring revelation to all who knew him of his deep sense of duty. For many years a most valued member of the Central Council of the Charity Organization Society, he was also chairman of the Eighth District Committee, and he made it his business to know the exact facts about every case that came before the committee for consideration or relief. I have personally known of instance after instance in which his feeling of obligation to the suffering was discharged only by an expenditure of time and energy in visitation which I felt sure he could ill afford to give. In social life he was one of the most charming of men, whose delightful humor made him always in demand as the toastmaster or chief speaker whenever, in meetings of the many learned societies to which he belonged, relaxation and good-fellowship succeeded the more serious business of the occasion. As a friend he was unselfish to a degree, thinking always first of others, always last of himself. My own obligation to him is one which no words of tribute can ever repay.
Source: Columbia Spectator, Vol. XLV., No. 1 (Friday, November 15, 1901), p. 1.