Earlier posts dealing with Columbia professor Henry Seager provided his syllabus on the trust problem and a link to his 22-page general lecture on economics from 1907/08. This post provides a report of his death in Kiev from bronchial pneumonia while traveling through the Soviet Union, details from an endowment for economic research in his will, and a memorial minute delivered by his colleague Wesley Clair Mitchell (that probably reveals at least as much about Mitchell as it does about Seager.
_________________
HENRY SEAGER DIES ON TOUR OF RUSSIA
Columbia Spectator. September 30, 1930.
Professor Henry Roger Seegar [sic], former professor at Columbia, […] died during the Summer vacation period.
Professor Seegar [sic], formerly of the Department of Political Economy, died in Kiev, Russia, in August. He was on tour with twenty-five other economists who were making a study of the Soviet Government’s five-year industrialization plan. After spending some time in France and Germany, the group left for Russia on July 7.
Professor Seegar [sic], was taken ill with bronchial pneumonia a month later. His condition grew worse and several days after the first attack, he died.
Member of Party
One of the leading economists in the country, Professor Seegar [sic], had been asked to accompany the party which was under the leadership of one of his former pupils, David Ostrinsky. The purpose of the expedition was to study at first-hand the conditions in the Soviet Republic.
[…]
Source: The Columbia Spectator, Vol. 54, No. 1 (September 25, 1930) p. 8.
_________________
ENDOWMENT GIVEN BY SEAGER’S WILL
Late Professor Leaves Fund for Advancement of Study and Research
Columbia Spectator. October 16, 1930.
A foundation to be known as the Schuyler Fiske Seager Endowment for the Advancement of Economic Study and Research “is to be established at Columbia from the residuary estate of the late Dr. Henry Rogers Seager, Professor of Political Economy here for twenty-five years, according to terms of his will published yesterday. Since the will has not as yet been probated, the total amount of the endowment cannot be ascertained yet, it was learned yesterday at the office of Frederick A. Goetze, Treasurer of the University, who was named executor of the estate.
The will falls in line with a statement recently made by Professor James C. Egbert of the School of Business, who declared in his report to Dr. Butler that an endowment for economic study would be highly desirable. Professor Egbert was of the opinion that such a sum could be used for the formation of a bureau of public utility economics.
Was Noted Economist
Dr. Seager who died this Summer while at the head of a group of economists studying conditions at Kiev, Russia, was known as an outstanding figure in academic economics. He was classed as an authority whose opinion frequently was sought in the practical determination of affairs.
Until the death of the first of seven relatives, the will stipulates, the foundation will not be started. These seven are to receive the residuary income during their lives and upon the death of the survivors the balance of the share of each in the principal is to be added to the fund.
The Trustees of the University have been named trustees of the residuary fund by Dr. Seager and they are to make the payments to the seven beneficiaries, who include his an uncle, an aunt, two nieces and two nephews. Dr. Seager wrote that he was establishing the foundation in memory of his father, Schuyler Fiske Seager, and his son who bears the same name. The will directs the trustees to expend the incom. of the fund each year “for such purposes as they shall deem most likely to contribute to the advancement of economic study and research during such year.”
Source: The Columbia Spectator, Vol. 54, No. 16 (October 16, 1930) pp. 1,3.
_________________
Memorial minute for Professor Seager
There being no reports from the Standing committees the Faculty proceeded to the election of a Chairman of the Committee on Instruction to succeed Professor Seager. The President [Nicholas Murray Butler] recognized Professor [Wesley Clair] Mitchell, who offered the following resolution:
The Faculty of Political Science records with deep sorrow the loss of one of its most distinguished and best-loved members, Professor Henry Rogers Seager, who died in Kiev, August 23rd, 1930.
Coming to Columbia from the University of Pennsylvania in his thirty-second year, Professor Seager gave his life to those high interests for which universities stand—the increase of knowledge, the training of future investigators, and the effort to raise the level of human life by taking thought. His contributions to economics were characterized by keen analytic insight and by wide acquaintance with actual conditions. No student of labor problems was held in higher esteem by the various interests concerned with that warmly controversial field. His sound judgment, his accurate knowledge, and is impartiality made him equally successful in dealing with the various forms assumed by business organizations and the efforts of government to prevent abuses of corporate powers. As a teacher Professor Seager won the affectionate gratitude of successive generations of students, whom he helped with their personal as well as their intellectual problems. As a colleague, he was generous and just, winning the confidence and the affection of his associates, young and old. As a citizen he was zealous and sensible: working ardently for causes which commanded his sympathy, yet shrewd in planning and efficient in execution—the type of “social reformer” who uses the wisdom of the serpent in the service of noble ideals.
It was characteristic of Professor Seager’s fresh mind and courage at an age when most men relax that he should become an active student of the extraordinary experiment in social reorganization now being conducted in Russia. Popular prejudice had never deterred him from taking a scientist’s interest in any social development and he hesitated as little at sixty as in his youth. Always eager for first-hand knowledge, and eager to share with others, he organized a group of economists to make a tour of inspection in Russia, with the expectation of returning presently for more through researches. It was characteristic also that he should overtax his physical strength in making the most of the opportunities for observation by his companions and himself. He died as he had lived, in the pursuit of knowledge and in the service of others.
The Resolution was adopted by a rising vote of the Faculty…
Source: From the copy of the official minutes of the regular meeting of the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University (October 10, 1930) in Columbia University Archives, Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-29, pp. 656-657.
Image Source: Henry R. Seager (1915) from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.