MAGLWMarvin
WILLIAM T.R. MARVIN
MEMORIAL
From Proceedings, Page 1913-77:
R.W. William Theophilus Rogers Marvin was born in Boston, Dec. 30, 1832, and died at his home in Brookline, Feb. 24, 1913. His father, Theophilus Rogers Marvin, occupied a high position in his business as a printer and publisher, and the son later became associated with him under the name of T. R. Marvin & Son, by which the firm has been known to the present day. The father had a deep interest in Williams College, and naturally the son gravitated to that institution after the earlier years of his education had been spent in the Adams School of Boston, and in the Public Latin School, from which at graduation he received the honor of being Franklin medalist. His faithfulness and success as a scholar were thus proven at an early age, as the distinction of the Franklin Medal was never given in those days except to those who had shown themselves in every way worthy. His college course was a repetition of the success already achieved. He was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1854, possessing, beyond his record of scholarship, the personal regard of all who had been associated with him as classmates and as instructors, and this continued during his entire life. There has probably never been an alumnus of the college so well and so favorably known to the entire body of succeeding generations of professors, students and fellow-alumni, as was our Brother Marvin. He was made Master of Arts in course in 1857, and the crowning honor was bestowed upon him fifty-two years later, by the degree of L.H.D. or Doctor of Learning, a distinction unique in itself, and intended to testify to the rare qualities of literary ability which he had displayed.
For Brother Marvin was not content to be simply a master printer, however honorable that title might be, and it is a duty which has been assigned to your Committee to recount very imperfectly a few of the interests and activities of his life, which placed him among the most notable of our members. One of our great writers has said that a man's education begins with his grandfather, and Brother Marvin's ancestry was an honorable one. He was a descendant of Reinold Marvin, who came to Turner, Conn., in 1637, and, on his mother's side, of John Coggeshall, once president of the Colony of Rhode Island. This became an incentive to his studies in genealogy, and the "Marvin Genealogy," and the "Marvin English Ancestry," and a complete genealogy of the Marvin family in New England, are a tribute of loyalty to his family, while his general interest in the subject is indicated by his long membership in the New England Historic Genealogical Society, of which he was one of the Board of Counsellors for three years.
Closely allied with this was his membership and directorship in the Bunker Hill Memorial Association, and the Bostonian Society. He was versed in numismatics, the study of coins and medals, was an honorary member of the American Numismatic Society, the American Numismatic Association, corresponding member of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, and a foreign member of the Royal Numismatic Society of Belgium. He wrote and published the work entitled "Medals of the Masonic Fraternity," edited Bett's "Medals Illustrative of American Colonial History," and prepared the report upon the Arms of the Freemasons, which appears in our Proceedings for 1880. There was probably no one in New England of greater erudition in the science of heraldry.
These are only the surface indications of the direction and the ra:rge of his historical researches. He prepared the address at the Centennial of Columbian Lodge, besides numerous other historical and numismatic papers and tracts, and it was one of the regrets of his life that the Grand Lodge, after encouraging the preparation of a medal commemoratiVe of the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of its founding in 1733, did not find the way clear to carry his plan into execution.
It is difficult for us to realize the youthful activity of one whom we have seen among us bowed by the weight of many years. Brother Marvin was a member of the New England Guards, was quartermaster-sergeant on the staff of Colonel Burbank, commanding the First Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, and was sergeant in that asylum of retired military heroes, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.
It is more natural to think of his association with educational matters in the Town of Brookline, where he was for many years secretary of the School Committee and chairman of the High School Committee, and of his thirty years' membership in the Brookline Thursday Club, of which he was for two years the president, and of his services to the Protestant Episcopal Church as vestryman and warden of the Church of the Messiah, and member of the Convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts for many years. All these things he did and did well. While in college he had been a member of the Greek Letter Society of the Sigma Phi. Ten years after his graduation, he was interested in establishing at Williams a Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa, and was one of its charter members, being entitled to become so by virtue of his high standing in scholarship.
His love for the college never ceased. With two exceptions only, he attended all the annual meetings of its alumni in the City of Boston, and was an equally regular attendant at every Commencement. As he loved, so was he beloved. At the last meeting of the Alumni Association of Boston, the regrets of the Association were unanimously voted to him at his inability to occupy his time-honored place at the banquet board,
Brother Marvin was initiated into Masonry Oct. 1, 1857, in Columbian Lodge. He received the Master Mason's Degree Jan. 19; 1858. After serving the Lodge as Senior Steward, Senior Deacon, Junior Warden and Senior Warden, he was its Master in 1871 and 1872, and immediately thereafter became District Deputy Grand Master of the First District, which then included all the Lodges meeting in the Temple, for the years 1873 and 1874. fn January, 1883, he took up the duties of Secretary, and continued in that office until his death. The estimate set upon the value of his services as Secretary is indicated by the purse of $1,000, raised by voluntary contribution of the members of Columbian Lodge, and presented to him in 1906. In December, 1885, he was elected Senior Grand Warden, serving for the year 1886. As long as health and the increasing burden of business care permitted, he was a regular attendant at our Communications. He received all the degrees of the York Rite in bodies meeting in the Masonic Temple, the Order of the Temple being conferred upon him in 1860 in St. Bernard Commandery.
He received the Thirty-second Degree of the Scottish Rite in Boston Consistory in 1863, but never held office in any Masonic Body except the Lodge and Grand Lodge, in which his interest centered, and in which, as has been shown, he labored long and faithfully.
Brother Marvin was twice married. His first wife was Annie M., daughter of George and Judith Howe of Roxbury. His second wife was Mary, daughter of Edward S. and Abby (Pope) Ritchie, who is still living. By each marriage he had three children. One of the earlier marriage, and all of the second, survive him.
In preparing this summary of his life, your Committee feel that its character and its usefulness have been shown very feebly. The ashes of one of the early martyrs in England were cast, into the River Avon, so that no memorial of him might exist. But
"The Avon to the Severn runs,
The Severn to the sea;
And Wyckliff's dust is spread abroad
Wide as the waters be.'
The influence of such a life as that of our Brother and friend has been diffusing itself in countless directions for many years, and cannot be measured. or recorded. We can only stand by the side of the river, gather up a few grains of the dust that escaped oblivion, and say, "This was our Brother." But we believe that the work he did on earth is still exerting its power, and that the busy brain and the soul attuned to harmony in fealty to God and love to man, are still under God's providence alive in his eternal Kingdom, and shall never, never die.
Respectfully submitted,
Leon M. Abbott,
Thomas W. Davis,
George J. Prescott,
Committee.
