"Upon us as friends who loved and honored him, upon the College whose faithful officer he was, upon the classes he taught with self-sacrificing zeal, upon the community and the church in which his virtues made him eminent, an overwhelming sorrow has, under God's will, fallen in the death of our late colleague, Professor Richard M. Smith. Even those who had not the pleasure of knowing, from intimate association, the beauties of his private character, may from the knowledge of his career form some conception of the vigor of his mind and the unspotted virtue of his life. For us, who had in him the closer and tenderer interests of a common work and an undisturbed friendship, his sweet temper, his wise conversation and lofty unselfishness, will ever be a source of blended sorrow and consolation; be it, therefore,
"Resolved, 1. That we tender, as a body, to the widow and family of our dearly beloved colleague, our respectful sympathy in their bereavement.
"2. That we request our President to publish this expression of our heart-felt sorrow for the friend whom we have lost."
Professor Smith had been a prominent man in his native State, first as an educator, then as editor of the Alexandria Sentinel, afterwards of the Richmond Enquirer. He was the first Professor to die at his post.
[Illustration: PROF. WM. A. SHEPARD, A. M., Class 1857; Major
Confederate States Army.]
The Board, after paying tribute to his memory, proceeded to supply the vacant chair.
On the first ballot Professor William Arthur Shepard, of the Southern Female College of Petersburg, was elected to the place. He was no stranger to the College, having served as Professor prior to the war, and having resigned his place to go into the service. Though a Northern man by birth, he threw his heart and energies into the Southern cause, and was so true and faithful that, after having been disabled for field service by wounds, he was promoted to be Major and Assistant Commissary.
It would be safe to say that the College never had a warmer friend or a truer man in its service than he proved himself to be for over thirty years. He entered at once on the duties of his chair.
At a meeting of the Board held in Baltimore, March, 1870, at the session of the Baltimore Conference, that Conference was requested to make an assessment to aid the College, on the same plan as that adopted by the Virginia Conference. This the Conference agreed to make.
At the annual meeting, June, 1870, the President made the annual report, which gave the attendance as 110; total earnings from fees for the session, $5,040. A preparatory school was recommended to take charge of students unable to take College courses; recommended employment of assistants in the departments of Mathematics and Ancient Languages, particularly the latter, so that Prof. Price might initiate the School of English, as described in the Catalogue. Reference was made to the old trouble of financial embarrassment; also, to his efforts during the last summer's vacation to arouse interest in the College, which efforts he proposed to continue the coming summer as far as practicable.