The degree of A. M. was conferred on William Abner Frantz, of Virginia.
At the June meeting, 1877, Thomas Branch, Esq., resigned the office of president of the Board. Resolutions of regret at his action, and expressive of the kind regard of the Trustees towards him, were adopted.
Dr. J. A. Duncan was elected to fill the vacancy.
William Willis, Jr., resigned the oflice of Treasurer of the Board on account of ill-health and defective eyesight. This was accepted with great reluctance by the Board, and resolutions of sympathy for him in his afflictions and thanks for his faithful service were adopted.
Prof. W. A. Shepard was elected Treasurer pro tempore.
When the Board adjourned, it closed its last meeting in connection with the president who had inaugurated the College at Ashland, and had presided over it for nine years.
A few days after the opening of the session of 1877-1878 he passed away, after a brief illness. The record of the journal made by the Secretary, and enclosed in black lines, is as follows:
[Transcribers' note: In the original book, the following paragraph is also enclosed in black lines.]
On Monday, September 24, 1877, at 4 o'clock A. M., Rev. JAMES A. DUNCAN, D. D., President of Randolph-Macon College, died at the President's house, Ashland, Va., after a brief illness. On Tuesday, the 25th, a brief funeral service was conducted in the College chapel by Rev. Leroy M. Lee, D. D.; after which the corpse was conveyed by a special train to Richmond. Funeral service conducted at Broad-Street Church by Bishop D. S. Doggett, D. D.; a procession formed to Hollywood, and the body of this faithful and illustrious servant of God buried there, in the hope of a glorious resurrection.
"This writer was a student at Randolph-Macon when Dr. Duncan was a little boy, not yet in his teens. He was then as full of fun and mischief as a boy could be, which, with his sprightliness, made him an uncommonly interesting boy. He was a scholar in the first Sunday-school class he ever taught, and along with him were Dick and Gib Leigh and Dick Manson. He was intimately associated with him in re-establishing the College at Ashland, he beginning his presidency, with this writer as treasurer and chairman of the Executive Committee. Then, from 1870 to his last illness, he sat under his ministry in the old ball-room chapel, whose walls echoed to the tones of his wondrous voice, such as cathedrals rarely, if ever, have heard. This ought to render him competent, in part, to write of this most gifted man.