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Memorial
The Michigan Alumnus 171
JAMES HENRY BREWSTER
A MEMORIAL ADOPTED BY THE UNIVERSITY SENATE AT A MEETING HELD MAY 16
James Henry Brewster was born at New Haven, Connecticut on the sixth day of April 1856, the son of Rev. Joseph and Sarah Bunce Brewster. He died at Denver, Colorado, on the seventh day of October, 1920, the burial being in Forest Hill Cemetery at Ann Arbor, Michigan.
His ancestry traces back to Elder Wil liam Brewster, one of the founders of Plymouth Colony, and he was a true son of that intellectually and morally vigor ous stock.
He secured his preparation for college in the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University in 1873, and was graduated with the degree of Bache lor of Philosophy in 1877. In 1879 he took the degree of Bachelor of Laws from the Yale Law School, and began the practice of law in New York City. His connection with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company caused his removal, in 1881, to Albany, New York. This con nection continued until he entered the general practice of the law at Detroit, Michigan in 1883.
During the period of his practice in Detroit, which ended with the call to a professorship in the School of Law of this University, in 1897, he served two terms as a member of the Board of Edu cation of that city. His connection with the faculty of the School of Law continued until his resignation in 1910 oc casioned by failing health which warned him of the imperative need that he seek a drier climate if he were to continue an active life. This necessity took him with his family to Boulder, Colorado; in which place he gave up a year or more to an effort to regain his health. Later, he accepted temporarily, a position on the faculty of the School of Law of the University of Colorado. Believing him- self strong enough to take up again the practice of law, six or seven years ago he removed to Denver, Colorado, and the re continued in the general practice of the law until his death.
From 1903 to the time of his resigna tion from our Faculty of Law, he was Editor in Chief of the Michigan Law Review, a position he filled with great credit both to himself and to the Uni versity. In 1904 he published his book entitled "The Conveyance of Estates in Fee by Deed" which has been well re ceived both by the legal profession and law teachers.
Mr. Brewster was married to Frances Stanton, June twenty-eighth, 1888. Of this marriage there are four living chil dren, Susie, Chauncey Bunce, Edith Navarre and Oswald Cammann, a fifth having died in infancy.
Mr. Brewster was energetically active in public affairs, fearless in his advocacy of what he conceived to be right, and not less courageous and vehement in his condemnation of what he believed to be wrong. He had a passion for truth. It is not enough to say of him that he disapproved untruth, sham and pretense; you must say of him that he hated all such and that he was vitriolic in their denunciation.
He was intellectually strong, a clear thinker and his judgment was well guid ed. His interest in his work was intelli gent and deep, his tastes scholarly, his educational ideals high and his interest in students real. To these characteristics we must add a most delightful personal ity on its social side. With his keen wit, his genial humor and his delicate consid eration for others, he endeared himself to all his associates. His students are his great debtors, but we, his associates, owe him much.
Your committee offers the following resolution:
RESOLVED, That this memorial be spread upon the minutes of the Senate and that a copy be sent to Mrs. Brewster to whom, and to whose children, we tender our deep sympathy. And this in testimony of our high regard for him, and our tender interest in them.
VICTOR H. LANE
JOSEPH H. DRAKE, Sr.
EVANS HOLBROOK