George W. Plympton

George Washington Plympton, thirty-seven years a member of The Century, eighty years of age [sic: seventy-nine] when taken from us, for fifty-five years a teacher by day and for thirty-five a teacher both by day and night, a New Englander of the best stock, a graduate of the Troy Polytechnic, and a civil engineer of mark, a director of the Cooper Union and a professor in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, an apostle of popular education at all times: such is the stirring epitome of a noble life. Favored by unbroken health and high spirits, he knew no delights like those of his class-rooms and the rewards of a stimulating and conscientious teacher came to him in full measure. The circle of his friends included the great army of his pupils, who one and all recognized his sympathy and power, while the approval of his many fellow-workers for the intellectual uplift of the common toiling man and woman was spontaneous and genuine. Such engrossing activity as a teacher, such spending and being spent in exhausting educational work would have made most men recluse for their scanty hours of leisure, but he was friendly and companionable in many spheres; and one of the best loved of these was the Century Association. Its highest boast is the possession of such veterans, the favored few who freely dispense in old age the wealth of experience acquired in a long, well-spent life, a life ended in harness and adorned by cheerfulness.

William Milligan Sloane
1908 Century Association Yearbook