Richmond Mayo-Smith

The sudden death of Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith cut off, in the very prime of his manhood, a student of remarkable fidelity and insight, a teacher of rare capacity for the stimulation and guidance of the mind, and a scientist who stood easily at the head of those engaged in his difficult and intricate branch of investigation. He was a graduate of Amherst in 1875, and had been connected with Columbia University ever since his return from study in Berlin and Heidelberg in 1877, holding the Professorship of Political Economy and Social Science since 1883. He was a close student, but wrote sparingly. His three works, Emigration and Immigration, Statistics and Sociology, and Statistics and Economics, were published within the last ten years. He advanced steadily in the mastery of his science and in the confidence of those qualified to judge his methods and his achievements. He had two intellectual qualifications for his specialty, both rare and still more rare in combination: the scientific imagination, which compelled data to reveal to him their real relation and significance; and cautious candor, which is equally scientific, that forbade his forcing even the most enticing generalizations. Withal, he had the student’s gaudium certaminis, uncontentious with his fellows, but rejoicing in the contest against difficulty and obscurity. He felt keenly the sense of civic duty, was an active and valuable worker in the Charity Organization Society, and a conscientious and enlightened citizen. He was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of Great Britain and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Edward Cary
1902 Century Association Yearbook