Thursday, April 26, 2018

Seavers in the News- William Nathanael Seaver Dies in 1960

It's time for another edition of "Seavers in the News" - a semi-regular feature from the historical newspapers about persons with the surname Seaver that are interesting, useful, fun, macabre, or add information to my family tree database.

This week's entry is from the Boston [Mass.] Herald newspaper dated 18 July 1960:


The transcription of this article is:


"W.N. Seaver Dead at 82

"Librarian at MIT From 1925 to 1947

"William Nathanael Seaver, 82, librarian emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died last night.

"He lived at 141 Warwick Rd., Melrose.

"He was librarian at M.I.T. from 1925 until retirement in 1947.  A native of Melrose, Mr. Seaver was graduated from Harvard University cum laude in 1900 and joined the staff of The Library Journal  and Publishers Weekly.

"AIDED BRAZIL
From 1910 to 1918 he was on the staff of the New York Public Library and from 1920 to 1924 he was librarian of the Woburn Public Library.  He became assistant librarian at M.I.T. in 1924 and remained in that position while the library grew and became one of the leading science and engineering libraries in the nation.

"After retirement, he spent three years planning a library for the Instituto Tecnico de Auronautica near Sao Paulo, Brazil.  During World War I, he was a delegate for the Library War Service of the American Library Association at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, later transferring to the dispatch office at Newport News, Va.  There he had charge of the collection of books and periodicals for servicemen overseas.

"Mr. Seaver was a member of the Massachusetts Library Club and editor of its bulletin from 1921 to 1929.  He was a member of the American Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, the New England Association of College Libraries, and Delta Upsilon.

"SERVICES WEDNESDAY
He was also active in the Melrose Unitarian Church and the Laymen's League.  He was a descendant of John Aden and Mary Chilton.

"He leaves his wife, the former Inez Mildred Waite of Woodstock, Vt.; three daughters, Mrs. Norman R. Anderson of Towson, Md.; Mrs. Donald G. Harrington of Endicott, N.Y.; and Mrs. Richard Kimball of Lexington, and nine grandchildren.

"Memorial services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. in the Unitarian Church, Melrose."

The source citation for this article is:

"W.N. Seaver Dead at 82
Boston [Mass.] Herald, 18 July 1960, page 8, column 4, William Nathanel Seaver obituary; online image, GenealogyBank (www.genealogybank.com: accessed 19 April 2018), Newspaper Archives collection.
William Nathanael Seaver (1877-1960) was the son of Nathaniel and Marietta Mills (White) Seaver.  He married Inez Mildred Waite (1893-1974) on 23 September 1922 in Woodstick, Vermont.  They has the three daughters mentioned in the obituary:


*  Priscilla Waite Seaver (1923-1969), who married Norman Roy Anderson.
*  Anne Codman Seaver (1927-2013), who married Donald George Harrington in 1950.
*  Martha Lawrence Seaver (1932-2021) who married Richard Kimball in 1953.

I corresponded with Martha (Seaver) Kimball about her Seaver families in the 1990s.  

I had all of these persons in my RootsMagic family tree database, but I did not have the biographical material or photograph for William Nathanael Seaver.

William Nathanael Seaver (1877-1960)  is my 6th cousin 4 times removed.  Our common ancestor is Robert and Elizabeth (Ballard) Seaver, the immigrants to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1633-4.

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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver

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5 comments:

Heather Wilkinson Rojo said...

Randy, MIT has a great archive. You might want to try writing to the archive for any additional information they might have on William Nathanael Seaver. They probably have a lot if he was the librarian!

Unknown said...

Hi Randy. Bob Kimball (son of Martha) here. I remember her corresponding with Cousin Randy back in the day. She enjoyed it very much. Here are two edits to your database. Unfortunately, my mother died in 2021. Also, Anne marrird Donald George Harrington (not Harrison).

Randy Seaver said...

Hi Bob,

I'm sorry to hear that cousin Martha died in 2021. Do you have an exact date and place?

I did not have these two corrections in my database, and have added them to my family tree database and to this blog post.

Thank you -- cousin Randy

Unknown said...

Randy:
Martha died on June 7, 2021 in Colchester, VT. Here is a link to her obituary, which you might find interesting. My brother Tom deserves most of the credit. My sister Emily and I made a few suggestions.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/obituary-martha-kimball-1932-2021/Content?oid=33172879

Bob

Randy Seaver said...

Thank you for the date and place.

That is a fantastic obituary. Thank you for sharing!

She worked for many years on her genealogy and family history - I hope it has been passed down and shared with the extended family.

All the best -- Randy