Hollis

ther became captain in the 59th Indiana Regi-
ment, serving at Vicksburg, Corinth, Shiloh,
Chickamauga, Atlanta, and on the march to the
sea. He returned in command of his regiment,
and later became owner and operator of a quarry
at Louisville, Ky. His wife was the daughter of
a farmer in Steubenville, Ohio. Ira's youth was
spent at Louisville in straitened circumstances.
He attended the local high school and then be-
came an apprentice in a machine shop. He later
secured a clerical position with a railroad, and
then with a cotton commission house in Mem-
phis. At the age of eighteen he took the exami-
nation for admission to the United States Naval
Academy at Annapolis and came out at the head
of the list, a position which he retained through-
out the course. After graduating as cadet-engi-
neer in 1878 he spent three years on the cruiser
Quinnelaug in the Mediterranean and North
seas and on the coast of Africa. He was pro-
moted to assistant engineer in 1880, and at the
conclusion of the cruise was detailed as professor
of marine engineering at Union College, Sche-
nectady, N. Y. In 1884 he served with the ad-
visory board for the construction of the ships of
the White Squadron. Ordered to the Pacific
coast in January 1887, he spent three years at
the Union Iron Works, supervising the construc-
tion of the Charleston, and three years on board
that vessel in charge of her machinery, with the
rank of passed assistant engineer, going to the
Pacific Station and later, taking part in the chase
of the Itata. In 1892 he was designated to lec-
ture on naval engineering at the Naval War Col-
lege at Newport, his lectures being subsequently
published as a textbook for the navy. He then
became assistant to the chief of the Bureau of
Steam Engineering, but resigned from the navy
in 1893 to take charge of the development of in-
struction in engineering at Harvard University.
During his twenty years as professor of me-
chanical engineering at Harvard, Hollis built up
a reputation as an educator and an administrator.
His breadth of experience, energy, and sanity
of judgment were also brought into play in nu-
merous non-academic activities. As chairman of
the athletic committee he converted the marsh
land (now known as Soldiers Field) into a well-
equipped playing field, and constructed on it the
colossal Stadium, the first structure of its char-
acter in America. His courage in building that
structure of reinforced concrete, in the face of
the grave doubts then existing as to its dura-
bility in the New England climate, was charac-
teristic of the man. He was active also in im-
proving intercollegiate athletic relations, in es-
tablishing the Harvard Union (a students' club),

Hollister

in founding the Engineers Club of Boston, of
which he was the first president, and in numer-
ous other enterprises demanding organizing
power and leadership. His election later to the
Board of Overseers of Harvard University—a
unique honor for a non-graduate—gave evidence
of the confidence and respect with which he was
regarded by the great body of Harvard alumni.
In 1913 Hollis was called to the presidency of
the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a position
which gave wide scope to his administrative
powers. He soon became a leading citizen of the
community and during the World War was a
member of the Committee of Public Safety and
of the New England Fuel Administration. In
this period also he was elected president of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers and
in that position did valuable work for national
preparedness. He resigned the presidency of the
Institute in 1925 on account of ill health, re-
turned to Cambridge, Mass., and devoted himself
to writing until his death some five years later.
His publications include The Frigate Consti-
tution: The Central Figure of the Navy under
Sail (1900) and various scientific papers. His
proposals for naval reorganization, presented in
the North American Review, May 1896, and in
the Atlantic Monthly, September 1897, were the
basis for the Personnel Act of 1898 which re-
organized the line and staff of the navy and es-
tablished the present system. The influence of
Hollis in all his associations was the result not
only of his energy, character, and good judg-
ment but also of his genialty and capacity for
comradeship and sympathetic helpfulness. On
Aug. 22,1894, he was married to Caroline (Lor-
man) Hollis, the daughter of Charles Lorman
of Detroit. He was survived by four children.

[C. J. Adams, "Ira Nelson Hollis," in Mich. Engi-
neering, Oct. 1930, and in Trans. Am. Soc. Meek. En-
gineers, vol. LII, pt. II (1931) ; Who's Who in Amer-
ica, 1928-29; Haru. Grads. Mag., Dec. 1930; Boston
Transcript, Aug. 15, 1930; Navy Registers, 1878-
93 ; Army and Navy four., Oct 29, 1892; Aug. 21, 28,
Nov. 6, 1897; certain information from members of
the family; personal acquaintance.] L. s. M—s.

HOLLISTER, GIDEON HIRAM (Dec. 14,
i8i7-Mar. 24, 1881), lawyer, author, was born
in Washington, Litchfield County, Conn. He
was the son of Gideon and Harriet (Jackson)
Hollister and a descendant in the seventh gen-
eration of Lieut. John Hollister, said to have
been an Englishman, who came to America about
1642 and settled in Wethersfield, Conn. At Yale
College, where he graduated in 1840, young Hol-
lister was the class poet and editor of the Yale
Literary Magazine. He studied law in Litchfield,
Conn,, with Judge Origen S. Seymour, Admit-

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