The personality of Mr. Putney has stayed with me during all these years
with singular distinctness. Many other teachers, whose influence has
been undoubted and deeply felt, shape themselves in memory somewhat
vaguely. But Mr. Putney stands out clearly and vividly, as if the days
under him at St. Johnsbury Academy were but yesterday. Here was a man
quiet and unassuming, and yet I am conscious, and always have been
conscious, of a certain power that flowed from him into the lives of his
pupils.
Such a force does not lend itself readily to analysis. Like most
fundamental things, it is subtle, undefinable. But some elements in the
character of Mr. Putney in the retrospect are clear as air. In the first
place, he was a born teacher. His scholarship was backed by thoroughness
of application in the classroom. A part of his painstaking self passed
into the mental processes, and so into the equipment, of those who sat
under him. His instruction went deep. It was thorough plowing of the
mind. Slip-shod methods were repugnant to his nature. Then, too, how
patient he was! For every student he seemed to carry in his mind an
ideal of development that made every effort on his part toward that end
a real joy, and so he first grounded him in basic things and then built
on that foundation.
With poise and self-control, though not physically robust, he managed
a large school in such a way that it ran as smoothly as a well-oiled
machine. We took it all for granted then. But we see now, especially
those of us who are teachers ourselves, the meaning and the reason of
it all, and we trace the fact to its source in an able and inspiring
personality.
Mr. Putney had a quiet glow of humor, and many an incident comes to mind
to show how large and wholesome a part this characteristic played in his
career. But most of all I would pay tribute to the Christian gentleman.
His idealism was not too lofty for "human nature's daily food." Rather
it expressed itself in practical devotion to the best interests of his
pupils, to good things, and to noble causes. He was a leader because
he allowed himself humbly to be led by something above him. He moulded
character because he was himself being moulded by spiritual forces. Not
ambitious in the worldly sense, he came into his own long before his
gentle life passed from among us. I fancy that, could he do so, he would
tell us that his real ambition has been realized. In Mr. Putney we are
gratefully aware of that gracious thing, the distribution of a rare
personality through the lives of others, the multiplication of self in
terms of helpfulness to the world.