A college professor, at an alumni gathering, in conversation with one
of his former students who had been obliged to work his way through
college, said to him, "I always had a feeling that you took life too
seriously,--that you had too little diversion."
The thought expressed in that remark suggests one of the dominant
impressions of Mr. Putney that comes to me after these many years.
Teaching was to him a serious matter, and the student's part, in his
judgment, both in preparation and in classroom, demanded likewise
faithful and not superficial performance.
The basis of this characteristic in his life-work was his Christian
faith. It naturally made his objective the development of Christian
character, over and above the impartation and reception of information.
I have always felt a deep sense of personal gratitude for a service
rendered during a special period of study at the Academy. Members of
my class who took the classical course will recall that Greek was not
included among my studies. Nearly four years after graduation from
the Academy, having decided to enter college as a classical student,
I returned to St. Johnsbury for ten weeks of intensive study of Greek
alone. Mr. Putney not only made my membership in the class in "Middle"
Greek possible, and practically free from embarrassment at being a late
comer, but gave me many regular hours of private instruction in Homeric
Greek, enabling me during the last weeks of the time to join the senior
class in the study of the latter form of the language.
This I believe to be illustrative of his devotion and self-denying
service to any who are ready to respond to the forth-putting of time,
strength and knowledge on his part.
His home was open, if needed, to receive students or others who were
sick and in need of attention impossible to be given in the Academy
dormitory or other rooming building. Some cases of illness were of many
weeks duration, but this mattered not. The tender ministrations of Mrs.
Putney were not lessened until all necessity was passed.
Mr. Putney's influence was not due to his public utterances, for he did
not seek platform prominence. But his constant adherence to high ideals
of faithfulness, conscientiousness, and efficiency outside and in the
classroom, and his personal helpfulness to many an individual student
are among the legacies which many of us have been privileged to share
from his long and abundantly fruitful life.