[A biographical note written by his father.]
Benjamin Stuart Walcott was sturdy and self-reliant as a boy and very
early developed strong personal initiative, good sense and courage. I
find in my notebook under an entry of July 6, 1905, a few days before
Stuart’s ninth birthday, that with him and his brother Sidney I had
measured a section of over 10,000 feet in thickness of rock with dip
compass and rod in northern Montana, and that that night we slept out
on the Continental Divide after a sandwich apiece for supper. On July
16, “Went up the Gordon Creek with Stuart and cut a few trees out of
the trail.” And on the next day, “Stuart assisted me in collecting
fossils from the Middle Cambrian Rocks.”
In 1906 Stuart helped in gathering Cambrian fossils in central Montana,
and in recognition of his effective work one of the new species of
shells was named after him, _Micromitra_ (_Paterina_) _stuarti_.
He also assisted in British Columbia in geological work during the
summer of 1907, and in 1908, when twelve years old, he was placed with
one packer in charge of a pack train operating in what is now the
Glacier Park, Montana, and in southern British Columbia. On this trip
one morning I heard faint rifle shots, and upon overtaking the pack
train found Stuart shooting away with a 22 gauge rifle at a grizzly
bear, which was some distance down the slope below the trail. On
reminding him of the danger, he said he wanted to drive the bear away
to prevent a stampede of the animals.
Both at home and in school his actions were largely influenced by a
determination first to know what was the right thing to do, and guided
by this habit, when it looked as though the United States would enter
the European War, he decided that it was his duty to take part in it.
When the Lusitania was sunk he felt strongly that the United States
should take a positive stand in favor of the freedom of the seas, that
the rights of Americans should be protected even if it meant war, and
he was ready to fight for it.
In common with the majority of the youth of America, he had the feeling
that it was a patriotic duty and privilege to offer personal service
to the Nation when its ideals and motives were assailed by a foreign
foe. He first offered his services to the Signal Corps and received a
temporary appointment. Realizing that training as an expert aviator
could be more quickly obtained in France than in this country, he went
to France and enlisted in the French Army with the expectation of being
transferred later to the American forces. This would have been done
prior to his being shot down within the German lines on December 12,
had he not been awaiting action by the United States Aviation Service
in France in examining and arranging for the transfer of the American
aviators in the French Army to the service of the United States.
Throughout his life the dominating thought was to be of positive
service wherever he might be placed. At the same time he was thoroughly
a boy and enjoyed a frolic and fun as much as any one of his companions.
He prepared for college at the Taft School, expecting to enter Yale,
and passed the examinations for that university before he was sixteen.
Upon further consideration he selected Princeton, largely because of
the preceptorial method of training, and was a senior when he decided
to enter the service of his country.
Stuart was an unusually well balanced boy and youth; his moral
convictions were sound, definite, and expressed by action rather than
words.