Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1914 [PAGE 66]

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64

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[July 5,

tion in the University ; the Council of Administration has granted permission for the organization of these literary societies, in answer to a request signed by the presidents of all the present women's literary societies in the institution, and the presidents of other organizations of the women students, such as the Women's League.

Attention being called to the fact that the final approval of the plans for the third floor of the addition to the Women's Building had been referred by the board to the Committee on Buildings and Grounds (Report, 1912, pp. 419 and 581), the matter was left to this committee, with the suggestion from the chairman of the Executive Committee that the matter be taken up immediately and disposed of.

HENRY BIROTH. CHICAGO, June 18, 1912.

(2) The following letter from Mr. W. B. Day, Acting Dean and Secretary of the School of Pharmacy: President Edmund J. James, University of Illinois, Vroana, III. DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: On May 29, 1912, there died in Baden Baden, Germany, a distinguished friend of the School of Pharmacy, Mr. Henry Biroth. Mr. Biroth was one of the pioneer druggists of Chicago. He came here from Germany when about eighteen years of age and was apprenticed to Dr. J. Mahla, one of the leading apothecaries and chemists of early Chicago. In 1861 Mr. Biroth enlisted in the Union Army. At the close of the war he returned to Chicago, and at the time of the fire was in business on the North Side. He lost everything in the fire, but afterward opened a drug store on Archer Avenue near Twenty-second Street, and then engaged in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, especially pepsin. Mr. Biroth sold his drug store many years ago, but continued in the manufacture of pepsin until a few years ago, when after the death of his wife he retired from business and spent his remaining years in travel. A lover of art and literature, he traveled extensively in Europe, visiting art galleries, museums, libraries, and places of historic interest. 1% was during these travels that he was stricken with an illness which resulted fatally. At the time of his death Mr. Biroth was Honorary President of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He was president of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association in 1882-83, was twice president of the old Chicago College of Pharmacy, and was a charter member of the Chicago Veteran Druggists, Association, and its president in 1903. Memorial resolutions have been passed by the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association and the faculty of the School of Pharmacy, as well as, by the Chicago Veteran Druggists' Association. The School of Pharmacy was especially indebted to Mr. Biroth; for, beginning with 1885, he awarded each year a fine compound microscope to the senior student who was recommended by the faculty as having done the best work in materia medica and microscopy. Mr. Biroth leaves but one child, Mrs. H. Massey, now residing in Blue Island, 111. Mr. Biroth's funeral occurred Sunday, June 23, at Mt. Greenwood Cemetery. The services at the grave were conducted by the Chicago Veteran Druggists Association. I represented the school and sent flowers for the Alumni Association. While not an alumnus of the school, Mr. Biroth was always deeply interested in it. He was a member of the old college organization almost from its foundation. When the school was turned over to the University in 1896 and the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association recommended the appointment of the Advisory Board of Pharmacists, Mr. Biroth was one of those selected to serve on this first Advisory Board. The University conferred upon Mr. Biroth in 1897 the honorary degree of Master in Pharmacy. I thought that you might be pleased to have these facts, and possibly to have memorial resolutions adopted by the Board of Trustees and a copy forwarded to Mrs. Massey. Respectfully yours, W. B. DAY, Actuary.

This communication was received for record, and the board unanimously passed the following resolution, directing that it be printed in the minutes, and that a copy thereof be sent to Mr. Biroth's surviving daughter, Mrs. Massey.

WHEREAS, Henry Biroth, who died on May 29, 1912, was for more than forty years eminent in the profession of pharmacy in this country, and was ever among the foremost in the long struggle for the raising of the standard of this profesWHEREAS, He was for many years a faithful and helpful friend of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Illinois; therefore be it „ , . . „ . . it_ Resolved. That the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois desires thus publicly to express its appreciation of the distinguished services of Henry Biroth to his profession and to the School of Pharmacy, and its sympathy with his surviving daughter.

APPOINTMENT TO THE A D V I S O R Y BOARD OF PHARMACY. THE SCHOOL OF

(3) A communication from Mr. W. B. Day, as secretary of the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, stating that at the annual meeting of the association