Letter from the Rev. Ernest Stires, D.D. '01

Letter from Ernest Stires 1920.png

Title

Letter from the Rev. Ernest Stires, D.D. '01

Subject

Trinity College and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

Description

Aside from the S.A.T.C. incident, the College’s Board also saw a Trinity churchman and fellow Trustee called to action. The Right Reverend Ernest Milmore Stires, D.D.’01, was an Episcopal priest and later the 3rd Bishop of Long Island. In 1920, Stires tendered his resignation from the Board of Trustees in what appears to have been a response to his duties serving on a committee of appointments for the Episcopal Church beset by influenza concerns.

The Board never acted upon his proffered resignation and Stires appears to have remained on the Board. Stires penned his letter to the Board on May 25, 1920, remarking that it has “been a keen disappointment to me that the inflexible character of previous engagements have so far prevented my attendance upon the meetings of the Trustees of Trinity College. Although I dreaded such conditions when I accepted the distinction of election, yet I never dreamed that the fact would be more serious than my fear.” Those “previous engagements,” which prompted Stires to miss board meetings in 1919, are illumined in the Journal of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Stires served on a “Joint Commission on the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution Providing for the Election and Consecration of a Suffragan Bishop for a Province.” That commission, the Journal reports, was also responsible for procedure in appointments and consecrations generally and, “on account of the epidemic of Influenza prevailing,” ultimately delayed the consecration of the Rev. Henry Beard Delany, D.D., Suffragan Bishop-elect for North Carolina.

Creator

Ernest Stires, D.D. '01

Source

Trinity College Digital Repository

Publisher

Watkinson Library and Trinity College Archives, Trinity College (Hartford, CT)

Date

May 25, 1920

Contributor

N/A

Rights

Digital reproductions and permission to publish Watkinson materials may be requested by contacting Watkinson staff. With permission of the staff, readers may use their own cameras in the library. Users of materials from the Watkinson Library or the College Archives must accept full legal responsibility for observing the laws of copyright, as well as the laws of libel and invasion of privacy and property rights.

Relation

N/A

Format

.png

Language

English

Type

Text, Letter, College Records (typescript)

Identifier

Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut; Episcopal Church

Citation

Ernest Stires, D.D. '01, “Letter from the Rev. Ernest Stires, D.D. '01,” Watkinson Library - Virtual Museum, accessed March 29, 2024, https://watkinsonlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/8.

Output Formats

Comments

Allowed tags: <p>, <a>, <em>, <strong>, <ul>, <ol>, <li>