Professor of Natural Sciences, Normal College
Centurion, 1901–1928
Born 19 January 1855 in Little Valley, New York
Died 23 February 1928 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
, Sleepy Hollow, New York
Proposed by Addison Brown and Daniel Chester French
Elected 2 March 1901 at age forty-six
Proposer of:
Century Memorial
Edward Sandford Burgess was one of those teachers of science whose investigations in a special subject only lead to inquiry into the larger problems of human life. Botany, which was Dr. Burgess’s selected field, might seem to be remote from such inquiry, but the sweep of his mind and the scope of his scientific imagination were never confined to arbitrary limits. Deeply learned in the lore of plants and flowering growths, his research extended far into palæontology, thence into anthropology and evidences of human descent.
Dr. Burgess was widely versed in literature; it was the testimony of his students that his teaching, even of purely scientific subjects, awakened love for the higher things of life and culture. Recognized as a scholar of the highest rank and a foremost authority on problems of education, it was his personal courtesy and simplicity of manner, high individual ideals and kindly interest in pupils and associates, which gave him the place he holds in their memory.
Alexander Dana Noyes
1929 Century Association Yearbook