Richard Clipston Sturgis Jr.

Richard Clipston Sturgis Jr. (1880 - 1910) was born in Brookline, MA, the son of noted architect R. Clipston Sturgis. He attended St. Paul's School ('01) and Harvard University ('04) [1] , following in his fathers footsteps became an architect. He died of Pneumonia at age thirty in his home in Boston, MA. His untimely death is memorialized in a poem engraved in the New Advent Church (Boston, MA) which his father designed.

THERE was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs And islands of Winander!--many a time,

At evening, when the earliest stars began To move along the edges of the hills, Rising or setting, would he stand alone, Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; Of silence such as baffled his best skill: Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise Has carried far into his heart the voice Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene Would enter unawares into his mind With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received Into the bosom of the steady lake. This boy was taken from his mates, and died" In childhood, ere he was full man. Pre-eminent in beauty is the vale.

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