Hopedale History
    November 1, 2018
    No. 359
    Millions for Psychiatry   

    Hopedale in October  

    Recent additions to pages on this site: Now and Then - The Draper Gym Site (Thanks to Henry Stenberg for a photo of a
    parade in 1954. It's on the Draper Gym page because it shows the gym location in the background about a year before it
    was built.)     Deaths   

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    Twenty-five years ago - November 1993 - The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

    The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and
    Mexico.

    President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.

    Fifty years ago - November 1968 - Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeats the Democratic candidate, Vice
    President Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace.

    Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt is initiated to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh trail, through
    Laos into South Vietnam. By the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos, slowing but not
    seriously disrupting trail operations.

    News items above are from Wikipedia. See below this text box for Hopedale news from 25, 50 and 100 years ago,
    printed in the Milford Daily News and the Milford Gazette, and obtained at the Bancroft Library.

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                                                                  Millions for Psychiatry

    Thanks to Milford historian Giancarlo BonTempo for finding the article below, printing it, and delivering it to my door.

                                                                 Eben S. Draper Professorship of Psychiatry
                                                                                                   1977

    The Eben S. Draper Professorship of Psychiatry originated in the bequest of Eben Sumner Draper (1893-1959; A.B.
    1915), banker, manufacturer, and politician. In his will Draper stipulated:

    All my property of every nature whatsoever, including any property over which I may have a power of
    appointment at the time of my death, I give, devise, bequeath and appoint to the President and Fellows of
    Harvard College to be held as a permanent fund to be known as "The Eben S. Draper Fund" and the income
    only to be used by the Harvard Medical School for study and research in all kinds of mental diseases and
    analytical research in the field of such diseases.

    When the bequest finally came to Harvard in 1973, after the expiration of life interests, it amounted to more than $2
    million. (According to an online inflation calculator, $2 million in 1973 would have the purchasing power of nearly $12
    million in 2018.) For four years a part of the income supported the work of Thomas Paul Hackett, chief of psychiatric
    services at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of psychiatry. In the fall of 1976 Dean Robert H. Ebert noted
    that the fund was more than twice the amount needed to endow a named chair and suggested that the income would
    be more usefully employed if it were associated with a professorship. However, since the will mentioned "study and
    research" but not teaching, and stipulated, "a permanent fund to be known as 'The Eben S. Draper Fund,'" there was
    some hesitation about "sequestering" a part of the fund in a separate professorial endowment. After much intramural
    discussion and consultation with legal authorities, it was agreed to leave the fund intact and to appoint Hackett "Eben S.
    Draper Professor of Psychiatry (on the Eben S. Draper Endowment Fund)." It was further understood that at Hackett's
    retirement, "or on his leaving the University, the title would lapse, to be reinstated at such time and under such
    circumstances as the then dean of the Medical Faculty might decide."

    Eben S. Draper, son of Eben Sumner Draper and Nannie Bristow Draper, was born in Hopedale, near Milford,
    Massachusetts. As was the family custom, each new generation Draper learned the various aspects of the business
    before becoming part of the management, and Eben S. Draper, the Harvard benefactor, began working in the machine
    shop immediately after graduation from college in 1915. When World War I intervened he enlisted in the Coast Artillery,
    saw action in France, and remained with the Army of Occupation until 1919 when he was discharged with the rank of
    captain. During World War II he served as colonel in the Massachusetts Intelligence Service, and later, as a member of
    the Massachusetts National Guard, advanced in rank to brigadier general.

    In his 25th Anniversary Class report Draper described himself as banker, manufacturer, and trustee. Soon after his
    return to civilian life following World War I, he became (in 1921) a trustee of the Suffolk Savings Bank in Boston. Three
    years later he was elected director of the Milford National Bank and in 1934 became the bank's president, serving in the
    latter two posts throughout his life. To judge from the emphasis given to politics in the various Class reports, however, it
    was his role as Republican that Draper enjoyed most. Following the example of his uncle William (member of
    Congress from the 11th Massachusetts District, 1892-1897; ambassador to Rome, 1897-1900) and his father
    (lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, 1907-1909, governor, 1910-1911,) young Draper entered politics soon after his
    return from military service in 1919. In 1920 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and in
    1922 and 1924 to the State Senate. He was less successful in running for the U.S. Senate, being defeated in the
    primaries in 1928 and 1930, but he took pleasure in assisting in the elections of Henry Cabot Lodge as senator and
    Leverett Saltontall as governor. Draper served as president and treasurer of the Republican Club of Massachusetts,
    was a member of the Governor's Executive Committee on Street and Highway Safety, and was a delegate at three
    Republican national conventions.

    Draper's parents made two major contributions to the neighboring towns of Milford and Hopedale--to Milford they
    donated a hospital, and to Hopedale a church. The son served as president of the Milford Hospital beginning n 1921
    and was at various times chairman of the Hopedale Unitarian Parish standing committee and member of its investment
    board. From 1924 to 1930 he was a member of the Harvard Overseers' Committee to Visit the Department of
    Government and was concurrently a member of the Committee on Prints at the Museum of Fine Arts. For the year 1939
    he served as trustee, appointed by Governor Saltonstall, of Massachusetts General Hospital.

    Draper died in Boston on 17 April 1959. A year later his wife Hazel wrote on his behalf a report for his 45th Class
    Anniversary, concluding:

    "During his earlier years, he enjoyed playing tennis and squash, he traveled extensively, and loved good art, music and
    the out-of-doors. He was a man of great integrity, and of great loyalty to his friends and employees.

    "What more can be said of any man than that after an active political, civic, business and social life those who knew him
    loved him and he had no enemies." Harvard University History of Named Chairs - MGH Neurosurgery Alumni

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Hopedale News - November 1993

Hopedale News - November 1968

Hopedale News - November 1918