Lewis Hall Gordon ’27

A PHYSICIAN'S SON, he devoted his life to organ music and to those musical languages, French and Italian. Classmates might have predicted his future, when they saw him going to Trenton on Sunday to play the organ at Westminster Presbyterian Church, and earnestly dedicating long hours to the study of modern languages. He intended to make teaching languages the companion to devotion as a musician.

His academic career was brilliant, including 13 years at Hamilton College, where he became a professor of romance languages, lectured on modern French literature, and gave a graduate course on Dante. After offering his knowledge of Italian to the armed forces in WWII, Lew settled in Providence, R.I., for the rest of his life. He became a professor of Italian at Brown Univ. and devoted much time and energy to writing articles and reviews for ITALICA and SYMPOSIUM. He became a well-known and respected figure in the intellectual life of Brown and Providence, and was a member of numerous linguistic and literary societies. Brown made him a full professor in 1946, and in 1955 honored him with an M.A. degree. Always he was a musician, accompanying his progress by the strains of the organ. His appears as one of the unusual and satisfying careers of 1927, an inspiring example of a single talented person's notable contributions to life. The Class offers its sympathy and its respect for him to all who knew him.

The Class of 1927