Richard Norris Williams, 2nd

Richard Norris Williams, 2nd go to press the resignation of Richard Norris Williams, 2nd, A SasWEa member of this Society's Board of Directors was received. Elected to annual membership in our Society 15 February 1944, he was immediately asked to serve on the Executive Committee as it was then constituted. In 1947 he was elected to the Board of Directors, and was appointed chairman of the Committee on Personnel and Equipment. From 1948 until 1953 he was a member of the Publications Committee. During the years he has been associated with our Society, he also was serving as Director of our parent body, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a position from which he resigned as of 1 October 1965. From 1947 to 1952 he also had been Editor of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. In spite of the many duties and responsibilities occasioned by those positions, Mr. Williams' interest and assistance in the various phases of the Genealogical Society's affairs was always constant and of great help. Without his continuing cooperation and goodwill our Society would not have functioned successfully as a useful organization established for genealogical research. As a man full of years and splendid service, we salute him, and wish for him in his retirement from active duty in both Societies a long continuing enjoyment of his books, his garden and home, and his many other interests. Dr- Albert H. Gerberich 1898-1965 II THEN Dr. Albert Horwell Gerberich, of Bethesda, Maryland, died V V on 14 April 1965, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania lost not only a distinguished Life Member, but the genealogical world mourned the passing of its top authority on Pennsylvania German genealogy and history. Dr. Gerberich was born in Williamstown. Dauphin County, Penn140 Memorial Notices 141 sylvania, 23 February 1898, as the only son of Albert Henry Gerberich, at that time Superintendent of Schools at Williamstown, and his wife, Martha Eleanor, daughter of an English-born Methodist Episcopal clergyman in Pennsylvania, the Rev. Samuel Horwell, and his wife, Sarah Lear. The ancestry of the Gerberich family has been traced to Hans Gerberich (1613 - 81), of Altfeld bei Marktheidenfeld, in the parish of Michelrieth, Bavaria; it came to Pennsylvania in three migrations, 1751, 1752, and 1754. Dr. Gerberich's father, after moving from Williamstown, held the positions of Superintendent of Schools at Royersford and Parkesburg, Pennsylvania, and it was from the Parkesburg High School that Albert was graduated in 1914. Subsequently, he was educated at Dickinson College (A.B., 1918), the University of Pennsylvania (M.A., 1926) and Johns Hopkins University (Ph.D., 1932). In his doctoral dissertation, Luther and the English Bible (printed at Lancaster, 1933), he demonstrated the influence of the great German reformer on the Bible translated into English by the martyred William Tyndale, and even on the later King James version. In the summer of 1930 he attended the German School at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and in the following summer the Linguistic Institute of America in New York. After serving in the Navy in World War I as a radio electrician, he entered the Foreign Service of the United States in 1919, and served as Vice Consul at Puerto Cortes, Honduras (1920 - 22), Vice Consul and later Consul at Bremerhaven (1922 - 24), and Consul at Maracaibo (1924 - 25). He entered the teaching profession, becoming head of the Latin Department at the Coatesville (Chester County, Pa.) High School (1926 - 28), and was Professor of Modern Languages at Dickinson College (1928 - 41). He re-entered the Foreign Service as Junior Cultural Assistant at San Jose, Costa Rica, becoming Cultural Affairs Attaché there in 1943. After serving in the same capacity at Bogota, Colombia (1944 - 46), he returned to the United States and held a number of positions in the Department of State, retiring in 1960 as Officer-in-Charge of Colombian Affairs. From his early years Dr. Gerberich was interested in genealogical research, and quickly established himself as the country's foremost authority on the Pennsylvania Germans. In 1925, in collaboration with his father, he published the History of the Gerberich Family in America (1613 - 1925). Among his other works were The Brenneman History (1938) and The Backenstoss History (1949). During his career as a Foreign Service officer he was constantly on the lookout for unusual 142 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine material of interest to American genealogists. Thus, his articles in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly on "United States Families at Maracaibo, Venezuela" (December, 1931), and "Colonies of United States Citizens in Central America" (March, 1940) provided information not otherwise available to historians of families which for one reason or another migrated to South and Central America. His article in the same publication (December, 1946) , "Geographical Aspects of , Pennsylvania German Genealogical Study" was a scholarly dissertation on the European background of the Pennsylvania Germans. Dr. Gerberich and the Quarterly's editor, Dr. Gaius M. Brumbaugh, were compilers of the Society's Special Publication No. 4, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Tax Lists, 1751, 1756, 1757, 1758. All of his writings bear the stamp of authority. He was indefatigable, carefully evaluated the evidence, and rejected anything that was false and fraudulent. During his active years he assembled a mass of material from wills, deeds, Bible records, census records, etc., relating to Pennsylvania Germans and their descendants in other parts of the country. Dr. Gerberich was a member of the National Genealogical Society (1928; First Vice-President, 1947-48), the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (1931; Honorary Life Member, 7 March 1932*), the Pennsylvania German Society, the Huguenot Society of Pennsylvania, and (formerly) the Pennsylvania Historical Junto, and was a Fellow of The American Society of Genealogists (1944). On 21 June 1934, at Tionesta, Pennsylvania, he married Gisela Margit Heim-Zimanyi, a native of Csurog in the Bacska, Hungary. Mrs. Gerberich was a talented ceramic artist who shared his experiences at the Foreign Service posts in Costa Rica and Colombia. She died at their home, 7912 Radnor Road, Bethesda, Maryland, 16 January 1953. In his Essays in Verse (1935), the first and the last poems are indited to her. Several of his poems have an historic basis, such as "To John Huss," "To John Greenleaf Whittier," "At the Tomb of Washington," "The Brownings," and "Gettysburg." "At Walmers Church" expresses his great love for the Pennsylvania Germans. The honor NV= granted "In recognition of his offer to supply 5,000 tombstone inscripttons from cemeteries to be designated by the Board." Later inues of the nsagnine show that he kept his word. Publications of Tbe Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, XII (March 1933), 101-102. Memorial Notices 143 His sole immediate survivor is his 101-year-old father, Albert H. Gerberich, now of 8261 29th Avenue, North, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33710. Through Dr. Gerberich's generosity, the Society has inherited his priceless collections relating to the Pennsylvania Germans. MILTON RUBINCAM Lewis Bonsall Beatty 1892-1965 rri HE Genealogical Society reports with regret the death on 21 May 1965, of Lewis Bonsai! Beatty of Bolling Green, Media, Pennsylvania, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Society. Born 18 February 1892, son of Robert Walter Beatty and his wife Mary Penrose Maddock, Lewis B. Beatty was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1914. Active in the affairs of the University over the years, he was president of his class's fiftieth anniversary year, and was a recipient of the University's Alumni Award of Merit. A veteran of both World Wars, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the U. S. Air Forces (European Theater) in 1946, having served in the Second World War with the U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey, assessing the effectiveness of Allied bombing of Nazi power installations. An electrical engineer by training, at his retirement from business he was assistant to the president and to the board chairman of the Philadelphia Electric Company. Genealogy was another of his many interests. Elected a member of the Society on 18 May 1954, in 1962 he accepted election to the Board of Directors. As a member of the Finance Committee, his business experience and his natural acumen proved invaluable in this important phase of the Society's business; his death leaves a vacancy it will be difficult to fill. Married in Montclair, New Jersey on 23 October 1920, to Elizabeth Carron Wesson, daughter of David Wesson and his wife Mary Matilda Moore, he is survived by his widow, three children, Elizabeth (Mrs. Louis I. Dethloff), Lewis B. Beatty, Jr., Jane (Mrs. Laurence H. Lucker, Jr.), twelve grandchildren, and two brothers, Robert and Edward Beatty.