Rossiter Worthington Raymond died of heart failure at his home in Brooklyn, N.J., on December 31st, 1918.
He was born in Cincinnati on April 27th, 1840, and after completing the grammar school grades at Syracuse, N.Y., he took a two years’ course at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where he graduated with an excellent record in 1858. He then went abroad, attended Heidelberg and Munich Universities and studied mining engineering at the Royal Mining Academy, Freiburg, Saxony.
On the outbreak of the War of Secession, he returned to America and joined the Federal Army, in which he served with distinction. The campaign in Virginia, in which he took part, was noteworthy as the first occasion in warfare in which underground excavations were employed in attacks on fortifications [Dubious].
At the close of the war, Dr. Raymond started practice in New York as a consulting mining engineer and metallurgist. In 1867 he became Editor of the American Journal of Mining, and in 1868 he was also appointed U.S. Commissioner of Mining Statistics and for eight subsequent years he issued the Annual ‘Reports on the Mineral Resources of the United States West of the Rocky Mountains,’ and in addition to the foregoing duties he taught economic geology at Lafayette College from 1870 to 1882.
In 1873 he was appointed U.S. Commissioner to the Vienna International Exposition and during his stay in Europe was invited to address the Iron and Steel Institute at Liége. From 1875 to 1895 Dr. Raymond was consulting engineer to Messrs. Cooper and Hewitt, proprietors of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Co., The Trenton Iron Co., and other iron ore and coal properties. As President of the Alliance Coal Co. he became intimately acquainted with labour questions, and his contributions to the Engineering and Mining Journal on the subject of the Homestead riots attracted world-wide attention.
Dr. Raymond was a deep student of law, and was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of New York State and of the Federal District and Circuit Courts at the age of 58. He confined his practice to mining and patent law. Previously, in 1884 he had prepared for the U.S. Geological Society a history of mining law which was subsequently translated into foreign languages. It would appear from the above brief record that Dr. Raymond had already sufficient scope for his activities, but there remains yet to mention that part of his work for which he is chiefly known and admired on this side of Atlantic. He was one of the first to recognize the great value of professional societies, and he was a Charter Member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, which celebrated its semi-centennial on September 12th, 1921. He held office in the Institute almost without a break from its inauguration: as President in 1872 and 1874; as Vice-President in 1871, 1876, and 1877; as Secretary from 1884 to 1911; and as Secretary Emeritus thence to the day of his death.
In his capacity as Editor of the annual volumes of Transactions of the Institute, Dr. Raymond conceived a lofty ideal. He was a master of the English language and he put the impress of his own scholarship upon all the scientific contributions embodied in the Transactions so that during the long period of his editorial control the papers contributed to the Institute showed, when published, a fine uniformity of excellence. On the occasion of his seventieth birthday, in 1910, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institution ‘in recognition of his eminent services and lifelong devotion to the advancement of the science and practice of Mining and Metallurgy; and of his numerous valuable contributions to technical literature.’
Dr. Raymond was elected an Honorary Member of the Institution in 1905.
Vol. 29, Trans I.M.M., 1919-20, pp.436-7
