Among the passengers lost on the illfated steamer Colima, which recently went down in a storm off the Pacific coast was Professor Harold Whiting, a graduate of Harvard of the class of 1877, who with his wife and four children was on his way to New York. He had just resigned from his position as Associate Professor of Physics at the University of California, and intended to carry on private study in Cambridge.

His course at the University and his intense application in his profession had completely shattered his nervous system, and it was to recuperate his health that he took the ocean route.

Professor Whiting was an instructor in physics at Harvard for some years after his graduation. He resigned his position in order to take a trip abroad for study and research. His trip to Europe extended over several years. While abroad he wrote a book on general physics. He later wrote several supplementary books on the same subject.

During the three years and a half that Professor Whiting was at the University of California he formed a wide circle of aquaintances. He was a man of kind-hearted, generous disposition and a very zealous student in his profession.