Alpheus Spring Packard was an American educator. He was a professor of Bowdoin College.
Background
Alpheus Spring Packard was born on December 23, 1798 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, United States. He was the son of Hezekiah and Mary (Spring) Packard. Alpheus was a descendant of Samuel Packard, who emigrated from Norfolk, England, in 1638 and settled in Hingham, Massachussets.
Education
Alpheus Spring Packard was educated at his father's home in Wiscasset, Maine, at Phillips Exeter Academy, and at Bowdoin College, where he was graduated second in his class with the Latin salutatory in 1816.
Career
After three years spent in teaching at various Maine academies, Alpheus Packard was called to be tutor at Bowdoin, beginning an uninterrupted service of sixty-five years which ended only with his death and which in extent, continuity, and variety has rarely been exceeded in American academic life. From 1824 until 1865 he was professor of the Latin and Greek languages, from 1842 until 1845 also professor of rhetoric and oratory, and from 1864 until 1884 Collins Professor of Natural and Revealed Religion. Packard was also college librarian from 1869 until 1881, and acting president from 1883 until 1884. On May 16, 1850, he was regularly ordained to the Congregational ministry and added preaching and the conduct of the chapel services at the college to his other manifold duties. For forty-five years he was librarian of the Maine Historical Society, and for over thirty years, a member of the Brunswick school committee.
Alpheus Spring Packard edited Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates, with English Notes (1839) and wrote and published more than thirty essays and addresses, chiefly on educational and historical themes. As a teacher of the classics he did not emphasize unduly philological and grammatical details but always endeavored to unfold and illustrate the thought of the author. His methods were singularly effective and he was held in high esteem by his students. Alpheus Spring Packard died suddenly on July 13, 1884 of heart failure at Squirrel Island, Maine, while on a pleasure excursion with members of his family, and was buried in Brunswick.
Achievements
Membership
Alpheus Spring Packard was a member of the Peucinian Society.
Personality
Alpheus Spring Packard had extraordinary endurance and absolute devotion to his work. All his long life he was in perfect health, and he was remarkably industrious and methodical. Although, like so many other teachers of his generation, he gave the greater part of his time and energy to his classes. Alpheus was a competent, if not an original, scholar. He had a character of singular sweetness and gentleness combined with strong conviction. His portrait by Vinton, now in the Bowdoin Art Museum, reveals the features of a strong man, indubitably the gentleman. In person he was described as most impressive, very handsome, with a fine figure, and with none of the carelessness of dress and appearance that is not infrequent in academic circles.
Connections
Alpheus Spring Packard was married, first, in 1827, to Frances Elizabeth, daughter of President Jesse Appleton, who died in 1839 leaving five children, among them Alpheus S. Packard, zoologist of Brown University. In 1844 his second wife became Mrs. Caroline W. (Bartelles) McLellan of Portland, who bore him one child.