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Note: Charles Durlin Bray lists his parents as Christopher Gore Bray and Emily Jenks Bray. He was born in Valley Falls, R.I. on March 15, 1844. He filed a questionnaire at Brown Univ., Providence R.I. in 1904. (Ref: Information provided via email from Martha Mitchell, archivist at Brown Univ., Providence, Rhode Island Martha_Mitchell@@Brown.edu)
Charles Durlin Bray was a Professor at Tuffs College in Boston, Mass. The following biography provided by Tufts College library, library editor Anne Sauer:
Charles Durlin Bray, C.E., A.M.
Charles Durlin Bray was born in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, March 15, 1844, and attended the public schools of that town. He early manifested a liking for mechanical pursuits, and his father, who was an expert mechanic in charge of the machine shops connected with the village factories, took pains to foster these tendencies in his son by familiarizing him with the various parts of the machines. Opportunities for this sort of practical education were increased about the time the boy was ready to enter grammar school, the father then being employed in the Thurston and Lane Engine Works of Providence.
After graduating from grammar school, he was sent to a commercial academy for a course in bookkeeping, after which he spent the summer in the drafting room of the Providence Steam Engine Company and then entered the Lonsdale High School to prepare for the engineering course at Brown University.
In the summer of 1861 he enlisted in the Ninth Regiment, R.I. Volunteers, an emergency regiment composed of boys from sixteen to eighteen years of age, on seeing which President Lincoln asked Governor Sprague if they had brought their cradles with them. He entered the university in the fall, and graduated after a two years' course, having assisted in the observatory and instructed students in the use of instruments and methods of recording during the latter part of his course.
He refused the simultaneous offers of an instructorship at Brown and one in the Providence public schools to accept a position with the Providence Steam Engine Company which was then building marine engines for the Navy. He resigned this position after three years for that of Assistant Engineer on a Pennsylvania railroad contract. He returned to his old position in Providence in 1866, and resigned again soon after to accept an appointment as Third Acting Assistant Engineer of the United States Navy. After a course of instruction at Annapolis, he was assigned to the North Pacific Squadron. He left the Navy a year later, and in 1869 received the appointment of Instructor of Engineering at Tufts where he subsequently became Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering.
In 1870 Professor Bray was married to Miss Josephine Compton whom he had first met at Annapolis. They now have four daughters and one son.
Professor Bray is a member of all the leading engineering societies of the country. Brown University gave him an A.M. in 1873. He is a vestryman and very active member of the St. James Protestant Episcopal Church at North Cambridge, but resides at the Hill.
Obiturary Notice sent by Anne Sauer of Tufts College
PROF. BRAY'S FUNERAL TO BE HELD TODAY
Services Will Be Private, Burial to Be in Oak Grove Cemetery
Funeral services for Prof. Charles Durlin Bray who up to his retirement in 1908 was attached to the mechanical and engineering departments of Tufts College, will be held at his home 96 Professors Row, West Somerville, tomorrow. The services will be private. They will be conducted by the Rev. William H. Pettus. Burial will be at Oak Grove Cemetery, Medford.
Prof. Bray was born in Valley Falls, R.I. and was graduated from Brown University in 1864. He was then only 20 years old and his college course had been interrupted by his enlistment in the famous 9th Rhode Island Volunteers, known as the "boy regiment". He obtained his appointment to Annapolis Naval Academy where he was graduated at the head of his class in 1868. While there, he distinguished himself in athletics. He accepted appointment as professor at Tufts in 1869 after serving a year as Third Assistant United States Naval Engineer with the Pacific squadron.
He was a member of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Association for the Advancement of Engineering Education and the American Society of Naval Engineers. In addition to attending to his duties at Tufts, he served on many public commissions. He is survived by four daughters, Mrs. Herbert B. Sill of Pittsburgh; Mrs. Charles W. Henry, wife of the rector of Christ Church, Andover; Mrs. E. B. Grant of Somerville and Miss Bertha Bray and a son, C.D. Bray of New York City.
Oak Grove Cemetery
230 Playstead Rd.
Medford, MA 02155
(781) 393-2488
Called Oak Grove Cem on July 25, 2001, and obtained this info:
Charles Durlin Bray (buried in Lot #754)
Died: 1/20/1920 - 76 years, 10 mo and 6 days
Place: Somerville, MA
Josephine Compton
Died: 1/14/1920 - 76 years, 1 mo, 4 days
Contact on Lots: Josephine Sill - 41 Park Place, New Jersey
St James Episcopal Church
1991 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140-1342
Phone: (617) 547-4408
Contact Judy Bears (sent 7/26/01 email to see if children of Josephine and Charles are listed)
The following Bray Memorial Lab info was taken from Tufts Univ. web page:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:2000.04.0001:head%3D%2370
"Bray Memorial Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering
The Bray Memorial Laboratory of Mechanical Engineering was constructed in 1947 to provide a new home for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. It is named for Dr. Charles Durlin Bray, who served as Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering from 1869 to 1908, and was the first professor to have mechanical engineering in his title. Built at a time when wartime materials restrictions still made new construction difficult, it was decided to use bricks salvaged from the Reservoir when it was drained to face the new building. The Bray Laboratory provided a laboratory, classrooms, and equipment storage for the Department of Mechanical Engineering. It served as a Navy test laboratory for many years. A balcony around the main laboratory space was used to exhibit historical industrial equipment."
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