Nationally Known OSU Professor Is Killed at Crossing
Train Hits Auto Driven By James Weaver.
His auto cut in two by a Columbus-bound Pennsylvania mail train at a crossing just south of Hilliard, Prof. James Weaver, nationally known mathematics instructor, and a member of The Ohio State University faculty, was killed instantly, Tuesday night. Professor Weaver was driving in Cemetery Road en route to a dinner meeting and inspection of Avery lodge of Masons in Hilliard when the accident occurred. The 59-year-old instructor's home was in Cemetery Road, the "old road" around Hilliard.
His daughter, Miss Mary Weaver, was driving an auto a short distance behind her father's car and was turning off Cemetery Road when the mishap occurred.
Miss Weaver said: "I heard the impact and realized that my father's car did not clear the crossing. I immediately went to the scene. I was looking in the general direction of the crossing when it happened."
She was the first to arrive at the accident and being alone, she called for help until Hilliard residents arrived.
Shoved Half Mile
Dr. Edward F. Smith, coroner, said the rear end of the auto was carried more than a half mile down the tracks and that the body was recovered approximately 100 feet from the crash.
The mishap occurred in full daylight and the train was blowing its whistle, according to Lester Armentrout, marshal at Hilliard.
Although the train was on time on its run, according to railroad officials, it was delayed more than an hour after the crash, the front of the locomotive being damaged. The train was No. 116.
Professor Weaver met death about 100 yards from where his father George Weaver, was struck and killed by an auto several years ago.
Wife Survives
Surviving the victim are his wife, Mrs. Mae Weaver; four children, James and Paul, and Mary and Alga. Funeral arrangements are being completed by the Corbin funeral home at Worthington.
The author of two mathematics textbooks. Professor Weaver obtained his bachelor of arts degree at Otterbein college and his master's degree at Ohio State, where he was an instructor in the mathematics department from 1910 to 1912.
He went to the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship and received his Ph. D. degree there.
He also served as head of the mathematics department at Westchester, Pa., high school while at Pennsylvania university and during part of 1917 he was mathematics teacher at the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.
He returned to Ohio State in 1917 as an assistant professor and six years later was promoted to a full professorship. He has served on the board of trustees of the Mathematics Association of America since 1937 and formerly was secretary of the mathematics division of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. He was a trustee of Otterbein.
Past Master of Lodge
He was a past master of Avery Lodge, Hilliard, and was principal sojourner of York Chapter, and member of York Council and Eastern Star. Professor Weaver was member and one time secretary of the Sigma Xi honorary scientific fraternity.
President Howard L. Bevis of the university said of Professor Weaver:
"For 25 years Professor Weaver has dedicated himself to the university and its students. His many friends on the staff and the hundreds who have been members of his classes are shocked at his sudden death."
Funeral services will be held Friday at 2 p.m. in the Hilliard Methodist churth with burial in Wesley Chapel Cemetery by S. E. Corbin & Son of Worthington.