[A biographical note written by his father.]

Benjamin Stuart Walcott was sturdy and self-reliant as a boy and very early developed strong personal initiative, good sense and courage. I find in my notebook under an entry of July 6, 1905, a few days before Stuart’s ninth birthday, that with him and his brother Sidney I had measured a section of over 10,000 feet in thickness of rock with dip compass and rod in northern Montana, and that that night we slept out on the Continental Divide after a sandwich apiece for supper. On July 16, “Went up the Gordon Creek with Stuart and cut a few trees out of the trail.” And on the next day, “Stuart assisted me in collecting fossils from the Middle Cambrian Rocks.”

In 1906 Stuart helped in gathering Cambrian fossils in central Montana, and in recognition of his effective work one of the new species of shells was named after him, Micromitra (Paterina) stuarti.He also assisted in British Columbia in geological work during the summer of 1907, and in 1908, when twelve years old, he was placed with one packer in charge of a pack train operating in what is now the Glacier Park, Montana, and in southern British Columbia. On this trip one morning I heard faint rifle shots, and upon overtaking the pack train found Stuart shooting away with a 22 gauge rifle at a grizzly bear, which was some distance down the slope below the trail. On reminding him of the danger, he said he wanted to drive the bear away to prevent a stampede of the animals.

Both at home and in school his actions were largely influenced by a determination first to know what was the right thing to do, and guided by this habit, when it looked as though the United States would enter the European War, he decided that it was his duty to take part in it. When the Lusitania was sunk he felt strongly that the United States should take a positive stand in favor of the freedom of the seas, that the rights of Americans should be protected even if it meant war, and he was ready to fight for it.

In common with the majority of the youth of America, he had the feeling that it was a patriotic duty and privilege to offer personal service to the Nation when its ideals and motives were assailed by a foreign foe. He first offered his services to the Signal Corps and received a temporary appointment. Realizing that training as an expert aviator could be more quickly obtained in France than in this country, he went to France and enlisted in the French Army with the expectation of being transferred later to the American forces. This would have been done prior to his being shot down within the German lines on December 12, had he not been awaiting action by the United States Aviation Service in France in examining and arranging for the transfer of the American aviators in the French Army to the service of the United States.

Throughout his life the dominating thought was to be of positive service wherever he might be placed. At the same time he was thoroughly a boy and enjoyed a frolic and fun as much as any one of his companions.

He prepared for college at the Taft School, expecting to enter Yale, and passed the examinations for that university before he was sixteen. Upon further consideration he selected Princeton, largely because of the preceptorial method of training, and was a senior when he decided to enter the service of his country.

Stuart was an unusually well balanced boy and youth; his moral convictions were sound, definite, and expressed by action rather than words.

Charles D. Walcott.