News

Harvard to honor generosity of Salem woman

By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
Published: November 8, 2008

SALEM — The Rev. Peter Gomes of Harvard University came to Salem last year as guest of honor at a celebration of the life of Caroline Plummer, an important but largely forgotten Salem figure from the 19th century.

In his remarks last October, professor Gomes, who is widely regarded as one of the country's great public speakers, delighted the audience by noting that Salem had erected a statue to Elizabeth Montgomery, an actress from the TV show "Bewitched," but had no memorial for Plummer, one of the city's great philanthropists.

Miss Plummer gave money to found the Plummer Home For Boys in Salem, a residential facility for troubled teens; to build Plummer Hall at the Peabody Essex Museum (now the Phillips Library); and to establish the Plummer Chair of Christian Morals at Harvard, a seat currently occupied by Gomes.

A member of the audience put Gomes on the spot by asking what Harvard had done for Plummer. Gomes said he decided "then and there that the next tablet to be erected in The Memorial Church (at Harvard) ... would be to Caroline Plummer," according to a statement issued by the college.

That promise will be kept tomorrow when Gomes will preside over the dedication of the Caroline Plummer memorial tablet in Harvard's Memorial Church. Her tablet will join a distinguished group of memorials, including ones to John Harvard, for whom the college is named, and others for deceased Harvard students who served in World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam.

Several Salem people plan to attend the 11 a.m. service, including a representative from the Plummer Home, which is still operating on Winter Island Road more than 150 years after Plummer's death.

"There is a lot of interest in Caroline Plummer because, in her generation, the philanthropists were predominantly male," said Fred Davis, director of development at the Plummer Home.

Plummer (1780-1854) inherited money from a brother who made a fortune in the shipping trade in Russia.

Becky Putnam of the Bowditch Institute also plans to go. She helped organize last year's event, "Caroline Plummer and her 'Circle of Friends,'" where the idea of a memorial tablet was born.

"I'm really excited that this event sparked it," she said.

The dedication is being held at a special time for Harvard. On the eve of Veterans Day, this service is the annual remembrance of the college's benefactors and war dead, and it is taking place inside a church built in memory of Harvard sons who died in World War I.

Gomes said this is the perfect spot to remember Plummer, "whose farsighted generosity has secured the ministry of this church."