Mr. Harrison E. Gawtry, for many years President of
the Consolidated Gas Company of New York, and who
was personally known to many of the stockholders of the
Company, died on January 29, 1919. In the following
Resolution the Board of Trustees of the Company gave
expression to its sentiments of regret, which were shared
by all who knew him:
 

"This Board is again called upon to record upon its
minutes, and it does so with deep sorrow, the death of a
fellow-member, Mr. Harrison B. Gawtry, one of the or¬
ganizers of this Company and the last surviving member
of its original Board of Trustees. His death occurred
after a lingering illness which, for a number of years, ob¬
liged him to abstain from active participation in the busi¬
ness affairs of the Company, in which, nevertheless, to the
very last, he displayed the liveliest interest.

More than forty years have elapsed since Mr. Gaw¬
try, then a retired merchant, was induced to accept the
office of Treasurer of the Municipal Gas Company, one of
our predecessor companies. He became at once its con¬
trolling spirit and it was due to his able and efficient con¬
duct of its affairs that that Company speedily became a
formidable rival of the older Companies, with which it
was competing. It was largely through his personal ef¬
forts that the consolidation in 1884 was effected in order
to avoid further wasteful competition and duplication of
capital investment.

Mr. Gawtry was the first Secretary of the Consoli¬
dated Gas Company and later its Treasurer, and his
policies, which had been so sucoesful in the development
of the Municipal Company, became the policies of the
Consolidated Company. In brief, they amounted to a
recognition of the obligation which a public utility com¬
pany owes to its patrons and of the importance of render¬
ing them the best possible service.