One of the things we do a poor job of at Rice is keeping track of memorials, of the things that are named in honor or in memory of our people. The saddest example of this I’ve ever come across is here, along the cloister of the RMC:
See those small rectangles just about eye level on alternating columns? Those are memorial plaques. I first noticed them over ten years ago. Who do they honor? Well, a couple of them have family names that I recognize–Chavanne and Hess, names that mean a lot in the history of Rice–but I could not learn anything about the particular individuals named. The rest–I had no idea, not one clue. I looked for an answer every place that might make sense and then I looked in places that didn’t make sense at all. In the end I found nothing. This has troubled me every time I walked past.
And then suddenly there they were–the donation forms that the families filled out when the RMC was being built were buried deep in boxes full of old Alumi Association records. Why there? Who knows. You’d think this would make me happy but it didn’t, at least not yet.
Here are two–they are, not surprisingly, sad. The plaques themselves are not in the best shape but still readable:
I need time to do some research and then I’ll have more.
Bonus: 
Had never heard of Norsworthy Hospital. Seems it was donated to the local Methodists in the early 20th century by it’s founder, Dr. Norsworthy, and was the beginning of what has become the mega-Methodist Hospital System of Houston. Full story can be read at the website of the Harris Hilburn law firm whose building in midtown Houston sits on the original site.
Here’s the link to that Harris Hilburn website: http://www.hhstxlaw.com/index-1.html
If I’m reading the Find-a-Grave sites correctly, Dr. Norsworthy’s wife, Sara Sandford Gibbs Norsworthy (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=54668230) was first cousin of Mary Gibbs Jones, namesake for Jones College.
Their fathers — Sandford and Jasper Gibbs, respectively — were brothers, sons of Hiram Gibbs (1785 – 1844).
Dr. Norsworthy was also noteworthy for having been the doctor attending to the birth of Howard Hughes. (https://books.google.com/books?id=emhBjp6-1wwC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=“norsworthy”)
In 1919, Dr. Norsworthy sold his hospital to the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South to concentrate on his radium research. His Norsworthy Radium Clinic was located on the ground floor of that early Methodist Hospital at 3020 San Jacinto. (https://archive.org/stream/texasstatejourna2219texa/texasstatejourna2219texa_djvu.txt).
Here’s a more complete account from the lecture “Houston Hearts: A History of Cardiovascular Surgery and Medicine At Houston Methodist Debakey Heart & Vascular Center” from the Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Distinguished Lectureship Series, presented by William L. Winters, Jr., M.D., Editor, Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, on January 19, 2015:
“Dr. Oscar (Laertius) Norsworthy, built a four-story hospital on Rosalie Avenue in downtown Houston. In 1919, he offered the hospital to the Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the condition that they build another building on adjacent property that he also owned. His offer was accepted, and in 1924 the two buildings became known as The Methodist Hospital.”
Here is a photo of the initial two buildings of the Methodist Hospital: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4667571/figure/i1947-6094-11-3s1-5-f03/
(Methodist Debakey Cardiovasc J. 2015 Jul-Sep; 11(3 Suppl): 5–17. doi: 10.14797/mdcj-11-3s1-5. PMCID: PMC4667571)
Makes one wonder if Mr. Goss was a victim of the Spanish Flu pandemic.
Don’t think so. The Spanish flu was 1918 thru 1920. It has not broken out in 1916
Katherine Elizabeth Wood (Bulbrook) graduated from Rice in 1925.
(https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/61464/wrc00421.pdf)
Link to the Thresher Article November 1,2016
https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/64906/thr19161101.pdf?sequence=1
Terribly sad story especially since his parents did not have time to make it to his bedside.