That was the introduction of Miss Kate Fisher Kimball to the work and care of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, of which she was the Executive Secretary until her death in 1917. She was born in 1860, at Orange, New Jersey, her father, Dr. Horace F. Kimball, being a dentist with office in New York. Young as she was, she at once showed rare abilities in administration. Under her vigorous and wise efforts, the C. L. S. C. was soon reduced to a system, the members were classified, the course was made orderly, circulars of various sorts were prepared and sent out to answer as many kinds of questions, and the calls from all over the nation, almost all over the world were met. Kate Kimball had a wonderful memory, as well as a systematic mind. Dr. Vincent would tell her in one sentence the answer to be sent to a letter, and twenty sentences in succession for twenty letters. She made no note, but remembered each one; would write to each correspondent a letter framed as it should be, with a clear statement, of just the right length, never getting the wrong answer on her pen. And if six months afterward, or six years, there came a letter requiring the same answer, she did not need to ask for information, but could send the right reply without consulting the letter-file. Thousands of correspondents who may never have met her will remember that signature, "K. F. Kimball," for they have been strengthened and inspired by letters signed with it. I have heard more than one person say, "I want to go to Chautauqua, if it is only to become acquainted with K. F. Kimball." Let me transcribe a few sentences written by Mr. Frank Chapin Bray, who as Editor of _The Chautauquan Magazine_, was for years in close relation with Miss Kimball. Many will always think of her as a kind of Chautauqua Mother Superior. The details of the work of an Executive Secretary are not transcribable for they were multifarious drudgeries year after year which defy analysis. During thirty-five years she made them the means of transmitting a great idea as a dynamic force vital to hundreds of thousands of men and women the world around. Next to the originating genius of John H. Vincent, the influence which made the Chautauqua Home Reading Course one of the mightiest educational forces of the nineteenth century was the tireless energy and the executive ability of Kate F. Kimball.