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After an illness of several weeks, Hector Coffin died at his home in Knoxville, Tenn., on December 16, 1921, in his seventy-eighth year, He was born at Rogersville, Tenn., April 15, 1844, the son of Charles C. and Ann Eliza Park Coffin. His father was a native of New England, and early in the nineteenth century came to East Tennessee, making the trip overland. Settling in Greenville, he established a school, then later going to Knoxville, and was president of the East Tennessee University, now the University of Tennessee. For many years he was one of the well known teachers and preachers of East Tennessee.

Hector Coffin was also a teacher and preacher, and his early life was spent in religious and educational work. He was educated in the common schools of East Tennessee and later entered the East Tennessee University. When the War between the States began he left school to join the Confederate army, in which he served with distinction as a member of Colonel Ashby's famous regiment of Wheeler's brigade.

Mr. Coffin went to Memphis after the war and there entered business. In 1875 he was married to Miss Alice Jones and soon thereafter moved to Knoxville and entered the wholesale grocery business. He retired in 1900, when he moved to a farm on the Clinton pike.

A member of the First Presbyterian Church since he was fourteen years of age, for many years Mr. Coffin served as organist and choir leader and always had an active part in religious activities. For thirty-five years he was a member of the board of elders. He had always taken a keen interest in Sunday school work, for many years teaching a large class.

His death takes from Knoxville one of itsbest and most highly respected citizens, Surviving him are his wife, five daughters, and a son, also one brother, James P. Coffin, of Batesville, Ark.