In its obituary the Charleston News said of him: "He chose his profession well. A mind so analytic as his and so keen in the perception of relations could not have failed to see that the field in which he cast his literary fortunes was one which offered an undying reward for those who made it a successful arena of untiring and indomitable labor and energy. . . . Prof. Shepard discovered more new species of minerals which have attained permanent recognition than perhaps any other scientist of the present day. He was a member of many American and foreign societies, among which are the Imperial Society of Natural Science of St. Petersburg, the Royal Society of Göttingen, and the Society of Natural Sciences of Vienna. He published a Treatise on Mineralogy (1832 and 1835), a report on the Mineralogy of Connecticut, and numerous scientific papers." Many reports on mines made by him have been printed.
He announced in 1835 his discovery of his first new species of microlite, that of warwickite in 1838, that of danburite in 1839, and he afterward described many other new minerals until shortly before his death. His knowledge of minerals was wonderfully extensive, "and he was hence ready," it has been said, "with quick judgments as to new and old; sometimes too quick but in any case imparting progress to American mineralogy."
The honorary degree of M. D. was conferred upon him by Dartmouth in 1836, and that of LL. D. by Amherst in 1857.
He was a man of refinement and great courtesy, and was held in high esteem wherever he resided.
He left two children, a son and a daughter.
Prof. Shepard's son, Charles Upham, was born at New Haven, October 4,1842. He was graduated from Yale College in 1863, and took the degree of M. D. at Göttingen in 1867. He succeeded to his father's professorship at Charleston, and has been active in developing the phosphate and other chemical industries of South Carolina. In 1887 he presented the second cabinet of minerals that was formed by his father, numbering more than ten thousand specimens, to Amherst College, and his cabinet of representatives of more than two hundred different meteorites has been deposited in the United States National Museum.
