He then studied at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts between 1915 and 1917 and played on the varsity soccer and cross country teams.
[4] Tilghman left Harvard in April 1917 to serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army's Coast Artillery Corps for two years.
He created a self-help system modeled after the Kent School in Connecticut[5] under which students engaged in service experiences to improve their self-reliance.
Students waited on dining room tables, made their own beds, and engaged in supervised activities to facilitate the physical maintenance and daily operations of the school.
William Pène du Bois, who went on to earn the Newberry Award as a children's writer, starred as the team's goaltender.
[6] Du Bois' experiences in goal influenced the creation of his 1967 story Porko von Popbutton about a boy who accidentally ends up playing goaltender for his school hockey team.
The Morristown School hockey team embarked on their journey on the Berengaria, a massive ocean liner run by the British Cunard Line that surpassed the RMS Titanic by 24 feet.
They had a luncheon in England[8] before returning to the U.S. on January 9, 1934, via the RMS Aquitania, a Cunard Line ocean liner that served in both World Wars as a troop ship.
Tilghman received an initial commission of lieutenant commander in 1940 and served in the color guard for Governor Herbert H. Lehman's trip to the officer training camp in Plattsburgh, New York.
While commanding a U.S. Aircraft carrier service unit in the Gilbert Islands, he died trying to get other sailors of the way of an out of control bomber.