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William Barton Rogers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 William Barton Rogers in 1869 |
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| Born | 7 December 1804 Virginia |
|---|---|
| Died | 30 May 1882 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Residence |  United States United Kingdom |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Physics, Chemistry, Geology |
| Institution | William and Mary, 8 years University of Virginia, 19 years MIT, 13 years |
| Alma mater | William and Mary |
| Known for | Founding MIT |
William Barton Rogers (1804-1882) is best known for incorporating the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1861.
However, MIT was not opened until 1865, due to the American Civil War.
Rogers attended the College of William and Mary and served as Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry there for 8 years from 1828 until 1835 (his father previously held the very same professorship there until his death in 1828). He then served as Professor of Natural Philosophy for 19 years (1835 to 1853) at the University of Virginia, and was Chair of the Department of Philosophy at U.Va. when he famously defended the University of Virginia's refusal to award honorary degrees to the Virginia legislature. From there, he went on to found and serve as President of MIT from 1861 to 1870.
Declining health forced him to stand down from this position, but he was forced by necessity to resume office in 1878 and continued to serve through to the year before his death, 1881. He died after having collapsed while giving a speech at MIT's 1882 Commencement Exercises, in which his last words were "bituminous coal".
- Official mini-biography - from MIT
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Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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| William Barton Rogers (1862–1870, 1879–1881) • John Daniel Runkle (1870–1878) • Francis Amasa Walker (1881–1897) • James Crafts (1897–1900) • Henry Smith Pritchett (1900–1907) • Arthur Amos Noyes (acting 1907–1909) • Richard Cockburn Maclaurin (1909–1920) • Elihu Thomson (acting 1920–1921, 1922–1923) • Ernest Fox Nichols (1921–1922) • Samuel Wesley Stratton (1923–1930) • Karl Taylor Compton (1930–1948) • James Rhyne Killian (1948–1959) • Julius Adams Stratton (1959–1966) • Howard Wesley Johnson (1966–1971) • Jerome Wiesner (1971–1980) • Paul Edward Gray (1980–1990) • Charles Marstiller Vest (1990–2004) • Susan Hockfield (2004—) |