Lake Forest College - Forester Yearbook (Lake Forest, IL)

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DR. J. M. COULTER

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THE FORlj.S'7'ER. 7 Presibenf Tjolyn UNI. Coulter. OHN IVIIQRLE COULTER was born in Ningpo, China, November 20, ISSI. His father, Moses Stanley Coulter, and his mother, mi' Caro- line Crowe, were Presbyterian missionaries who had already been at Ningpo only a year. During the following year his brother Stanley was born, and a few months afterwards his father died, then about twenty-nine years old. Shortly afterwards the family of three returned to America and lived among relatives at Hanover, Indiana-the seat of his alma mater. He graduated from Hanover College in the class of '70, and during the following year taught in the Presbyterian Academy at Logansport. Through the inHuence of Prof. Frank Bradley he became connected with the Hayden government survey, and spent the summers of '72-'73 in exploration of the Yellowstone Region and the Colorado Mountains. It was not until this period that he gave any serious attention tothe study of botany. In 1874 he became Professor of Natural Science in Hanover College. In the summers of '79-'80 he was Dr. Goodale's assistant in the Harvard Summer School of Botany. In tl1e fall of 1879 he went to Wabash College as Professor of Biology. The twelve years which he spent in this position were those of his greatest activity as a botanist. Most of his important writings date from here, and it was during this period that his botanical reputation was established. During his service at Wlabash College he had become very prominent in the educational circles of the State, and in 1884 was considered for the presidency of the University of Indiana, but declared himself in favor of Dr. Jordan, then a professor at Indiana Uni- versity, with whom he had been closely associated in much educational work. In 1891, when President jordan was called to Leland Stanford, he was again strongly urged to take the position, and Hnally accepted it. During his presidency at Indiana University, he wrote many papers on educational topics which commanded wide-spread attention, and when he was called to Lake Forest in 1893, he was already recognized as one of the foremost edu- cators of the country, as well as enjoying an enviable botanical reputation which has become fairly world-wide.