University of Oregon - Oregana Yearbook (Eugene, OR)

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Qbarles f? . CEhapman Dr. Charles H. Chapman was offered the presidency of the University of Ore- gonby its Regents because of his record as a successful educator in hisrnatiVe state, Wisconsin, and assumed the duties of his office as successor of President johnson in the autumn of 1893 After taking his Ph. D. degree with honors at johns Hopkins, he had been ap-n pointed as Assistant in Mathematics at that graduate school, and, later, promoted, to Assistant Professor in the same department. He left Johns Hopkins to accept a professorship in the Milwaukee Normal School, which required of him the prom- inent and exacting duties of State Institute Conductor. 1 ' . , The state of Wisconsin, admitted to the Union in 1848, had distingUished- itself in noble ways. It was the banner state of the West' 1n the anti- slavery polit- ical contests of the middle nineteenth century, and in the most deadly battles of ., . the Civil war its ninety thousand enlisted men were among the foremost to fight and to fall. Wisconsin has been equally energetic and courageous in public edu- cation. Its carefully planned school system is crowned by one of the few great state universities of the United States, which was incorporated in 1838, two years 1' after the organization of the territorial government, and opened ten years later; 7 1 All the influences and associations of President Chapman's life, all his beliefs and aspirations were in sympathy with the highest ideals of university methods.- He could not do otherwise than attempt, without counting the costf'to place the State University of which he was the head in line with the foremost universities of other states of the Union. His labors for that end are too recent to needidetailed recapitulation. He raised the standard of scholarship in the College proper and approved the removal from it of those departments which did not allow advance of thought and original investigation. He advocated the omission of the four years preparatory courses, and those of the first two years were relinquished. To take the place of these preparatory courses at the University, high-schools in different parts of the state were necessary, and to cultivate public opinion in favor of these he traveled over the state and lectured on state organization of schools in almost every town which had even the beginning of a public school. The interest thus 15

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DR. CHARLES HIRAM CHAPMAN

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awakened has materially helped to develop and solidify the school system of the state. l Possessed of a degree of erudition remarkable at his age, Dr. Chapman was always a student, and with a great charm as class instructor, he inspired to intel- lectual effort those who came under his immediate influence. An original thinker in mathematics and the author of well received published works on that subject, he delighted in devoting his trained mental powers to other lines of expressed thought; to critical reading of ancient 2nd romance languages; to scientific study of art and of philosophy, and to literary criticism and appreciation of the great English poets. ' As lecturer on these themes, he was much sought. His untiring labors in so many fields and the opposition which, naturally, was aroused against his support of higher education in the State University, caused him, after four years Of effort, to need and to desire to retire from the office of President, and from the East, during the summer vacation of 1897, he sent his resignation to the late Mr. Henry Failing, president of the Regents of the Univer- sity. Mr. Failing and the Regents whom he consulted would not accept the offered resignation, and Dr. Chapman returned to Oregon for two years more of service as 7 President before his final resignation in 1899. The value of his labors-in Oregon as an educator cannot now be measured, but time will more and more show their importance.