William Oxley Thompson

For other people named William Thompson, see William Thompson (disambiguation).
William Oxley Thompson
Born (1855-11-05)November 5, 1855
Cambridge, Ohio
Died December 9, 1933(1933-12-09) (aged 78)
Columbus, Ohio
Resting place Green Lawn Cemetery, Columbus, Ohio
Alma mater
Religion Presbyterian
Statue of Thompson on the Ohio State campus

William Oxley Thompson, D.D. (November 5, 1855 – December 9, 1933), born in Cambridge, Ohio, was the fifth President of The Ohio State University. Thompson was educated at Muskingum College and Western Theological Seminary.[1] An ordained minister, Thompson spent the first half of his career in Presbyterian ministry. Upon his first wife's death in 1885 he turned to higher education and became the first president of the Longmont Presbyterian College founded by the Presbyterian Synod of Colorado. He was appointed president of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1891 and served until 1899 when he resigned to become president of The Ohio State University.

His extensive service at The Ohio State University (26 years) is honored with a larger-than-life bronze statue by Erwin Frey[2] of President Thompson in academic dress, positioned in front of the eponymous William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library on "The Oval" (the central green space on the Ohio State University campus). He is known for being involved in students education and social lives, presiding over the Ohio State win over Oxford University on October 10, 1924 in intercollegiate debate. Thompson's tenure at Ohio State was marked by two seminal events. The first occurred in 1906 with the passage by the Ohio Legislature of the Eagleson Bill, which formalized and legally locked in Ohio State's flagship role in the state's public system of higher education. The Eagleson law mandated that only Ohio State, among Ohio's public universities, would be allowed to offer doctoral education or conduct basic research. The second event, and the culmination of both the raison d'être for Ohio State's founding in 1870 and the aim of the Eagleson Bill in 1906, occurred in 1916 with Ohio State's election into the Association of American Universities. Thompson also served as President of the University during World War One, which saw a massive drop in student attendance for 1917-1918 as many left to join the military or other war-related activites.

Honors

In 1926, Thompson was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America

References

  1. ↑ William Oxley Thompson biography from Muskingum University
  2. ↑ Adams, Philip R., The Sculpture of Erwin F. Frey, The Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1939 pp. 46-47

Further reading

Academic offices
Preceded by
Ethelbert Dudley Warfield		 President of Miami University
1891–1899 		Succeeded by
David Stanton Tappan
Preceded by
James Hulme Canfield		 The Ohio State University President
July 1, 1899 – November 5, 1925 		Succeeded by
George Washington Rightmire
Religious titles
Preceded by
The Rev. Charles R. Erdman		 Moderator of the 138th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America
1926–1927 		Succeeded by
Elder Robert Elliott Speer
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