George W. Atherton. 

 1837-1906. 



Geore W. Atherton, president of The Pennsylvania State 

 College, died at State College, Pa., on July 24, 1906. 



He was born at Boxford, Mass., on June 20, 1837, coming 

 of good New England stock. Left fatherless at the age of 12, 

 he supported himself and aided his mother and sisters by work 

 in a cotton mill and later, on the farm and by teaching. He 

 worked his way through Philips Academy, Exeter, N. H., and 

 in i860 entered the sophomore class at Yale. At the outbreak 

 of the Civil War he responded to the call to arms, and on recom- 

 mendation of President Woolsey was commissioned First Lieu- 

 tenant in the Tenth Connecticut Volunteers. He took part in 

 Burnside's North Carolina expedition, where he served with 

 conspicuous bravery and efficiency, and was promoted to a 

 captaincy. 



Leaving the army in 1863 on account of failing health, he 

 was graduated from Yale with his class, and on Christmas of 

 the same year was married to Frances D. W. Washburn, who, 

 with two sons and two daughters, survives him. For the next 

 four years he was a professor in the Albany Boys' Academy, 

 of Albany, N. Y. and for the succeeding year a professor, and 

 during most of the year, acting principal, of St. John's College 

 at Annapolis, Md. 



In 1868, he was called to the newly established Illinois In- 

 dustrial University — since become the University of Illinois — 

 and took part in the organization of that institution, being closely 

 associated with its first president, Dr. Gregory. After a single 

 year's activity there, however, he accepted a very flattering 

 offer from Rutgers College, and for the succeeding fourteen 

 years filled the chair of political economy at that institution. 



In 1873 he served as a member of the Board of Visitors to 

 the United States Naval Academy. In 1875 he was a member 

 of the commission to investigate the charges of corruption at 



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