244 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



DR. GEO. T. FAIRCHILD. 



GEORGE THOMPSON FAIRCHILD was born in Brownhelm, 

 Lorain county, Ohio, October 6, 1838. He was the youngest 

 of eight children ; was educated at Oberlin College, graduating 

 from the classical course in 1862, and from the theological depart- 

 ment in 1865. He was ordained to the ministry of the Congrega- 

 tional church, but was never a pastor. In 1865 he was elected an 

 instructor in the Michigan State Agricultural College, and in the fol- 

 lowing year was appointed as professor of English literature. After 

 nearly fourteen years in this position, he resigned it to accept the 

 presidency of the Kansas State Agricultural College, to which place 

 he was elected in 1879. He brought to his work in Kansas a ripe 

 scholarship and such a clear appreciation of the true scope of agri- 

 cultural education that he became the ideal president for such an in- 

 stitution. He was a man of great energy, of sound judgment in 

 business affairs, and of experience in educational work. He had that 

 love and respect for scientific truth that enabled him properly to ap- 

 preciate the great importance of science as the foundation of all suc- 

 cessful agriculture. While he never dictated methods to his 

 associates in the faculty of the college, but left them unhampered, he 

 stimulated each to do his best within his sphere, and held him to 

 strict account as to results. 



His retirement from the presidency of the college in 1897, the re- 

 sult of political change in the state, was a great misfortune to Kansas. 

 But his eighteen years of faithful service, poorly paid for, as such 

 services usually are, were of great benefit in molding character and in 

 impressing high ideals of life and service, which will have lasting 

 effect in the state. After a year of retirement from teaching, during 

 which Doctor Fairchild wrote "Rural Wealth and Welfare," published 

 by McMillan & Co. in their Rural Science series, he was called to 

 the vice-presidency and chair of English literature in Berea College, 

 Kentucky, a position which he held until his death. This event oc- 

 curred, after a protracted illness and a severe surgical operation, in a 

 hospital at Columbus, Ohio, March 16, 1901. 



Doctor Fairchild had been for some time an annual member of the 

 Kansas Academy of Science, and had taken a deep interest in its 

 work. While not himself absorbed in any scientific pursuit, he en- 

 couraged scientific investigation in every way possible, and recognized 

 its importance to the work in which he was engaged ; and it was fitting 

 that after his removal from the state the Academy should recognize 



