James B. Colgate was its first chairman and his son and Gardner Colby the other members. Another innovation, though relatively minor, which shows the trend to modern practices was the regular employment in 1890 of stenographers in the Treasurer’s and Dean’s offices.
This period saw also a slight change in the composition of the Board of Trustees. As early as 1885 James C. Colgate’s classmate, Edward M. Grout, ’84, had spearheaded a movement for alumni representation, citing several northeastern colleges where it was to be found. Inertia and the priority of other subjects seem to have delayed action till 1894 when the Board permitted all College degree holders and graduates of the Seminary’s full course to make nominations by mail ballot; the Board reserved the right to choose one alumnus from the nominees, however. The first balloting was held the next year and Grout was selected. Thereafter he was to be a permanent member of the Board, except for a two-year interval, until his death in 1931.
One of the most significant events of the ’90’s or of the University’s entire history, in fact, was James B. Colgate’s munificent gift of the Dodge Memorial Fund in honor of his dear friend, the late President. At a meeting of the Board in June, 1891, which the Education Society Trustees, by previous arrangement, attended, and from which the donor was absent, Samuel Colgate read a communication from his brother announcing the gift of securities worth $1,000,000. Three “custodians,” one of them being James C. Colgate, were named and were empowered to elect their successors and to have control of the Fund independently of the University Trustees. One half of the annual income was to be paid to the University and the balance added to the principal The total income was to be turned over when it reached a figure satisfactory to the University Trustees for providing an adequate supplement to the University’s over-all income. It is worthy of note that Mr. Colgate imposed no conditions on the use of the expendable income. He was “confident that this University will continue to be in the true sense of the term, a Baptist University where the ruling purpose is to discover and teach truth in order that it may be fearlessly, yet reverently, followed wherever it may lead.” One wonders if he appreciated the far-reaching implications of this statement. Since there developed some question as to the validity of the Deed of Gift the Board requested, and the State Legislature passed in 1900, an act chartering the ‘Dodge Fund Trustees and making the