Tag Archives: Sidney Colgate

p. 266 – The Bryan Period, 1908-1922

Dr. Albert Perry Brigham, Bio Files, p266Dr. William Newton Clark, '61, Bio File, p266Prof. Melbourn S. Read, Bio File, p266

 

 

mained an effective bar to Foundation approval. Dr. William M. Lawrence resigned as President of the Board in 1912 to accept the Lectureship in Christian Ethics in the Seminary. Sidney M. Colgate, one of the sons of the late Samuel Colgate and a member of the family soap company, succeeded him. Following Mr. Colgate’s resignation in 1921, his cousin James C. Colgate, became President and was to remain active in that position until 1935.

University finances do not seem to have given President Bryan much worry since he regarded this area of operations as Trustees’ domain. Income during his term increased from $76,000 at the beginning to $231,000 at its conclusion, while expenditures rose from $97,000 to $266,000. A growing enrollment meant additional tuition income but at the same time raised the operating costs. This situation, in part, explains the regular deficits which ranged from a low of $38,000 in 1911 to a high of $66,000 in 1918. All of them James C. Colgate made up with assistance from his mother and sister but, tiring of this practice, he had a budget system instituted in 1921 to provide greater control of expenses. This innovation must have contributed to the reduction of the deficit from $58,000 in 1920 to $26,000 in 1922. The

p. 177 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

he served as President from 1861 until his death in 1897. Four years younger than his brother, he and James were very fond of one another and shared many interests, denominational and philanthropic and also artistic and horticultural. Samuel lived in Orange, New Jersey, where he had an estate called Seven Oaks after the village in Kent, England, associated with the Colgate family. He had flower and vegetable gardens, a conservatory, and greenhouses and he and Mrs. Colgate often had their big red brick house filled with guests.

Both James B. and Samuel Colgate, following the precedent set by their father, sought to interest their sons in the University. The first saw his son, James C., become a University Trustee in 1888, while Richard, the eldest of Samuel’s sons, was made an Education Society Trustee in 1889. Subsequently, Richard’s brothers, Sidney and Russell, joined him on the Society’s Board and Sidney, Russell and a fourth brother, Austen, became members of the University Board.

Along with Dr. Dodge, important figures on the campus in adminis-