Merrill Edwards Gates
Merrill Edwards Gates, LL.D. was the ninth President of Rutgers College serving from 1882 to 1890, and the sixth President of Amherst College, serving from 1890 to 1899.Biography
He was born at Warsaw, New York on April 6, 1848 to Seth Merrill Gates.
Gates received his baccalaureate degree at the University of Rochester, where he achieved high honors in Mathematics, Latin and Greek, and received the English Essay Prize in his senior year.
He served as principal for twelve years at The Albany Academy in Albany, New York, and visited the Rugby School and the University of Oxford in England from 1872 to 1875. Upon his return to the United States, he was offered the post of Chancellor of the University of Tennessee but declined and remained in Albany. He went abroad again in 1879, spending a year in travel and study in France, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and Greece. Upon this second return, the University of the State of New York conferred on him a degree in honoris causa in 1880, and in 1882, both the College of New Jersey in 1887.
During his tenure as President of Rutgers College, which began in 1882, Gates built the College's first dormitory, Winants Hall named for Garrett E. Winants, and New Jersey Hall, which was used for instruction in chemistry and biology. Under the provisions of the Hatch Act, in 1887, Rutgers established the Agricultural Experiment Station, and under the Morrill Act of 1890, increase funding for the scientific school.
In 1890, Gates resigned as President of Rutgers University to become President of Amherst College in Massachusetts.
After his tenure at Amherst, Gates was appointed to be chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners, and later named secretary of the board where he served from 1899 to 1912. He remained in Washington, DC presenting lectures and serving literary and philanthropic societies, and preaching in the Congregational Church.
He died at his summer home in Littleton, New Hampshire on August 11, 1922, he was 74 years old.Selected works
