Background
Brown Ayres was born on 25 May, 1856, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of Samuel W. and Elizabeth (Cook) Ayres.
Brown Ayres was born on 25 May, 1856, in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of Samuel W. and Elizabeth (Cook) Ayres.
After attending private schools in Memphis and New Orleans, he studied engineering at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. Later, he transferred to the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. In 1878, he graduated with B. S. in Engineering degree.
As one of the remarkable group of Fellows, he went to Johns Hopkins in the later seventies. In 1879-1880, he received a fellowship in physics from Johns Hopkins. By 1888 he had earned his Ph. D. degree from the Stevens Institute.
He received LL. D. degrees from Washington and Lee University (1894), South Carolina College (1905), Tulane University (1905), and the University of Alabama (1916).
In 1880, he was elected professor of physics and electrical engineering at Tulane University, and twenty years later professor of physics and astronomy.
As dean of the College of Technology from its organization in 1894-1900 he displayed such administrative ability that he was elected dean of the academic department and vice-chairman of the faculty, and in 1904 acting president of the university.
In 1904-1905, he served as president of the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges and as a member of the faculty of the first large summer school in the South, at the University of Tennessee.
In 1904, he succeeded Charles W. Dabney when the latter resigned the presidency of the University of Tennessee. Ayres held this position until his death.
His influence was not confined to Tennessee. He was president of the national Association of State Universities (1909-1910) and vice-president of the Association of Land Grant Colleges the year of his death.
In his activity, he was far from the emotional agitator or crusader. He appealed to reasonable men by his scientific method, practical sense, and zeal for higher education.
On July 5, 1881, he married Katie Anderson, a resident of Lexington.