(Excerpt from Citizenship and Technical Education: An Addr...)
Excerpt from Citizenship and Technical Education: An Address Delivered on Founder's Day, October 8, 1896 It is not my purpose to indulge in a eulogy of the distinguished founder. Others have done this heretofore, and others can do it far better than I. It was not my privilege to have more than a passing acquaintance with Judge Packer. Personal tribute would, therefore, be out of place. It may, however, be appropriate to utilize the time which is allotted me by a superficial consideration of the subject suggested by the occasion Citizenship and Technical Education. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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John Heman Converse was born on December 02, 1840 in Burlington, Vermont, United States. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister, Reverend John Kendrick Converse. His mother was Sarah Allen, daughter of Honorary Hernán Allen, member of Congress from Vermont.
John prepared for college in the Burlington High School. In 1861 he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont.
In 1864 Converse was employed as a railway clerk by the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. Two years later he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company where he made the acquaintance of Edward II. Williams, a General Superintendent. Williams took an interest in the young man and when he became one of the proprietors of the present Baldwin Locomotive Works offered Converse a desirable position in the concern. Three years later, in 1873, upon the retirement of one of the firm’s members, Converse became a partner. When on July 1, 1909 the partnership was dissolved and the Baldwin Locomotive Works was incorporated as a stock company under the laws of Pennsylvania, he was elected its first president, which office he held until the day of his death.
Although he was deeply interested in every development of locomotive design and construction, from the beginning he was primarily concerned with general financial and commercial administration. Perhaps his greatest single financial coup occurred when, as president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, he floated successfully $10, 000, 000 of first mortgage bonds, bearing interest at five per cent. Converse’s activities were not confined solely to locomotive construction. He was also elected president of the trustees of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and vice-moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly at the St. Louis meeting in 1901. For a long time he served as a trustee of the theological seminaries at Princeton and the University of Vermont.
John Heman Converse was distinguished as a leader in many financial, patriotic, benevolent, religious, and educational projects. He was one of the original signators founding the International Y. M. C. A. Training School in Massachusetts and he made notable financial contributions to many institutions, particularly the University of Vermont.
(Excerpt from Citizenship and Technical Education: An Addr...)
Converse was a thorough-going Presbyterian and was known as a faithful and generous churchman.
Mr. Converse was a strong supporter of higher education, particularly a liberal education. He advocated widespread public intellectual guidance by the universities of the country, believing that the universities could accomplish this result through the medium of circulating libraries, extension schools, and a change in the course of studies. He was interested in educational institutions, not only for the general culture obtained from the study of the humanities but for the specialized courses dealing with the social, political, and economic problems affecting the well-being of society; he believed that the relative importance of the general-culture courses had diminished because of the increasing number of college graduates who were entering business as their life-work, and because of the changed nature of the methods of conducting business enterprises. Some of his theories are expressed in an address, The Twentieth Century University, delivered before the Associated Alumni of the University of Vermont in 1898, and in a paper “Higher Education for Business Pursuits and Manufacturing, ” in the Annals of the American Academy, vol. XXVIII (1906).
Converse was a president of the Fairmount Park Art Association, an organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning.
Converse was married to Elizabeth Perkins.
