Robert Allyn was an American educator. He was the first President of Southern Illinois State Normal University and served from 1874-1892.
Background
Robert Allyn was born on January 25, 1817 in Ledyard, Connecticut, United States, a direct descendant in the eighth generation of Captain Robert Allyn, one of the early settlers of New London, Connecticut. He was born and raised on his family’s farm.
Education
Allyn received the customary district-school training, and in 1837 entered Wesleyan University. Here he distinguished himself in both mathematics and the languages, and was voted the best student in his class. He graduated in 1841.
Career
Allyn taught for two years mathematics in Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachussets. He entered the New England Conference of the Methodist Church in 1842, and from 1843 to 1845 he was stationed at Colchester, Connecticut. He became principal of Wesleyan Academy in 1846 and principal of the Providence Conference Seminary at East Greenwich, Rhode Island in 1848.
Through his interest in abolition and prohibition he was drawn into politics and was twice elected to the legislature. His chief service to the state, however, was as commissioner of public schools, 1854-1857, when he founded and edited the Rhode Island Schoolmaster, an excellent educational magazine which continued until 1875, when it was merged in the New England Journal of Education. His contributions to this magazine, as well as to others, such as the Methodist Quarterly Review, and his educational reports as commissioner, particularly his Special Report on Truancy and Absenteeism in Rhode Island (1856), were notable for their lucidity, thoroughness, and practicality.
In September 1857 he resigned the commissionership to become professor of ancient languages in Ohio University at Athens, Ohio. Two years later he was elected president of Wesleyan Female Academy at Cincinnati. In 1863 he became president of McKendree College in Illinois.
He was active in the establishment of the Southern Illinois State Normal University and was its first president (1874-1892). Allyn united dignity and ease in his personal bearing and in his educational work. Much influenced by Pestalozzi, he emphasized the importance of interest, without, however, sacrificing discipline.
Achievements
Connections
On November 18, 1841 Allyn married Emeline Denison. His first wife died in 1844, leaving him with two children, and on June 22, 1845, he married Mary Budington, by whom he later had three children.