Samuel Rankin Thompson

Background

Thompson was born at South Shenango, Crawford County, Pa, in 1833. He was the son of William and Mary (Latta) Thompson, of Scotch and Irish descent. His early life was spent on his father's farm.

Education

Samuel spent three months at an academy in Greenville.

He entered Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pa. , in 1856, and by alternate teaching and studying he finished with the class of 1860. At commencement time, however, he was serving as superintendent of schools for his home county, so it was not until 1863 that he could return to receive the degree of A. B. He received the degree of A. M. in 1881 from Westminster.

Career

In 1848 he began teaching in Clarion County, Pa. From 1848 to 1856 he taught school in the winters and worked on the farm in the summers, with the exception of a year (perhaps 1854 - 55) in Nebraska, where he worked in a sawmill at Rockbluff. In his spare time he prepared himself for college entirely by home study; he often plowed with book tied to the plowhandle.

He was superintendent of schools for Crawford County, Pa. , 1860-65; professor of natural sciences and vice-principal of the state normal school, in Edinboro, Pa. , 1865-67; and organizer and principal of the Pottsville, Pa. , high school, 1868. He left Pottsville to organize a state normal school at Marshall College, Huntington, W. Va. , which he conducted until 1871.

In September 1871 he was elected professor of theoretical and practical agriculture at the University of Nebraska and began his work there in September 1872. He was the first dean of the College of Agriculture, which opened for the year 1872-73, and served in that position until December 1875. He was principal at the Nebraska State Normal School, Peru, 1876-77; superintendent of public instruction for Nebraska, 1878-81; superintendent of public schools, Lincoln, Nebr. , for six months in 1882; and professor of agriculture at the University of Nebraska once more, with the added chair of didactics, 1882-84. In 1884 he returned to Westminster College as professor of physics and remained there until his death.

In Nebraska he organized the state weather service, started farmers' institutes, incorporated into the public school system some excellent features, and secured important school legislation. Restless, roving, and adventurous, he wrote little, preferring to teach, to travel, to plan, and to perform. The historical sketch of Westminster College in A History of Higher Education in Pennsylvania (1902), edited by C. H. Haskins and W. I. Hull, is from his pen. A report he wrote as dean of the University of Nebraska College of Agriculture, printed in the chancellor's report for 1874, reveals some of his ideas and ideals.

Achievements

• Thompson is remembed as an ambitious, talented, hardworking, and scholarly man, an influential pioneer in educational organization in three states.

Personality

He was six feet, three inches tall, slender, of pleasant address and scholarly bearing, and his alert face with its bright blue eyes suggested his eager mind. In later life his white hair and full white beard gave him a prematurely venerable appearance.

Connections

At Rockbluff, Nebr. , in 1859, he married Lucy Gilmour. They had one daughter, who died while a student in college, and whose memorial is the Mary Thompson Science Hall at Westminster College.

Father:

William Thompson

Mother:

Mary (Latta) Thompson

Spouse:

Lucy Gilmour