Winthrop Ellsworth Stone was a professor of chemistry and served as the president of Purdue University from 1900–1921.
Education
He moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 1874, and attended Amherst High School and Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst), where he received his bachelor"s degree in 1882. Stone studied chemistry and biology at Boston University, while also serving as assistant chemist to the Massachusetts State Agricultural Experiment Station from 1884–1886. He then studied at the University of Göttingen, receiving his Doctor of Philosophy there in 1888.
Career
Born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire, to Frederick L. Stone and Ann Butler, he was the older brother of Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone. From 1888 to 1889, he was chemist to the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1889 he joined Purdue University as a Professor of Chemistry, and conducted research in the chemistry of carbohydrates.
After serving as Purdue"s first vice president from 1892–1900, he became president of the university upon the death of James Henry Smart in 1900.
During Stone"s tenure, Purdue"s schools of agriculture and engineering grew rapidly. President Stone was present at one of Purdue"s worst tragedies, the Purdue Wreck train collision in 1903, tending to those who were injured or dying.
Victoria abandoned the family in 1907, travelling overseas to join a religious cult. On July 17, 1921, Stone fell to his death from the summit of Eon Mountain shortly after completing the peak"s first ascent.
Stone"s death resulted in the first life insurance payout from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association.