Merrill Edwards Gates

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Merrill Edwards Gates, LL.D. (1848 – 11 August 1922) was the ninth President of Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) serving from 1882 to 1890.

He was born at Warsaw, New York, the son of Seth Merrill Gates. Gates received his baccalaureate degree at the University of Rochester, where he achieved high honors in Mathematics, Latin and Greek, and received the English Essay Prize of the Senior year. He served as Principal for twelve years at The Albany Academy in New York, and visited the Rugby School and the University of Oxford from 1872 to 1875. Upon his return to the United States, he was offered the post of Chancellor of the University of Tennessee but declined and remained in Albany. He went abroad again in 1879, spending a year in travel and study in France, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and Greece. Upon this second return, the University of the State of New York conferred on him a degree in honoris causa in 1880, and in 1882, both the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University and the University of Rochester awarded him the degree of Doctor of Laws. Following his presidency at Rutgers, he received the LL.D. degree from Columbia University in 1891 and from Williams College in 1893. Columbia University also conferred upon him the degree of Doctorate of Humane Laws (L.H.D.) in 1887.

During his tenure as President of Rutgers College, which began in 1882, Gates built the College's first dormitory, Winants Hall (completed in 1890) named for Garret E. Winants and New Jersey Hall (funded by the state) which was used for instruction in Chemistry and Biology (now home of the Economics department). Under the provisions of the Hatch Act, in 1887, Rutgers established the Agricultural Experiment Station, and under the Morrill Act of 1890, increase funding for the Scientific School. However, in 1890, Dr. Gates resigned as President, to accept the Presidency of Amherst College (from 1890-1899) in Massachusetts. After his tenure at Amherst, Gates was appoitned to be Chairman of the U.S. Board of Indian Commissioners, and later named Secretary of the Board, serving from 1899 to 1912. He remained in Washington, DC presenting lectures and serving literary and philanthropic societies, and preaching in the Congregational Church. He died at his summer home in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, on 11 August 1922.