William Ruggles

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William Ruggles (born on September 5, 1797 in Rochester, Massachusetts, died on September 10, 1877 on Schooley's Mountain, New Jersey) was an American scholar.

[edit] Biography

He was the son of Elisha Ruggles and Mary Clap who also parented six other children by the names of Nathaniel, Micah, Henry, Charles, James, and Lucy. William was the second youngest child in his family.

He became a tutor of mathematics at Columbian College in 1822, and was a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy from 1824 to 1865. In 1865, he was made Professor Emeritus in those fields. He became the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy in 1827. Ruggles remained at George Washington University until he died and was an extremely respected professor, serving Columbian College for a record fifty-five year period. In 1859, he created the Ruggles Prize, awarded annually to a candidate for a bachelor's degree for excellence in mathematics.

Ruggles was the owner of various historical and archival books which are now located in the Gelman Library Archives at George Washington University. The subjects include theology, philosophy, psychology, economics, mathematics (algebra and geometry), and chemistry, all of which Ruggles either taught or was passionate about.

His passions also lay in the idea of giving back to the community. William Ruggles was noted for his generous contributions to charities and missionary bequests. His accomplishments and contributions were honored and recognized when he received an honorary LL.D from Brown University in 1852. Ruggles also graduated from Brown with a law degree in 1820.

Ruggles was described by President Welling, the second president of the George Washington University:

When the Board was tardy in paying salaries or when it embarked on some policy he opposed, his resignation was always forthcoming …A member of no religious denomination, but dealing almost exclusively with Baptists, he observed on the basis of attitudes, that he was perhaps the better Christian…[he was] a man of great conscientiousness, high intelligence and blameless character. His excellent portrait in the University collection suggests a very wise man who perhaps was not always loved but who was respected.

—President Welling

The Board of Trustees, in adopting resolutions in appreciation of his services, declared Ruggles in similar words to Welling, saying, “We hereby testify and record our exulted sense of the virtues which adorned his private character, the unselfish zeal he brought to the performance of all his duties and the inestimable value of the manifold and multiform services which he rendered to the College during the long period of his connection with its history.”

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