Aaron Samuel French was a Pennsylvanian philanthropist who played a large part in the establishment of Georgia Tech's textile engineering department, which opened in February 1899, and was the young school's fourth department.[1][2] Lyman Hall, then president of the school, had met French at a North Carolina summer resort and had convinced French of the need for a textile school in the South.[1]
Both the building that housed it in what is now the Georgia Institute of Technology Historic District and the department itself were named after Aaron French.[1] The Textile Department is now Georgia Tech's School of Polymer, Textile & Fiber Engineering.[3]