Franklin La Du Ferguson

Franklin La Du Ferguson (June 21, 1861 – May 27, 1944) was a minister in the Congregational church and the second president of Pomona College.[1] He served from 1897 to 1901, the briefest tenure of any Pomona president to date.

Franklin La Du Ferguson
2nd President of Pomona College
In office
1897–1901
Preceded byCyrus G. Baldwin
Succeeded byGeorge A. Gates
Personal details
BornJune 21, 1861
Tamworth, Ontario
DiedMay 27, 1944
Orlando, Florida
Spouse(s)Margaret Jeannette Maxwell
ChildrenJohn M. Ferguson
Franklin Pomeroy Ferguson
Jeannette Ferguson
MotherMatilda Pomeroy Ferguson
FatherJohn Ferguson
Alma materAlbert College
Yale University (BD)
ProfessionAcademic

Life and career

Franklin La Du Ferguson was born in Tamworth, Ontario, Canada, in 1861 to John and Matilda Pomeroy Ferguson.[2] His father was of Scotch-Irish descent, and his mother was descended from Mayflower Pilgrims.[3] He studied for the ministry at Albert College[3] and then at Yale University, graduating with Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1888.[3][1] He served as a pastor in Milford, Connecticut, and directed the Chadron Academy in Chadron, Nebraska.[4]

He was selected to serve as Pomona College's second president in 1897 by the college's board of trustees, who knew him as a representative of the Congregational Education Society who had successfully sought donors on the college's behalf.[1] He succeeded George A. Gates, who the board had asked to resign that July amid a period of financial panic for the fledgling school.

During his tenure, he focused on raising funds and oversaw the construction of Pearsons Hall, the President's House, and the first Renwick Gymnasium.[1] However, he also evidently used his office to make illegal personal real estate investments that lost money, putting the college at financial risk.[5] He was also unpopular with the student body, in part because of a request he made upon taking office for a censor of The Student Life, which had published an editorial questioning a fundraising claim he made.[3] The board asked him to resign at the end of his third year.[1] He is the only past Pomona president not honored by a portrait,[5] and the college's official timeline describes his presidency as arguably the least successful to date.[1]

He was later involved in business in Boston and New York, and in 1920 moved to Orlando, Florida, where he established in 1931 the Orlando Shopping News, an advertising newspaper in which he also published political views.[6] He died in Orlando on May 27, 1944.[2]

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References
  1. "1897". Pomona College Timeline. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. Houghton, Roy M., ed. (1945). Manual of the Church of Christ Congregational in Milford Connecticut. Milford. pp. 28–29.
  3. Sumner, Charles Burt (1914). The Story of Pomona College. Pilgrim Press. p. 212. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  4. Eighth General Catalogue of the Yale Divinity School: Centennial Issue, 1822-1922. Yale University Divinity School. 1922. p. 271. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  5. Thelin, John R. (2017). American Higher Education: Issues and Institutions. Routledge. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-317-49861-2. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  6. Gore, E. H. (1951). From Florida Sand to "The City Beautiful": A Historical Record of Orlando, Florida (2nd ed.). p. 26.
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