Winston, George Tayloe, 1852-1932

George Tayloe Winston taught Latin and German, 1875-1891, at the University of North Carolina; was president, 1891-1896, of the University of North Carolina; president, 1896-1899, of the University of Texas; and president, 1899-1908, of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now North Carolina State University).

George Tayloe Winston was the son of Patrick Henry Winston (1820-1886) and Martha Elizabeth Bird. Educated at Horner's School in Oxford, N.C., the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the United States Naval Academy, and Cornell University, he pursued graduate work at Cornell for a year after he graduated in 1874.

When the University of North Carolina reopened in 1875, Winston accepted a teaching position there. He administered the department of Latin and German and was elected secretary of the faculty. In 1891, Winston was elected president of the University of North Carolina when Kemp Plummer Battle resigned. He served as president for five years.

In 1896, Winston left Chapel Hill to become the first president of the University of Texas. Three years later, in 1899, he returned to North Carolina to assume the presidency of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Raleigh (now North Carolina State University). Winston retired from the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in 1908, at the age of 56.

In 1876, Winston married Caroline Sophia Taylor, of Hinsdale, N.H., whom he had met at Cornell. They had four children: Hollis Taylor, Patrick Henry, Lewis Taylor, and Isabella Byrd.

Hollis Taylor Winston (1877-1938) attended the University of North Carolina, 1893-1895, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1900. He served on the USS Columbia in the West Indian campaign, on the USS Charleston during Secretary of State Elihu Root's diplomatic tour of South America in 1906, and as gunnery officer aboard the Charleston . He was an instructor at Annapolis in 1910 and took part in the Nicaraguan and Mexican campaigns, 1913-1914, aboard the USS California . Winston was on engineering duty at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1917-1919, and in charge of engineering inspection for the Philadelphia district, 1920-1922. He retired from active duty in 1922 as a lieutenant commander.

Patrick Henry Winston (1881-1940) attended the United States Military Academy, 1901-1905. He resigned from the Army in 1906. He practiced law in Asheville, N.C, and then taught law at the University of North Carolina, 1909-1931. His wife Josephine Wilkinson Winston (1883-1961) was a librarian at the university.

For more information, see the articles on George Tayloe Winston and Hollis Taylor Winston in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography .