Cross, Wilbur L. (Wilbur Lucius), 1862-1948

Epithet: of the `Yale Review'

Cross was Governor of Connecticut.

Wilbur Lucius Cross was born in Gurleyville, Connecticut, on April 10, 1862. He received his B.A. from Yale in 1885 and a Ph.D. in English literature in 1889. He was a member of the Yale faculty from 1894 to 1948 and served the university in various capacities including dean of the Graduate School, acting provost, and editor of the Yale Review. He studied the English novel and was the author of books on Laurence Sterne and Henry Fielding. From 1931 to 1939 Cross served as governor of Connecticut. Cross died in New Haven, Connecticut, on October 5, 1948.

Wilbur Lucius Cross was born in Gurleyville, Connecticut, on April 10, 1862. He received his B.A. from Yale in 1885 and a Ph.D. in English literature in 1889. He was a member of the Yale faculty from 1894 to 1948 and served the university in various capacities including dean of the Graduate School, acting provost, and editor of the Yale Review. He studied the English novel and was the author of books on Laurence Sterne and Henry Fielding. From 1931 to 1939 Cross served as governor of Connecticut. Cross died in New Haven, Connecticut, on October 5, 1948.

WILBUR LUCIUS CROSS, B.A. 1885. Born April 10, 1862, Gurleyville, Conn.; died October 5, 1948, New Haven, Conn.

Father, Samuel Cross, owner of silk and grist mills in Gurleyville; son of Eleazar and Hannah (Williams) Cross. Mother, Harriet Maria (Gurley) Cross; daughter of Lucius and Abigail (Shumway) Gurley. Yale relatives include: Alice E. Sanderson Cross (School of Fine Arts 1911-1912) (daughter-in-law); Wilbur L. Cross, 3d, 41 (grandson).

Natchaug High School, Willimantic, Conn.; teacher in district school at Gurleyville 1880-1881. Second and third composition prizes Sophomore year; high oration appointment Junior and Senior years; Junior exhibition speaker and second premium; Townsend Premium and winner DeForest medal Senior year; Senior Debating Club; Class monitor; Psi Upsilon, Phi Beta Kappa.

Principal Staples High School, Westport, Conn., 1885-1886; Ph.D. in English literature Yale 1889; instructor in English literature Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh, 1889-1894; on Yale faculty 1894-1948 (instructor in English 1894-1897, assistant professor 1897-1902, professor 1902-1922, Sterling professor 1922-1930, professor emeritus 1930-1948; dean Graduate School 1916-1930, dean emeritus 1930-1948; acting provost 1922-1923; editor The Yale Review from 1911 to 1940 and editor, emeritus 1940-1948; served the University in many other capacities, among them Alumni Fund agent for Graduate School 1930-1948; delegate to Missions Centennial in Honolulu 1920; fellow ex-officio Yale Corporation 1931-1939 associate fellow Timothy Dwight College 1936-1948; trustee Sheffield Scientific School 1910-1916 [ ex-officio 1931-1939]; trustee ex-officio Peabody Museum of Natural History 1931-1939; librarian Sheffield Scientific School 1906-1915 and on governing board; honorary member Aurelian Honor Society; chairman Yale committee of New Haven's Tercentenary 1937-1938); Governor of Connecticut 1931-1939; author: "The Influence of English Literature on the Continent in the Eighteenth Century"; The Development of the English Novel ; The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne ; The History of Henry Fielding ; An Outline of Biography from Plutarch to Strachey ; The Modern English Novel ; Four Contemporary Novelists ; Proclamations of His Excellency Wilbur L. Cross ; Connecticut Yankee: An Autobiography ; editor department of English literature in New International Encyclopedia 1901-1903; editor: Macbeth ; Ivanhoe ; Silas Marner ; Works of Laurence Sterne ; Life of Sterne ; Travels With A Donkey, and An Inland Voyage ; Robinson Crusoe ; Political Romance ; The Life and Times of Tennyson (from 1809-1850); Tristram Shandy ; A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy ; Twenty-Five Years After ; The Yale Review Anthology ; general editor English Readings for Schools ; committee editor The Yale Shakespeare ; co-editor Love's Labour's Lost ; lecturer at Columbia 1903, Daniel S. Lamont Memorial Lecturer at Yale 1931-1932, and lectured before many college and professional groups; Litt.D. University of South Carolina 1918, Columbia 1923, Yale 1930, Brown 1931; L.H.D. University of Michigan 1923; LL.D. Wesleyan 1932, Harvard 1933, University of Rochester and University of California at Los Angeles 1934, Trinity (Conn.) and Union (N.Y.) 1935, Yeshiva College 1943; Chevalier Legion of Honor (France) 1929; award silver bowl by Yale Club of Montclair 1932, silver cup by Mory's Association 1934, and gold medal of honor by New Haven Advertising Club 1943; named in his honor are Wilbur L. Cross Library at University of Connecticut, Wilbur L. Cross Parkway in Connecticut, and Wilbur L. Cross High School, New Haven; trustee Connecticut College (acting chairman board of trustees 1942), Berkeley Divinity School, and University of Connecticut; chancellor American Academy of Arts and Letters; director New Haven Free Public Library; honorary president Connecticut Prison Association 1937; president Graduates Club of New Haven 1922-1926, Elizabethan Club 1927-1929, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1931-1935, American Guild for German Cultural Freedom 1938, and Authors Club, New York; member jury on poetry Pulitzer Prize awards 1927; on advisory board John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 1930-1936; board member the Hartford Retreat; member College of Electors of the Hall of Fame; honorary life member New Haven Advertising Club; honorary member Second Company Governor's Foot Guard, Yale Alumni Association of Hartford, Litchfield County University Club, Hartford Club, Harvard Club of Connecticut, and Sons of Italy (awarded Civic Romanum 1937); member Society of Mayflower Descendants, Society of Colonial Wars, Society of Colonial Governors, Society of the Cincinnati, Sons of the American Revolution, American Philosophical Society, Masonic order, and Episcopal church.

Married July 17, 1889, in Willimantic, Helen Baldwin, daughter of William Burrill and Helen Mar (Baldwin) Avery. Children: Wilbur Lucius, Jr., '12 S., Samuel Avery, '18 S., Elizabeth Baldwin (died 1903), and Arthur William (died 1912). Mrs. Cross died in 1928.

Death due to bronchopneumonia. Buried in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven. Survived by two sons, two grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

From: Yale Obituary Record, 1948-1949, pp. 10-11.