Holgate, Thomas F. (Thomas Franklin), 1859-1945

Mathematics scholar and acting President of Northwestern University (1904-1906, 1916-1919).

From the description of Thomas F. Holgate Papers, 1892-1972. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122276827

From the description of Papers, 1892-1972. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 76952324

Thomas Franklin Holgate was born on April 8, 1859, in Hastings County, Ontario, Canada, the son of Thomas and Eleanor Wright Holgate. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Victoria College, University of Toronto, in 1884, and a Master's degree, in absentia, from the same institution in 1889. Holgate came to Northwestern University in 1893 as a mathematics professor. He served as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts for 17 years and two terms as acting president of the University.

Holgate began his professional teaching career in 1874, teaching in the public school system of Ontario. Upon graduation from college in 1884, he became a mathematics master (instructor) at Albert College, Belleville, Ontario. He remained in this position until 1890 when he became a fellow at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He received a Ph.D. from Clark University in 1893. He joined the Northwestern University faculty in 1893 as an instructor in the Mathematics Department. During the year, he became involved in the activities of the first International Congress of Mathematicians held in conjunction with the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893. He also devoted considerable attention to the preparation of a series of Colloquium Lectures by Felix Klein held in Evanston following the Congress.

In 1894, after only one year at Northwestern, he was made a full professor. In 1897, he played an instrumental role in the formation of the Chicago section of the American Mathematical Society and served as Secretary from 1897 to 1905. In 1902, he was appointed Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, a position he held for the next seventeen years.

In 1904, following the resignation of President Edmund James, Holgate was appointed President Ad Interim of Northwestern University. He served in this capacity until the selection of Abram Harris as President in 1906. During his first two-year term as acting president, the Norman Harris Lecture Foundation was established, a department of education was added to the College of Liberal Arts, a training school for nurses was established, the geology, zoology, and romance language departments were enlarged, the athletic field on Central Street was opened, and the University was able to pay off a quarter-million-dollar debt. Additionally, he served as Secretary for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis in 1904.

Between 1906 and 1916, Holgate held the Noyes Professorship of Pure Mathematics, secured legislation for revision and codification of the Illinois school laws, traveled to Rome where he was Secretary/Delegate to the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1908, and was a member of a commission to reorganize the Chicago Public Library.

In 1916, with the resignation of Abram Harris, Holgate was once again called upon to serve as acting president of the University. As acting president from 1916 to 1919, Holgate instituted democratic reforms in the selection of deans; Northwestern was elected to membership in the Association of American Universities; the Law School's course of study was lengthened to four years; degree courses in physical education and public speaking were installed; student military training was established on campus; and 3,600 soldiers and sailors were trained in mechanical subjects as part of the University's commitment to the United States' war effort.

During World War I, Holgate assisted Walter Dill Scott in personnel work for the War Department. He was also influential in the formation of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and served as President from 1917 to 1918.

In 1919, with the selection of Lynn Harold Hough as President of the University, Holgate retired from his major administrative duties and was made Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts. He continued, however, to teach mathematics for the next fifteen years, retiring in 1934. He spent the 1921-,22 academic year in China as a visiting professor at the University of Nanking. His experiences in China served to reinforce an interest in foreign students and he acted as their advisor upon his return to Northwestern.

Holgate's research interests were in the fields of pure geometry and ruled surfaces of the fourth order. His translation of Theodore Reye's Geometrie der Lage (Geometry of Position) was published in 1898. His other published works include Elementary Geometry (1901) and Projective Pure Geometry (1930). He also wrote a “History of the Mathematics Department at Northwestern University, 1855-1905,” and a thirty-page summary of Northwestern University's activities during World War I, “Northwestern in the Great War.”

Holgate received honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the University of Illinois in 1905, Queen's University in 1919, and Northwestern University in 1937. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the University Club of Evanston, the University Club of Chicago, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

In addition to his university activities, Holgate was prominent in civic and religious affairs and was particularly concerned with administrative problems of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served five terms as a member of the Methodist Church's General Conference; was a member of its Board of Education for Negroes; and from 1924 to his death in 1945, was a member of the church's Board of Education, serving as its treasurer from 1934 to 1938. From 1923 to 1925, he was president of the Chicago Church Federation. In recognition of his support of educational opportunities for black students, the library at Bennett College in North Carolina was named for him.

Dean Holgate was married twice. On August 2, 1885, in Bath, Ontario, Canada, he married Julia Caroline Sharp, the daughter of a local farmer, John Sharp. She died in 1887. His second marriage to Georgina Angela Burdette, the daughter of Daniel Burdette, a. manufacturer, took place in Newburgh, Ontario, Canada, July 23, 1890. The Holgates had four children: Eleanor, born in 1894, who later married the noted scholar, Owen Lattimore; Robert Burdette, born in 1895; Barbara (Mrs. George H. Young), born in 1899, and Frances Burdette, born in 1902.

Thomas Franklin Holgate died of a heart ailment in Evanston at the age of 86 on April 11, 1945. Funeral services were held on April 13, 1945 at the First Methodist Church of Evanston.

Despite the fact that his formal title was that of President Ad Interim, Holgate was one of the most accomplished, significant, and influential administrators in Northwestern's history, and enjoyed an extraordinarily long and productive academic career, while maintaining an avid interest in foreign, civic and religious affairs.

From the guide to the Thomas Franklin Holgate (1859-1945) Papers, 1892-1973, (Northwestern University Archives)