Roswell Gray Ham

Roswell Gray Ham

Roswell Ham
1957 photo

• Roswell Gray Ham was born on 11 March 1891, in LeMoore, CA.¹
• Father: Israel Hayes Ham (b Sep 1823 Rochester, NH) - Mother: Josephine Mirenda Gray (b 5 Jan 1850 Janesville, Rock County, WI).²
• He graduated from University of California in Berkeley, CA, say 1912.³
• He was teacher at the University of Washington. A few years later he taught at the University of California say 1913.³
• He was in the military circa 1918 and received a captain's commission in the Wartime Marine Corps.³
• He was a teacher in the English department at Yale University. say 1920 in New Haven, CT.¹
• He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, CT, in 1925 with a PhD.¹
• He was an Executive Fellow at Jonathan Edwards College in New Haven, CT.³
• He married Hilda Sargent, daughter of George Lewis Sargent and Alice Bessie Forbes, on Saturday, 4 April 1936.
• Roswell Gray Ham was the President of Mount Holyoke College. Continuous development of the physical and financial assets of the College was a feature of his presidency. Some of the new buildings erected were the remodeling of the 1897 chapel into the Charles Clinton Abbey Memorial Chapel (1938); a sports complex, Kendall Hall (1950); Newcombe Cleveland Hall and Carr Laboratory (1955); and Gorse Child Study Center (1953). In addition, the endowment, student fees and the value of the physical plant doubled and enrollment increased by 25%. Ham was a staunch advocate of close cooperation with other colleges. In 1951, Mount Holyoke, Smith College, Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts launched a cooperative effort to establish an Inter-Library Center. This was later instrumental in the founding of Hampshire College and ultimately evolved into Five Colleges, Inc., one of the most successful consortiums in the country. During Ham's tenure, internship programs were established and interdepartmental courses were added to the curriculum. The latter were the forerunners to the interdepartmental majors and minors currently offered to students. A dormitory, Ham Hall, was named for him in 1965. between 1937 and 1957 in South Hadley, MA.^3,1
• He died on 20 July 1983 in Santa Barbara, CA, at age 92.⁴