Roswell Gray Ham

ID #261, (1891-1983)
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 a teacher at the University of Washington. A few years later he taught at the University of California.3 Roswell married Helen Marion Cornelius and had two sons, Roswell Gray Ham Jr (b 11 Mar 1919 Oakland, CA) and Cornelius K Ham (b 8 Jul 1923 New Havne, CT). Roswell Jr. was an author - he wrote 'A Peak in Darien.4,2,5' 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. in New Haven, CT.1 He graduated from Yale University in New Haven, CT, in 1925 with a PhD.1 He was a top-ranking authority on the poetry of John Dryden.3 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.
in South Hadley, MA.3,1 He died on 20 July 1983 in Santa Barbara, CA, at age 92.6

Family

Hilda Sargent b. 6 Apr 1893, d. 20 Sep 1971
Child

Sources of Information

  1. Mount Holyoke College Archives, University web site, http://www.mtholyoke.edu , viewed on 13 Jun 2007.
  2. Philip Gray Jr, family tree titled "Descendents of Elias Andrew Gray", RootsWeb WorldConnect, www.rootsweb.com, from database named philgray, updated Dec 2007, viewed May 2008.
  3. Wikipedia, On-line database of general knowledge contributed by the public www.en.wikipedia.org, accessed 13 Jun 2003.
  4. Time Magazine, www.time.com, Sep 12, 1960, viewed 13 Jun 2007.
  5. Philip Gray Jr, family tree titled "Descendents of Elias Andrew Gray", RootsWeb WorldConnect, www.rootsweb.com, from database named philgray, updated Dec 2007, viewed Sep 2010.
  6. Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society Mission City Memorial Park, http://www.rootsweb.com/~cascchgs/mission_cem/page20.html, viewed 13 Jun 2007.

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Dates using 'say' are educated guesses by me.
If I don't know a female last name she will be identified with a 'Mrs' and her husband's name.
MALE or FEMALE means I don't know the first name.

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