Benjamin Ide Wheeler

Benjamin Ide Wheeler ( born July 15, 1854 in Randolph, Massachusetts, † May 3, 1927 in Vienna) was an American classical philologist. From 1899 to 1919 he was president of the University of California, Berkeley.

Life

Benjamin Ide Wheeler studied at Brown University, where he attained a Bachelor degree in 1875. After a year as a teacher at the high school in Providence (Rhode Iceland ) in 1878 he laid the master. He then furthered his studies at the University of Heidelberg, where in 1885, Dr. phil. received his doctorate. His specialty was the Indo-European Linguistics.

After his return to the United States Wheeler worked as a German teacher at Harvard University (1885-1886) and then went to Cornell University, where he took a chair until 1887. In 1887, he also was appointed Professor of Comparative Philology, 1888 Chair of the Greek Department.

During his time at Cornell University Wheeler published several writings on linguistics, which he brought to the study of archeology and literature. His teaching success earned him 1895/1896 appointment as Annual Professor of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

1899 Wheeler was elected president of the University of California. Other items of this type ( at Colgate College, at the University of Wisconsin and at the University of Rochester ) he had previously rejected. In California, Wheeler gave up teaching to the whole and focused on the management of the University, which had 2,300 students when he took office.

Wheeler developed the University of California to one of the leading universities in the United States. During his 20-year tenure, he multiplied the number of students (1919: 20,000 ), founded the Sanskrit Department and pulled up private investors. Very important was the promotion of Jane K. Sather, the banker Peder Sather widow, of whose assets were financed several buildings on the campus in Berkeley ( Sather Tower, Sather Gate) 1912 and the Sather Professorship was established.

At the founding of the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA) to Wheeler participated in the last phase of his term. It was established in 1919 as a Southern campus and was in Berkeley the second location of the University of California.

Wheeler's reputation as a researcher and university president brought him international recognition. He was a corresponding member of the 1899 Imperial German Archaeological Institute and was invited in the year 1908/1909 when Roosevelt professor at the University of Berlin, where he held, among others, a lecture on " Education and Democracy in America."

Writings (selection )

  • The Greek Nominalaccent. Strasbourg 1885
  • Analogy and the Scope of Its Application in Language. Ithaca ( NY) 1887
  • Introduction to the Study of the History of Language. London 1891
  • The organization of education in the United States of America. Munich 1897
  • Dionysus and Immortality. Boston 1899
  • Alexander the Great: The Merging of East and West in Universal History. New York 1900
  • Education and Democracy in America. Strasbourg 1910
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