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JOHN HARCOURT ALEXANDER MORGAN |
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John Harcourt Alexander Morgan, president of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, is one of the leading educators of the south and a man of advanced scientific attainments, whose work as an entomologist, zoologist and agriculturist has made him widely known. A native of Canada, he was born near Strathroy, Ontario, August 31, 1867, his parents being John and Rebecca (Truman) Morgan. The mother was born in Toronto, Canada, and was a daughter of John Truman, a native of Ireland. John Morgan was a farmer and also devoted considerable attention to the raising of cattle, specializing in the breeding of shorthorns. His father, Richard Morgan, was a native of Ireland and settled in Canada about 1830.
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John Harcourt Alexander Morgan acquired his early education in the public schools of Middlesex county, Ontario, and afterward became a student at the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, graduating from the University of Toronto, which conferred upon him the B. S. A. degree in 1889. He was entomologist and horticulturist at the Louisiana State University and agricultural experiment station from 1889 until 1894, when he became zoologist and entomologist for the same institution, which he served in those capacities until 1904. Meanwhile he had taken postgraduate work at Cornell University in 1891 and in 1895 was connected with the marine biological laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. From February, 1904, until January, 1905, Dr. Morgan was entomologist at the Louisiana experimental station and crop pest commissioner and in the latter year he became director of the University of Tennessee agricultural experiment station and professor of zoology and entomology, acting in those capacities until 1910. From 1913 until 1919 he was dean of the College of Agriculture and director of the Experiment Station and on July 1 of the latter year was made president of the University of Tennessee, of which he has since been the head. His thorough scholastic training, broad experience and executive ability well qualify him for this important office and under his able administration the institution has steadily advanced. From 1895 until 1904 Dr. Morgan conducted farmers' institutes in Louisiana and his work has aided materially in promoting agricultural progress in the south. He is a noted entomologist and was the organizer and director of the gulf biological station at Cameron, Louisiana, in 1900. In 1904 he was appointed special field agent for the bureau of entomology, United States department of agriculture, and in 1905 was made president of the entomological section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, while in 1907 he served the American Association of Economic Entomologists in a similar capacity.
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On June 25, 1895, Dr. Morgan was married to Miss Sara Elizabeth Fay of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a daughter of Edwin H. Fay, a well known educator. He was a scion of the New England family of that name and was a graduate of Harvard University. He served as superintendent of education in Louisiana and for several years was president of Silliman College Institute at Clinton, that state. He was a veteran of the Civil war, in which he defended the cause of the Confederacy, serving with the rank of captain. Mrs. Morgan was born in Mississippi and acquired her academic training in Silliman College Institute. She is a musician of ability and studied at New Orleans, Louisiana, under Professor Groenevelt and other masters. To Dr. and Mrs. Morgan have been born five children: Edwa Fay, the eldest, is a graduate of the Sophie Newcomb School of New Orleans; John Elmore was graduated from the University of Tennessee, with the class of 1919 and is now connected with the firm of B. F. Avery & Sons of Louisville, Kentucky. He enlisted for service in the World war, was sent overseas, and acted as color sergeant for the One Hundred and Seventeenth Infantry in France; Lucy Shields, the next in order of birth, was graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1922; Evelyn [p.508] Cameron died at the age of five years; John Harcourt Alexander, Jr., who completes the family, is a student in the Knoxville high school.
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Dr. Morgan is an earnest member of the Church Street Methodist Episcopal church of Knoxville and lives in harmony with its teachings. He takes a prominent part in its activities and is serving on its board of stewards, while he also teaches the Men's Bible class. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, belonging to Masters Lodge, No. 244, F. & A. M., of which he is a past master; to the Royal Arch Chapter at Knoxville; and to Coeur de Lion Commandery, K. T. While attending Cornell University he joined the Gamma Alpha fraternity and he also belongs to the Cherokee Country Club, the Rotary Club and the Knoxville Board of Commerce. He is a member of the American Fisheries Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Science, the Louisiana Society of Naturalists, of which he is an ex-president, and during the World war acted as food administrator for Tennessee. His studies have covered a broad field and his postgraduate work in the school of experience has placed him with the men of learning and ability. Nothing is foreign to him that touches the world's progress and improvement and his work has been of far-reaching importance and most beneficial in its effects.
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