Hutchins

iron and steel by physical and chemical tests and
was also responsible for the improvement of
many of the mechanical processes pertaining to
the trade. Two articles which he wrote, bear-
ing upon the effect of heat and stress tipon iron
and steel, were published in the Journal of the
Franklin Institute (February 1878, January
1879). In 1895 he was selected by Chauncey M.
Depew to contribute the article on the iron and
steel industry to One Hundred Years of Ameri-
can Commerce (2 vols., 1895). In 1877 he had
been made chairman of the committee of manu-
facturers of boiler-plate called by the United
States Treasury Department to cooperate with
the board of supervising steamboat inspectors
in forming a proper standard of tests for boiler-
plate. His recommendations were adopted by
the board and in following years his advice was
frequently sought by government officials and
fay the leading steam-boiler inspection and in-
surance companies of the United States. Aside
from his manufacturing interests he took a lead-
ing part in the promotion of community interests
and was president of the Coatesville Gas Com-
pany, which he aided in organizing in 1871. He
died at Coatesville after a long illness.

[E. R. Huston, Hist, of the Huston Families and
Their Descendants (1912); Gilbert Cope and H. G.
Ashmead, Hist. Homes and Institutions . . . of Chester
and Delaware Counties, Pa. (1904), vol. I; Univ. of
Pa.: Biog. Cat. of the Matriculates of the Coll., 1749-
1893 (1894); Public Ledger (Phikdelphia), Jan. 6,
J897-] J.H.F.

HUTCHINS, HARRY BURNS (Apr. 8,
i847-Jan. 25, 1930), lawyer, educator, president
of the University of Michigan, was born at Lis-
bon, N. H., the son of Carlton B. and Nancy
Walker (Merrill) Hutchins. His early educa-
tion, received in seminaries at Tilton, N. H.,
and Newbury, Vt, was followed by his enroll-
ment in 1866 in Wesleyan University, Middle-
town, Conn. Ill health, however, prevented his
pursuing the course there, though he spent some
months in pre-medical studies at Vermont and
Dartmouth, The following year, despite the dis-
tance from his native New England hills, he en-
tered the University of Michigan, attracted by
the presence on the faculty of a number of the
authors of textbooks he had been studying. Fol-
lowing an undergraduate career of some distinc-
tion he received his diploma in 1871 on the occa-
sion when President James B. Angell [q,vJ\ was
inatigttrated. After a year in charge of the pub-
lic schools of Owosso, Mich., he returned to the
University in 1872 to become an instructor, and,
the foBowing year, assistant professor of history
and rhetoric. Meanwhile he was studying law
aad k 1876 he resigned to become the partner

Hutchins

of Thomas M. Crocker, of Mount Clemens,
Mich., whose daughter, Mary Louise, had be-
come his wife on Dec. 26, 1872.

Again recalled to the University in 1884, as
Jay Professor of Law, Hutchins finally entered
upon his long and distinguished career as an
educator and administrator. Within three years
he accepted an appointment as the first dean of
the newly established law school at Cornell Uni-
versity. Legal education was entering a new
phase; and when the position of dean of the law
school at Michigan became vacant in 1895, he
returned once more to Ann Arbor, charged with
the inauguration of a three-year law course and
the development of the case system of instruc-
tion. His achievements during the following
fifteen years were such that he was twice called
to serve as acting president of the University:
once, in 1897-98, while President Angell was
absent as minister to Turkey; and again, in 1909.
When a permanent successor to Angell was
sought in 1910, Hutchins proved the unanimous
choice. He accepted with the understanding that
he was to serve for five years, but was prevailed
upon to continue in office until July 1,1920, when
he finally resigned. He passed his last years
quietly in Ann Arbor.

The value of Hutchins' long administrative
experience was immediately demonstrated when
he became president, and the sound and con-
structive expansion of his administration marks
an important period in Michigan's development.
Despite some opposition, requirements were
raised, special courses such as those in public
health, aeronautics, and municipal administra-
tion, were established, and curricula in sanitary,
automobile, and highway engineering, fine arts,
and business administration were inaugurated.
Advanced studies and research were encouraged
through his strong support of the graduate
school, which during these years became a sep-
arate administrative unit; his concern for stu-
dent welfare led to the organization of a univer-
sity health service; and the institution's educa-
tional obligation to the state was recognized in
the development of extension courses. In his re-
lations with the people of Michigan upon whom
the financial support of the University as a state
institution rests, he was most fortunate; funds
for many new buildings were appropriated; and
the student enrollment was almost doubled. His
emphasis upon the need of alumni cooperation as
a supplement to the support derived from the
state, has given Michigan a unique place among
state institutions. Such benefactions as the
Michigan Union, five women's dormitories, and
the gifts to the law school by the late W. W.

434