Biography of Herman Churchill

In the promotion of public education Rhode Island draws its instructors from any field where the material is of outstanding quality. This has long been a feature of the work here and has been justified and rewarded by a superior organization and greatly improved results in comparison with communities operating on a different basis. The State College at Kingston has been fortunate in acquiring an educator of such ability as Herman Churchill, who has been since 1912 professor of English and History at that institution.

He was born in Scott, Cortland County, New York, October 9, 1869, a son of Sylvanus Amos and Caroline (Eadie) Churchill, his father having been a farmer and also a teacher. He was educated in the local schools and at Homer Academy, in Cortland County, and from there went to Syracuse University, which graduated him in 1894 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He supplemented this with a course at the University of Wisconsin and from that institution received the degree of Master of Arts in 1902. He spent fifteen years in teaching in the West, principally in Menomonie, Wisconsin, in its high school and manual training school. For one year he taught at the high school in Madison, Wisconsin, and from 1903 to 1907 was engaged at Northwestern University. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and the Tau Kappa Alpha college fraternities, is historian of Phi Kappa Phi and was one of the organizers of a chapter of Tau Kappa Alpha at the Rhode Island State College. He is a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, Colonial Wars, Sons of the American Revolution, and the American Historical Association.

Herman Churchill married, June 15, 1898, Cora Mae Boyce, daughter of Joseph C. Boyce, of New York. Their children are:

  1. Irving Lester, born in Madison, Wisconsin, April 9, 1901. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island State College, 1922, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, and of Yale University, 1927, with the degree of Master of Arts. From 1923 to 1925, inclusive, he taught at the New Hampshire State College, and since 1927 has been an instructor at the University of Rochester, New York.
  2. Florence Hermia, born April 16, 1905, died June 7, 1920.
  3. Arthur Chester, born in New York, December 29, 1911, a student in Rhode Island State College (1930).

Source: Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 3 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.

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