Frank Aydelotte
Frank Aydelotte | |
|---|---|
| 7th President of Swarthmore College | |
| In office 1921–1940 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Swain |
| Succeeded by | John W. Nason |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 16, 1880 Oxford University |
| Profession | educator, administrator |
Franklin Ridgeway Aydelotte (October 16, 1880 – December 17, 1956) was a
Early and family life
Aydelotte was born in a small town in Sullivan County, Indiana,[2] the son of William Ephraim Aydelotte and Matilda Brunger Aydelotte, and had at least one sister. He attended Indiana University where he was an English major, a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity, earned a varsity letter in football and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1911. In 1907 he married Marie Jeanette Osgood. Their only child was William Osgood Aydelotte.[3]
Career
After graduation, he became an English professor first at a teaching college in
President of Swarthmore College
By 1921, Aydelotte was president of
He introduced the Honors program at Swarthmore, based on his experiences at Oxford. Based on the premise that the only true education is self-education, the system created seminar courses for selected students that were more challenging than the regular curriculum. These students would not receive grades or examinations, but took oral examinations at the end of the senior year given by external examiners. This replaced the lecture method of teaching for the advanced students, and introduced the notion of the students reaching the faculty. This method of teaching has become the signature of a Swarthmore College education.
Institute for Advanced Study
Upon retiring from Swarthmore in 1940, Aydelotte directed the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, during and immediately after World War II (1940-1947). He had served on the Board of Directors since 1930. Soon after his arrival, he engineered the relocation at Princeton of the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations.[6] During Aydelotte's time as the Institute's director, notable faculty included: Albert Einstein, Kurt Gödel, John von Neumann and James Waddell Alexander II. [7]
Aydelotte was a member of the
Publications
- Frank Aydelotte, Elizabethan Rogues and Vagabonds, Clarendon Press (1913)
- Frank Aydelotte, The Religion of Punch, The Nation, Volume 100, Issue # 2601, (May 6, 1915)
- Frank Aydelotte, The Oxford Stamp and Other Essays and Articles, Oxford University Press (1917)
- Frank Aydelotte, What the Americans Rhodes Scholar gets from Oxford, s.n (1920)
- Lawrence A. Crosby and Frank Aydelotte, Oxford of today: A manual for prospective Rhodes scholars, Oxford University Press (1922)
- Frank Aydelotte, Honors Courses in American Colleges and Universities, National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (1924)
- Frank Aydelotte, Honors Courses at Swarthmore, Columbia (1931)
- Frank Aydelotte, The Educational Program of Swarthmore College, The College (1933)
- Frank Aydelotte, Elizabethan Seamen in Mexico and Ports of the Spanish Main, The American Historical Review, Vol. 48, No. 1. (Oct., 1942), pp. 1–19. URL: JSTOR Stable
- Frank Aydelotte, Breaking the Adademic Lock Step, The Development of Honors Work in American Colleges and Universities, Harper & Brothers (1944)
- Frank Aydelotte, The American Rhodes Scholarships: A Review of the First Forty Years, Princeton University Press (1946)
- Frank Aydelotte, The Vision of Cecil Rhodes, A Review of the First Forty Years of the American Scholarships, Geoffrey Cumberlege (1946)
Death and legacy
Aydelotte died in Princeton, New Jersey, on December 17, 1956, after several years of failing health. His papers are held by a library.
References
- ^ a b "Frank Aydelotte Papers, 1905-1956".
- ISBN 0-8195-4023-4
- ISBN 978-0-309-06031-8.
He was born in Bloomington, Indiana, the only child of Marie Jeannette Osgood and Frank Aydelotte, a union of small town Indiana and academia on the father's side and the world of international music on that of his mother.
- ^ See David Alexander, "The American Scholarships," in A. Kenny, ed., The History of the Rhodes Trust 1902-1999, Oxford University Press, pp. 100-202; for Aydolette see esp. pp. 119-27.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-08-28.
- ^ Patricia Maria Clavin (2009). "The League of Nations at IAS". Institute for Advanced Study.
- ^ E.g., Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Report to the United States Government and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 20, 1946, https://www.trumanlibrary.org/dbq/res/israel/TrumanIsrael_resources.pdf; see also "Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry," Avalon Project, Yale Law School, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/angtoc.asp
- OCLC 262432322.
- An adventure in education; Swarthmore College under Frank Aydelotte, Macmillan, (New York, 1941)
- Frances Blanshard, Frank Aydelotte of Swarthmore, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Ct. (1970) ISBN 0-8195-4023-4
- Claus Bernet (2009). "Frank Aydelotte". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 30. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 69–76. ISBN 978-3-88309-478-6.
- Dan West, Nancy Harrison, Frank Aydelotte: Architect of Distinction - Swarthmore College Bulletin
- Bibliography for Frank Aydelotte story
- Frank Aydelotte Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
- Michael G. Moran. Frank Aydelotte and the Oxford Approach to English Studies in America, 1908-1940. University Press of America, 2006.
- Michael G. Moran. "The Road Not Taken: Frank Aydelotte and the Thought Approach to Engineering Writing." Technical Communication Quarterly 2.2 (1993): 161-75.
- Michael G. Moran. "Frank Aydelotte: AT&T's First Writing Consultant, 1917-1918." Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 25.3 (1995): 231-241.
- Ann Rinn. "Rhodes Scholarships, Frank Aydelotte, and Collegiate Honors Education. Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, Spring/Summer 2003: 27-39; Online at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nchcjournal/127
External links
- Works by or about Frank Aydelotte at Internet Archive
- Frank Aydelotte Papers, 1905–1956, Swarthmore College
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