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Austin Scott, B.A. 1869.

Born August 10, 1848, in Maumee City, Ohio.
Died August 16, 1922, in Granville, Mass.

[Frank] Austin Scott, the son of Jeremiah Austin and Sarah (Ranney) Scott, was born in Maumee City, Ohio, August 10, 1848. His father, whose parents were David and Amelia (Wakeman) Scott, was engaged in fruit growing. He was a descendant of David Scott, who came to this country from Scotland in 1696 and settled in Fairfield, Conn. Sarah Ranney Scott was the daughter of Reuben and Betsy (Gibbons) Scott.

Mr. Scott's preparation for college was received in the public schools in Toledo, Ohio. While at Yale he won a first prize for declamation as a Sophomore, and in both Junior and Senior years was given a first dispute appointment. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He belonged to Brothers in Unity, serving as its vice-president in Senior year, and during the same year he was on the editorial board of the Yale Courant, sang in the College Choir, and acted as president of the Yale Missionary Society. He was a member of the Glyuna lightweight crew and of the '69 Gig Crew in Senior year, and served on the committee in charge of the arrangements for Presentation Day.

After graduation he continued his studies at the University of Michigan, where he received the degree of M.A. in 1870. He then spent three years in travel and study abroad, attending the Universities of Berlin and Leipsic, and receiving the degree of Ph.D. from the latter institution in 1873. During this time also he served as private secretary to George Bancroft, the historian, then United States minister to Germany, gathering material and otherwise helping Mr. Bancroft in the preparation of the tenth volume of his History of the United States. In 1872 he was the bearer of dispatches to Washington containing the decision of the German Emperor as arbitrator between the United States and Great Britain in the dispute respecting the Northwestern Boundary. From 1873 to 1875 Dr. Scott was an instructor in German at the University of Michigan, after which he became an associate in history at Johns Hopkins University, residing, however, in Washington, D.C., where he assisted Mr. Bancroft in the compilation of the History of the Constitution of the United States. During this time he also organized a seminar of American history at Johns Hopkins, and conducted it from 1876 to 1882 He was appointed professor of history, political economy, and constitutional law at Rutgers College in 1883 and filled that position until 1890, when he was elected president of the college. He was inaugurated February 4, 1891, and conducted the affairs of the college with great ability until January, 1906, when he resigned, in order to devote a larger part of his time to teaching and writing. He continued, however, to serve the college as Voorhees professor of history and political science until his death. During his administration the College Extension Department was organized and successfully carried on, the teaching of the English Bible was introduced into the curriculum, and in other respects the educational program of the college was advanced and strengthened During his term of office also the Robert F. Ballantine Gymnasium and the Ralph Voorhees Library were erected and substantial gifts to the endowment were secured, and it was upon Dr. Scott's initiative that the Alumni Endowment Fund was begun. He received the degree of LL.D. from Princeton in 1891 and from Rutgers in 1914. In the fall of 1912 he was elected mayor of New Brunswick on the Democratic ticket and served until April, 1915, when, upon the adoption of the commission form of government, his term automatically ceased. In the election in 1915 he was a candidate for city commissioner. For many years he served as a member and president of the board of trustees of the Free Public Library. Dr.Scott was president of the New Brunswick History Club for a long time, and in 1885 he was made a life member of the New Jersey Historical Society, subsequently serving on its committees on publications and colonial documents. He was vice-president of the society from 1895 to 1904, and again from 1916 until his death; and since 1913 he had been a member of its board of trustees. As chairman of the committee on colonial documents, he edited Volume V of the Second Series of the New Jersey Archives. He was a member of the Second Dutch Reformed Church in New Brunswick. He was a frequent contributor to various reviews, legal periodicals, and encyclopedias, and had published numerous articles and addresses, among the latter of which were an address on the 200th anniversary of the Proprietors of East Jersey, the oldest land corporation in the United States, one on the occasion of the centennial commemoration of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States by New Jersey, and another on "Holmes vs. Walton" in the American Historical Review (1899).

Dr. Scott died August 16, 1922, at his summer home in Granville, Mass., from double pneumonia, and was buried in the cemetery in that town.

He was married February 21, 1882, in Newark, N. J., to Anna Prentiss, daughter of Jonathan French and Anna (Prentiss) Stearns, who survives him with their seven children: Jonathan French (B.A. Rutgers 1902, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin 1913), Austin Wakeman (B.A. Rutgers 1903, LL.B. Harvard 1909), Sarah Prentiss (B.A. Vassar 1907), Margaret Stearns (B.A. Vassar 1909), James Bancroft (B.A. Rutgers 1909), Anna Prentiss (B.A. Vassar 1913), and Seargent Prentiss. He also leaves two brothers and a sister.