Faculty & Staff

Only a year after opening the university hired its first female faculty member, Cynthia A. Smith, to teach French language and literature.

Professor Snow, far right, is shown in this photograph with his students in July 1889 on one of his many collecting expeditions in Estes Park, Colorado.

Upon Snow's appointment congratulatory letters poured in from all around the country inclduing this one from a past pupil, Dice McLaren dated April 12, 1890.
According to the university's first catalogue in 1866, the faculty consisted of Elial Jay Rice, President and Professor of Mental, Moral Science and Belles Lettres; David Hamilton Robinson, Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature; and Frank Huntington Snow, Professor of Mathematics and Natural Sciences; Albert Newman, M.D., Lecturer upon Hygiene; and Thomas A. Gorrill, Janitor.
As the university grew and developed from a preparatory school into an institution of higher learning it was the faculty who enabled the transformation. With the introduction of the elective system and majors and minors, and the emphasis on scholarship the school began to develop into a true university.