Alexander Grant Ruthven

Ruthven from 1951 Michiganensian

Alexander Grant Ruthven (April 1, 1882 – January 19, 1971) was the President of the University of Michigan from 1929 to 1951.[1]

Biography

Ruthven from 1948 Michiganensian
Ruthven grave

Alexander Grant Ruthven was born in 1882 in Hull, Iowa. He graduated from Morningside College in 1903.[2] In 1906, he received a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Michigan.[3] He worked as a professor, director of the University Museum, and Dean.[3] He became the President in 1929.[3] As such, he promoted a corporate administrative structure.[1][3] He also approved of police raids against bootleggers at fraternities.[4] He retired in 1951,[3] and died in 1971.[1] He is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery which is adjacent to the university.[5]

The work of Ruthven on the familiar garter snakes, published in 1908, may be regarded as founding an essentially new school of herpetology in the United States. This was a revision of a genus, carried out by the examination of large numbers of specimens, and evaluated largely in geographic terms. Ruthven attracted many students of reptiles to the University of Michigan, his most brilliant pupils being Frank N. Blanchard and Helen T. Gaige.[6] Ruthven described and named 16 new species of reptiles, including three with Gaige.[7]

The Ruthvens had three children: Kathryn, Peter, and Bryant.

Legacy

Ruthven is commemorated in the scientific names of seven reptiles: Geophis ruthveni, Holbrookia maculata ruthveni, Lampropeltis ruthveni, Lepidoblepharis ruthveni, Macropholidus ruthveni, Masticophis schotti ruthveni, and Pituophis ruthveni.[8]

Writings

References

  1. 1 2 3 Medicine at Michigan
  2. ↑ University of Michigan Bulletin:1929. University of Michigan. 1929. p. 46.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 The Michigan Saga
  4. ↑ Time
  5. ↑ http://arborwiki.org/index.php?title=Forest_Hill_Cemetery
  6. ↑ Schmidt KP, Davis DD (1941). Field Book of Snakes of the United States and Canada. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 365 pp. ("History of Snake Study", Alexander G. Ruthven, pp. 14-15).
  7. ↑ "Ruthven". The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org.
  8. ↑ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Ruthven", p. 230).

Further reading


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