Hermon Carey Bumpus was the fifth president of Tufts College (later Tufts University

Tufts University

Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...

) from 1915 to 1919.

Early life and education

Hermon Carey Bumpus was born in Buckfield, Maine

Buckfield, Maine

Buckfield is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. Buckfield is included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England City and Town Area. It is a member of Maine School Administrative District 39 along with nearby Hartford and Sumner...

 in 1862 and received a Ph.B. from Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 in 1884, specializing in biology and science. He began graduate work at Brown before teaching at Olivet College

Olivet College

Olivet College is a coeducational, liberal arts college located in Olivet, Michigan, United States, south of Lansing and west of Detroit. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, and accredited by the North Central...

. Bumpus received his Ph.D. from Clark University

Clark University

Clark University is a private research university and liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts.Founded in 1887, it is the oldest educational institution founded as an all-graduate university. Clark now also educates undergraduates...

 in 1891 and then became a professor of comparative zoology

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

 at Brown. Bumpus received an honorary Doctor of Science from Tufts in 1905 and an honorary LL.D. from Clark in 1909. He directed the Marine Biological Laboratory

Marine Biological Laboratory

The Marine Biological Laboratory is an international center for research and education in biology, biomedicine and ecology. Founded in 1888, the MBL is the oldest independent marine laboratory in the Americas, taking advantage of a coastal setting in the Cape Cod village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts...

 at Woods Hole and the American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

. Subsequently, he served as business manager of the University of Wisconsin.

Career at Tufts

Bumpus became president of Tufts in 1915, and was the first Tufts president who was not a Universalist; he had been chosen specifically because of his educational and administrative experience.

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