Elmer Hewitt Capen (April 5, 1838 – March 22, 1905) was the third president of

Tufts College Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

(now Tufts University), serving from 1875 to 1905. He was born in

Stoughton, Massachusetts Stoughton (official name: Town of Stoughton) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 29,281 at the 2020 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, Rhode Island, and from Cape ...

. Capen graduated from Tufts in 1860, and while there he was a founding member of the Kappa Charge of

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. Also, in 1859, while still an undergraduate, he was elected to, and served in, the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

.Capen, Elmer Hewitt
in ''

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'', 1902 edition, via

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He relinquished his seat after one term in order to finish his studies and graduate with his class. After his graduation from Tufts, he studied at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, practiced law for a short time, and then became a Universalist minister. Capen presided over the continued expansion of course and program offerings at Tufts, and the beginning of

co-education Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

(over his own objections) in 1892. He died in office on March 22, 1905. A bronze bust of Capen remains in Tufts'

Goddard Chapel Goddard Chapel is a historic chapel located in Rose Hill Cemetery in Marion, Illinois. The chapel was constructed in 1918 through a donation from Leroy A. Goddard, who served two terms as Marion's mayor and founded the city's first bank. Chicago a ...

. The residence he constructed for himself and his family while president, at 8 Professors Row, is still known as Capen House. His wife was Mary Leavitt Edwards (1860-1944; married to Sumner Robinson following Elmer Capen's death). Elmer and Mary's only son, Samuel Paul Capen (1878-1956) also graduated from Tufts, and made significant contributions to the field of higher education; he became the first Director of the

American Council on Education The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education ...

References

Sources

Elmer Hewitt Capen, 1875
- Tufts Interactive Timeline {{DEFAULTSORT:Capen, Elmer 1838 births 1905 deaths Presidents of Tufts University Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives People from Stoughton, Massachusetts Tufts University alumni Harvard Law School alumni 20th-century Christian universalists 19th-century Christian universalists Clergy of the Universalist Church of America 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American clergy