Isaac Stiles Hopkins (June 20, 1841 – February 3, 1914) was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

and the first President of the Georgia Institute of Technology (1888–1896) as well as

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

of the First Methodist Church in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

Biography

Hopkins was born in

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Geor ...

. He graduated from Emory College in 1859, where he was a brother in the

Alpha Tau Omega Alpha Tau Omega (), commonly known as ATO, is an American social fraternity founded at the Virginia Military Institute in 1865 by Otis Allan Glazebrook. The fraternity has around 250 active and inactive chapters and colonies in the United Stat ...

fraternity, and from Georgia Medical College in 1861. He returned to Emory to teach

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

, and then

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

at Birmingham-Southern College (then known as Southern University), before returning to Emory and becoming vice president in 1882 and president in 1885. Hopkins' interest in technological development led him to be chosen as the president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, then called the Georgia School of Technology, in 1888. He was the first chairSchool of Physics Records (MS013), Archives, Library and Information Center, Georgia Institute of Technology
/ref> of the physics department where he also concurrently served as a professor in the School of Physics, and as a pastor of the First United Methodist Church. Hopkins resigned from Georgia Tech in 1896 to serve the church full-time. He died at his home in Atlanta on February 3, 1914.

Legacy

One of the two pillars comprising the Haygood-Hopkins Memorial Gateway, informally known as Emory University's "front door," is named for Hopkins. The pillar's inscription says of Hopkins, "A pioneer in technical education, he was one of the builders of the New South." It was dedicated in 1937. Hopkins' descendants still live in and around the Atlanta area, including former state representative Lelia Pittman Crowe, the great, grand-daughter of Hopkins, and divorce attorney, Charles Crowe, the great, great, great grandson of Hopkins.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Isaac Stiles 1841 births 1914 deaths Emory University alumni Presidents of Emory University Presidents of Georgia Tech People from Augusta, Georgia Academy of Richmond County alumni