Julian Ashby Burruss (August 16, 1876 – January 4, 1947) was the first President of

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

, although at the time of his service the university was the State Normal and Industrial School for Women. His service began in 1908 and ended in 1919 when he left JMU to become the eighth President of

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...

. His tenure at Virginia Tech lasted from September 1, 1919 to July 1, 1945. Burruss was responsible for the full admittance of women as students. He also fully implemented the

neogothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style of architecture at Virginia Tech. Shortly before he assumed the presidency the Old McBryde Hall had been the first building on the Virginia Tech campus to be constructed in the neogothic style using locally quarried native limestone. It had originally been planned as a red brick building but native limestone was substituted when brick became unavailable due a shortage caused by military construction during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Burruss adopted the

Collegiate Gothic Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...

style using the native limestone now known as

Hokie Stone Hokie Stone is a grey dolomite—limestone rock found near Blacksburg, in western Virginia. It gets its name from the traditional nickname attributed to students and alumni of Virginia Tech. Hokie Stone is quarried by Virginia Tech for campus p ...

for the many subsequent buildings constructed during his tenure giving the Virginia Tech campus the appearance seen today.

Honors

Burruss Hall, the administration building at Virginia Tech, is named for Burruss. JMU also has a building named in Burruss' honor.

References

External links

Julian A. Burruss Papers, UA 0023, Special Collections, James Madison UniversityRecords of the Office of the President, Julian A. Burruss, RG 2/8, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
1876 births 1947 deaths Presidents of James Madison University Virginia Tech alumni Presidents of Virginia Tech {{US-academic-administrator-stub