PROMIXEXT PERSONS
223
later became the basis of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Professor Rogers
was chairman of the **committee of twenty,*'
appointed to frame a constitution and by-
laws for the institute, and on April 19, 1862,
was elected the first president of the insti-
tute. Meanwhile he served as state inspector
ot gas meters and gas, 1861-64, and delivered
a second course of lectures before the
Lowell Institute in 1862. In 1864 he visited
Europe to collect machinery and apparatus
for the school which opened for the pre-
hminary course, February 20, 1865, and for
regular courses, October 2, 1865, with about
seventy students and a faculty of ten mem-
bers. In addition to his duties as president,
Professor Rogers also held the chair of
physics and geology until June 10. 1S68.
In December, 1868. he was granted leave of
absence for one year on account of failing
health, and removed to Philadelphia, Penn-
sylvania. His improvement not being as-
sured, he resigned from the presidency of
the institute, May 3, 1870, and was suc-
ceeded by .Acting President John D. Runkle.
In i«'^74, after residence in various places,
he returned to Boston, and upon the resig-
nation of Dr. Runkle again assumed the
presidency of the institute until Gen. Francis
A. Walker was appointed his successor. May
20. i8Sr. The honorary degree of Doctor
of Laws was conferred upon him by Hamp-
dcn-Sidney College in 1848. by William and
Mary, 1857. and by Harvard in 1866. He
was chairman of the Association of Amer-
ican Geologists and Naturalists in 1847, ^"d
ill 1848 chairman and joint president, with
W. C. Redfield, of its succes.sor, the Amer-
ican .Association for the .\dvancemcnt of
Science, serving a second time as president
in 1876: corresponding secretary of the
American Academy of .Arts and Sciences,
1863-69; founder and first president of the
American .Association for the Promotion of
Social Science, 1865 1 Massachusetts com-
missioner to the Paris E.xposition of 1867;
president of the National Academy of
Sciences, 1878; elected a foreign member of
the Geographical Society of London, and of
the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries,
1844. and was a corresponding member of
the British .Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. In addition to his many
important addresses, his publications in-
clude numerous scientific articles in the
Farmers' Register*' and Silliman's Jour-
nal :" reports for the "Geology of the Vir-
ginias" (1836-41) : contributions to the pro-
ceedings and transactions of various learned
societies, and documents relating to the
Massachusetts Institute of Technofogy. Dr.
Pogers and his brothers, James B., Henry
D. and Robert E., all attained distinction in
science and were known as the "brothers
Rogers." William Barton Rogers died
while delivering the diplomas to the gradu-
ating class at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Boston, Massachusetts. May
3u, 1882.
Green, Lewis W., was born in Boyle county, Kentucky,. January 28, 1806, son of Willis Green and Sar.ih Reed, his wife, of Culpeper county, Virginia. He was gradu- ated from Center College, and took a course at Princeton Theological Seminary. For two years he was a professor in Center Col- lege, then spent two years abroad, engaged in study, and on his return was made vice- president of the college and professor of belle-lettres. From 1840 to 1847 he wns a professor in the Western Theological Semi-
Digitized by