Augustus Trowbridge

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Augustus Trowbridge

| honorific_suffix =

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1870|1|2}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1934|3|14|1870|1|2}}

| death_place = Taormina, Sicily, Italy

| death_cause =

| resting_place = Princeton Cemetery

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| occupation = {{hlist|Educator|physicist}}

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| module = {{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes

| title = Dean of
Princeton University Graduate School

| term_start = 1928

| term_end = 1933

| predecessor = Andrew Fleming West

| successor = Luther P. Eisenhart

}}

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| spouse = {{marriage|Sarah Esther Fulton|1893}}

| children = 3

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| education =

| alma_mater = University of Berlin {{small|(PhD)}}

| module2 = {{Infobox academic |child = yes

| thesis_title = The Reflecting Power of Metals

}}

| module3 = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes

| allegiance = United States

| rank = Lieutenant colonel

| battles = World War I

| branch = U.S. Army Signal Corps

}}

Augustus Trowbridge (January 2, 1870 – March 14, 1934) was a physics professor and dean at Princeton University.

Early life

Augustus Trowbridge was born on January 2, 1870, in Brooklyn, New York to Cornelia Polhemus (née Robinson) and George Alfred Trowbridge.{{Cite book |url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/trowbridge-augustus.pdf |title=Biographical Memoir of Augustus Trowbridge 1870–1934 |author=Karl T. Compton |date=1937 |work=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=2021-07-15}}{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/trowbridgegeneal1908trow |title=The Trowbridge genealogy: history of the Trowbridge family in America |date=1908 |last=Trowbridge |first=Francis Bacon |location=New Haven, Connecticut |page=114 |access-date=2021-07-16}} He attended St. Paul's Military Academy, Phillips Academy Andover, and had tutors in France and Italy.

Trowbridge attended Columbia University from 1890 to 1893 and was taught by Mihajlo Pupin, but did not graduate.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81601223/dean-a-f-west-quits-princeton-after-44/ |title=Dean A. F. West Quits Princeton After 44 Years |page=14 |date=1927-10-28 |newspaper=The Evening Journal |location=Wilmington, DE |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2021-07-16}} {{Open access}} At Columbia, he became a member of the Delta Phi fraternity. He withdrew from Columbia and accepted a temporary position as a civil engineer at the Chicago World's Fair. He then attended the University of Berlin and received a Doctor of Philosophy in 1898. His thesis was titled The Reflecting Power of Metals.

Personal life

Trowbridge married Sarah Esther Fulton on September 20, 1893. She was the daughter of clergyman Justin Dewey Fulton of St. Louis, Boston and Brooklyn. Together, they had three children: George, Cornelius and Katherine. Katherine died from the Spanish flu on October 7, 1918.

He spoke fluent French, German, and Italian.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-978-3-0348-8289-7 |title=Rockefeller and the Internationalization of Mathematics Between the Two World Wars: Document and Studies for the Social History of Mathematics in the 20th Century |last=Siegmund-Schultze |first= Reinhard |date=2001 |publisher=Birkhäuser Basel |isbn=978-3-0348-9505-7 |pages=58,74,145}}

Career

From 1898 to 1900, he was a physics instructor at the University of Michigan.{{Cite web |url=http://faculty-history.dc.umich.edu/faculty/augustus-trowbridge |title=Augustus Trowbridge |website=University of Michigan |access-date=2021-07-15}} He took over some teaching duties for Henry Smith Carhart when he became sick. In 1900, he accepted an invitation to become an assistant professor of mathematical physics at the University of Wisconsin, following his friend Robert W. Wood. He then worked with Charles E. Mendenhall on the optical properties of materials. In 1903, he was promoted to full professor.

In the fall of 1906, Trowbridge joined Princeton University as a physics professor. He remained there until 1917. Prior to the start of World War I, Trowbridge was elected to the National Research Council. He was nominated by Mendenhall and Robert A. Millikan to the American Sound and Flash Ranging Service. He was commissioned as a major of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Trowbridge went to France in September 1917 and studied flash and sound ranging operations on the French and British fronts. He was transferred to the Engineers Corps and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Trowbridge was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1911.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Augustus+Trowbridge&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}} In 1919, he returned to Princeton and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81602720/15-admitted-to-academy-1-may-1919-the/ |title=15 Admitted to Academy |date=1919-05-01 |page=2 |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2021-07-16}} {{Open access}} He left Princeton to serve as an executive director in Paris of the International Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1925 to 1928. In June 1928, he succeeded Andrew Fleming West as the dean of Princeton's Graduate School. He resigned in 1932 citing ill health, but was not replaced until 1933 by Luther P. Eisenhart.{{Cite web |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/45351 |title=Augustus Trowbridge, Professor of Physics, Dean of the Graduate School, 1928-1932 (1870-1943), 1910 |website=Princeton University |access-date=2021-07-15}}{{Cite web |url=https://gradschool.princeton.edu/about/history |title=History |website=Princeton University Graduate School |access-date=2021-07-16}}

Death

Trowbridge died on March 14, 1934, in Taormina, Sicily, Italy while on vacation with his wife. He was buried on March 29, 1934, in Princeton Cemetery.

Awards

Distinguished Service Medal, July 9, 1918{{Cite web |url=https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/18267 |title=Augustus Trowbridge – Distinguished Service Medal |website=militarytimes.com |access-date=2021-07-15}}
Legion of Honour, April 4, 1919
Distinguished Service Order by King George V, July 18, 1919
Order of St. Olav