Ezra Brainerd

{{Use American English|date=October 2023}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}

{{Short description|American academic administrator (1844–1924)}}

{{infobox officeholder

|name=Ezra Brainerd

|office=8th President of Middlebury College

|term_start=1885

|term_end=1908

|predecessor=Cyrus Hamlin

|successor=John Martin Thomas

|birth_date={{birth date|1844|12|17}}

|birth_place=St. Albans, Vermont, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1924|12|8|1844|12|17}}

|occupation=Academic administrator

}}

Ezra Brainerd (December 17, 1844 – December 8, 1924) was president of Middlebury College, Vermont, United States, from 1885 to 1908.

Born in St. Albans, Vermont, Brainerd was a graduate of the college in 1864. Brainerd assumed the presidency at a time when the college was recovering from an extended period of hardship. Brainerd remained president for 23 years, during which time the student body doubled, Starr Library and Warner Hall were constructed, and the college changed from an almost exclusively local college into a more regionally oriented institution.{{Cite web |url=http://www.middlebury.edu/campuslife/commons/brainerd/default.htm |title=Brainerd Commons |access-date=April 30, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312052654/http://www.middlebury.edu/campuslife/commons/brainerd/default.htm |archive-date=March 12, 2007 |url-status=dead }} Brainerd was an educator with diverse interests, teaching in almost every subject, from physics to mathematics, to English and rhetoric. He was especially interested in botany; his papers and letters are in several herbaria and libraries throughout New England and the East.{{Cite web |url=http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/KENNEDY.html |title=Library of the Gray Herbarium |access-date=April 30, 2006 |archive-date=August 23, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060823113004/http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/KENNEDY.html |url-status=dead }} Brainerd's diverse talents and interests also informed his educational philosophy. Brainerd focused his efforts on strengthening and broadening the education offered by Middlebury rather than enforcing discipline and religion.Mumford, Howard M.,

The New England Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Mar. 1938), pp. 209-210

In 1995, when Middlebury initiated a system of residential commons, Brainerd Commons was named in his honor.

A type of Hawthorn, Crataegus brainerdii, is named in his honor.{{Go Botany |genus=Crataegus |species=brainerdii |common=Brainerd's hawthorn) |access-date=July 6, 2018}}

{{botanist|Brainerd|Brainerd, Ezra}}