John Henry MacCracken

{{Short description|American academic administrator (1875–1948)}}

{{Redirect|John MacCracken|people with similar names|John McCracken (disambiguation){{!}}John McCracken}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = John Henry MacCracken

| honorific-suffix =

| image = John Henry MacCracken (cropped).png

| alt =

| caption = MacCracken in 1915 at the start of his term at Lafayette

| order =

| office = President of Lafayette College

| term_start = 1915

| term_end = 1927

| president =

| order2 =

| office2 = President of Westminster College

| term_start2 = 1899

| term_end2 = 1903

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1875|09|30}}

| birth_place = Rochester, Vermont, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1948|2|1|1875|9|30}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| resting_place =

| resting_place_coordinates =

| party =

| spouse = {{marriage|Edith Constable|1910}}

| father = Henry MacCracken

| relatives = Henry Noble MacCracken (brother)

| education = Union Theological Seminary

| alma_mater = New York University
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (PhD)

| occupation =

| profession =

| known_for =

| signature =

}}

John Henry MacCracken (September 30, 1875 – February 1, 1948) was an American academic administrator who served as president of Westminster College and Lafayette College. When he was chosen as president of Westminster College in 1899, MacCracken was the youngest college president in the United States. MacCracken was the son of Henry MacCracken, a chancellor of New York University, and the brother of Henry Noble MacCracken, a president of Vassar College.

Early life

MacCracken was born in Rochester, Vermont,{{cite book|title=General Alumni Catalogue: College, applied science, and honorary alumni, 1833-1905|date=1906|publisher=New York University|page=[https://archive.org/details/generalalumnica01univgoog/page/n139 119]|url=https://archive.org/details/generalalumnica01univgoog|accessdate=December 22, 2015}} to Henry MacCracken, a chancellor of New York University (NYU), and the former Catherine Almira Hubbard. He was a descendant of Irish immigrants to Pennsylvania in the mid-18th century. His brother Henry Noble MacCracken became president of Vassar College.{{cite news|title=Lafayette's new head; Prof. J.H. MacCracken, son of ex-chancellor of N.Y.U., is chosen|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9803E7DC1438E633A25756C1A9649D946596D6CF|accessdate=December 22, 2015|work=The New York Times|date=December 15, 1914}} John Henry MacCracken attended college preparatory school in New York City.{{cite book|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|date=1916|publisher=J.T. White|pages=205–206|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_ApAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA206|accessdate=December 22, 2015|language=en}}

When he was 15, MacCracken enrolled at NYU and he completed an undergraduate degree in 1894, when he was named class valedictorian. He pursued graduate study at NYU and the Union Theological Seminary before earning a Ph.D. at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.

Career

File:John Henry MacCracken, c.1899.jpg

He joined the NYU faculty in 1896 and was promoted to assistant professor shortly before accepting the role of president at Westminster College in 1899.{{cite news|title=Among the faculty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T5SgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA181|accessdate=December 22, 2015|work=The American Educational Review|date=January 1914|page=181}} At the time of his election to the presidency at Westminster College, an NYU source said that the appointment would make him the youngest college president in the United States.{{cite news|title=Mr. MacCracken honored|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=49khAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA205|accessdate=December 22, 2015|work=The Triangle|publisher=New York University|date=April 26, 1899}}

When MacCracken came to Westminster, his age raised alarm among some of the supporters of the university, and his modest personality and quiet nature did not immediately assuage his doubters. Within a few months, MacCracken secured $20,000 in donations for the university, and he was able to increase the variety of academic offerings at the school. When the university's chair of Bible and metaphysics resigned, President MacCracken was named the Sauser Chair of Philosophy and Christian Apologetics. A formal presidential inauguration was held for MacCracken in June 1900.{{cite book|last1=Fisher|first1=Michael Montgomery|title=History of Westminster College, 1851-1903: From 1851 to 1887|date=1903|publisher=Press of E. W. Stephens|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historywestmins00ricegoog/page/n409 340]–342|url=https://archive.org/details/historywestmins00ricegoog|accessdate=December 23, 2015|language=en}}

MacCracken left Westminster College in 1903 to return to NYU as a syndic and professor of politics. He taught one of the earliest courses in city planning in the United States, and he served as vice president of the university senate. In 1914, MacCracken was vice president of the trustees of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy. His father was president.{{cite book|last1=MacCracken|first1=Henry Mitchell|title=A Propaganda of Philosophy: History of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy, 1881-1914|date=1914|publisher=Fleming H. Revell Company|page=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NvKfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PT59|accessdate=December 22, 2015|language=en}}

In 1915, MacCracken was selected as president of Lafayette College. The school's physical plant increased in value under MacCracken, who served until 1927.{{cite web|title=Presidents of Lafayette|url=http://president.lafayette.edu/presidents-of-lafayette/|publisher=Lafayette College|accessdate=December 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223190640/http://president.lafayette.edu/presidents-of-lafayette/|archive-date=December 23, 2015|url-status=dead}}

During his time as president of Lafayette College, MacCracken was one of the founding advisors during the creation of Alpha Phi Omega, the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States.{{citation needed |date=September 2023}}

Personal

MacCracken married Edith Constable in 1910. MacCracken's father-in-law, Frederick Augustus Constable, managed Arnold Constable & Company in New York, and he was the son of one of the store's original partners.{{cite web|title=The Collection Online: Suit|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/157999|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=December 22, 2015}} MacCracken's daughter Louise married Robert Olmsted, a trustee of Vassar College and the namesake of the school's biological sciences building.{{cite news|title=Bio hall new part of Olmsted family|url=http://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/cgi-bin/vassar?a=d&d=miscellany19731207-01.2.4|accessdate=December 23, 2015|work=The Miscellany News|date=December 7, 1973}} His son Constable was a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School.{{cite news|last1=Weiss|first1=Anne|title=Graduates of Vassar are brides-elect of Eastern men|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19490502&id=zz4bAAAAIBAJ&pg=1921,979582&hl=en|accessdate=December 23, 2015|work=The Pittsburgh Press|date=May 2, 1949}}

Active in the Presbyterian faith, MacCracken spent nearly ten years as president of the Presbyterian college board. He represented the church as a delegate at world conferences in Lausanne, Oxford and Edinburgh.{{cite news|title=Dr. MacCracken, educator, layman|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/52884916/|accessdate=December 23, 2015|work=Brooklyn Eagle|date=February 2, 1948|page=7}}