Sidney Edward Mezes
{{Short description|American philosopher (1863–1931)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Sidney Edward Mezes
|honorific-suffix =
|image = Sidney Edward Mezes.jpg
|imagesize =
|smallimage =
|education=University of California, Berkeley
Harvard University
|caption =
|order = 5th
|office = President of the University of Texas at Austin
|term_start = 1908
|term_end = 1914
|predecessor = David Franklin Houston
|successor = William James Battle
|order2 = 4th
|office2 = President of City College of New York
|term_start2 = 1914
|term_end2 = 1927
|predecessor2 = John Huston Finley
|successor2 = Frederick Bertrand Robinson
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1863|10|19|mf=y}}
|birth_place = Belmont, California
|death_date = {{death date and age|1931|9|10|1863|9|23|mf=y}}
|death_place = Pasadena, California
}}
Sidney Edward Mezes (September 23, 1863 – September 10, 1931) was an American philosopher.
Biography
He was born in what is now the town of Belmont, California, on September 23, 1863, to a Spanish-born father and Italian-born mother. He graduated in 1884 from the University of California, Berkeley in engineering and was a member of Chi Phi fraternity. After returning to university, he earned a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard University in 1893. From 1893 to 1894 he taught philosophy at the University of Chicago. From 1894 he was in positions at the University of Texas for 20 years, becoming a professor there in 1906. From 1908 he was president of the University.{{Cite web |title=Sidney Edward Mezes |url=https://president.utexas.edu/past-presidents/sidney-edward-mezes/ |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=The University of Texas at Austin Office of the President |language=en-US}}
In 1914 he became president of the College of the City of New York. In 1917 he was appointed as director of the Inquiry, a think tank set up by Woodrow Wilson to study the diplomatic position that would follow a victorious end to World War I. He was part of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.{{Cite book |last=Mezes |first=Sidney Edward |url=https://orbis.library.yale.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=614158 |title=Sidney Edward Mezes papers}}
In 1896, he married Annie Olive Hunter, a sister-in-law of Edward M. House.{{Cite web |last=Association |first=Texas State Historical |title=Sidney Edward Mezes: Academic Leader and Peace Conference Official |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mezes-sidney-edward |access-date=2025-04-18 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}
He died on September 10, 1931, in Pasadena, California.
Works
- The Conception of God, A Philosophical Discussion Concerning the Nature of the Divine Idea as a Demonstrable Reality (1897) with Josiah Royce, Joseph Le Conte, George Holmes Howison
- Ethics, Descriptive and Explanatory (1901)
- What Really Happened at Paris, edited by Charles Seymour and Edward Mandell House (1921) contributor
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fme35 Texas Online Handbook page]
- [http://www.utexas.edu/faculty/council/2000-2001/memorials/SCANNED/mezes.pdf Obituary]
{{City College of New York presidents}}
{{University of Texas at Austin presidents}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mezes, Sidney Edward}}
Category:20th-century American philosophers
Category:19th-century American philosophers
Category:Presidents of the University of Texas at Austin
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
Category:Presidents of City College of New York