David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford University, he had served as president of Indiana University from 1884 to 1891.
David Starr Jordan
Office established
Office established
January 19, 1851
Wyoming County, New York, U.S.
September 19, 1931 (aged 80)
Stanford, California, U.S.
6, including Edith
Ichthyologist, University President
Jordan
Starr was also a strong supporter of eugenics, and his published views expressed a fear of "race-degeneration" and asserted that cattle and human beings are "governed by the same laws of selection". He was an antimilitarist since he believed that war killed off the best members of the gene pool, and he initially opposed American involvement in World War I.[1][2][3]
Early life and career[edit]
Jordan was born in Gainesville, New York, and grew up on a farm in upstate New York. His parents made the unorthodox decision to educate him at a local girls' high school.[4] His middle name, Starr, does not appear in early census records, and was apparently self-selected; he had begun using it by the time that he was enrolled at Cornell. He said that it was in honor of his mother's devotion to the minister Thomas Starr King.
He was inspired by Louis Agassiz to pursue his studies in ichthyology. He was part of the first freshman class of undergraduates at Cornell University and graduated in 1872[5] with a master's degree in botany.
He wrote in his autobiography The Days of a Man, "During the three years which followed [my entrance as a 'belated' freshman in March 1869], I completed all the requirements for a degree of Bachelor of Science, besides about two year of advanced work in Botany. Taking this last into consideration, the faculty conferred on me at graduation in June 1872, the advanced degree of Master of Science instead of the conventional Bachelor's Degree ... it was afterward voted not to grant any second degree within a year after the Bachelor had been received. I was placed, quite innocently, in the position of being the only graduate of Cornell to merge two degrees into one." His master's thesis was on the topic "The Wild Flowers of Wyoming County".[6]
Jordan initially taught natural history courses at several small Midwestern colleges and secondary schools, including at Indianapolis High School.
While in Indianapolis, Jordan obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from Indiana Medical College in 1875.[7] The Indiana Medical College in Indianapolis opened in 1869 and merged out of existence in 1878.[8] Standards at Indiana Medical College were not particularly high.[9] Jordan himself, reflecting on the experience noted that "I was also able to spend some time in the Medical College, from which, in the spring of 1875, I received the (scarcely earned) degree of Doctor of Medicine, though it had not at all been my intention to enter that profession."[10] The following year, in 1876, Jordan taught comparative anatomy at the college.[11]
Jordan also holds an honorary PhD[12][13] awarded to him by Butler University in 1877.[14]
He was then accepted into the natural history faculty of Indiana University Bloomington as a professor of zoology in 1879. His teaching included his version of eugenics, which "sought to prevent the decay of the Anglo-Saxon/Nordic race by limiting racial mixing and by preventing the reproduction of those he deemed unfit."[15]
Role in apparent murder of Jane Stanford[edit]
In 1905, Jordan launched an apparent coverup of the murder of Jane Stanford. While vacationing in Oahu, Stanford had suddenly died of strychnine poisoning according to the local coroner's jury. Jordan then sailed to Hawaii, hired a physician to investigate the case, and declared she had in fact died of heart failure, a condition whose symptoms bear no relationship to those that were actually observed.[40][41] His motive for doing this has been a subject of speculation. One possibility is that he was simply acting to protect the reputation of the university[40][42] since its finances were precarious, and a scandal might have damaged fundraising. He had written the president of Stanford's board of trustees, offered several alternate explanations for Mrs. Stanford's death, and suggested to select whichever would be most suitable.[40] Since Mrs. Stanford had a difficult relationship with him and reportedly planned to remove him from his position at the university, he might also have had a personal motive to eliminate suspicions that might have swirled around an unsolved crime.[43] Jordan's version of Mrs. Stanford's demise[44] was largely accepted until the appearance of several publications in 2003 that emphasized the evidence that she was murdered.[40][42][43][45]
Papers[edit]
Jordan's papers are housed at Stanford University[99] and at Swarthmore College.[18]
