Austin Scott (1848 in Maumee near Toledo, Ohio – 15 August, 1922 in Granville Centre, Massachusetts ) was the tenth President of Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) serving from 1891 to 1906.
Austin Scott received a baccalaureate degree from Yale College in 1869 and earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) from the University of Michigan in 1870. Subsequent to this, he studied at the Universität Berlin , and the Universität Leipzig receiving a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from Leipzig in 1873. While in Germany, he assisted the famed historian George Bancroft, at that time U.S. Minister to Germany , in preparing the tenth volume of History of the United States. He was also charged with the responsibility of carrying dispatches to Washington, DC the decisions of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany who arbitrator between Great Britain and the United States in regard to the Northwestern boundary. On his return to the United States, Scott was a German instructor at the University of Michigan from 1873 to 1875, and then, for seven years, an associate in history at Johns Hopkins University. During this period he continued as assistant to Bancroft, assembling and arranging historical material for his History of the Constitution of the United States. In 1883, Scott was appointed to the faculty of Rutgers College as Professor of History, Political Economy, and Constitutional Law , and was elected to succeed Merrill Edward Gates in 1891. During his tenure, Rutgers received a generous gift from Robert F. Ballantine, a wealthy brewer from Newark, New Jersey and College Trustee, to construct a gymnasium on the campus. A private gift from Mrs. Ralph Voorhees provided funds for the construction of a library to replace the overcrowded one established in the Kirkpatrick Chapel in 1873. By 1906, Scott tendered his resignation as President and returned to teaching Political science, Constitutional Law , International Law and Civics. For sixteen years he carried on his teaching and provided generous administrative assistance to his successor as president, William H. S. Demarest. He also took an active interest in the civic affairs of New Brunswick, and from 1912 to 1915 served as Mayor of the city.
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