author
Mark Hopkins
1802–1887
A legendary college president and teacher, he helped shape Williams College for more than three decades and became a symbol of close, personal education. His name still lives on in the famous idea that a great college could be just a teacher and a student in conversation.
2 Audiobooks
The Connexion Between Taste and Morals: Two lectures
by Mark Hopkins
About the author
Born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1802, Mark Hopkins became one of the best-known American educators of the 19th century. He studied at Williams College, later trained in medicine, and then returned to Williams, where he taught moral philosophy and rhetoric before becoming president.
Hopkins led Williams College from 1836 to 1872, a remarkably long presidency that made him nationally prominent. He was also a Congregationalist theologian, and his reputation rested not just on administration but on his gift for teaching. Former student James A. Garfield helped make him famous by linking the ideal college to the image of Mark Hopkins teaching a student face to face.
That lasting image fits the way he is remembered: as a thoughtful, demanding, and deeply personal teacher whose influence reached beyond his own books and sermons. He died in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in 1887, but his name remained closely tied to the classic American ideal of liberal education.