George E. Vincent

George Edgar Vincent

Mar 21, 1864 — Feb 1, 1941

“The cynic makes fun of all earnestness; he makes fun of everything and everyone who feels that something can be done…But in his heart of hearts he knows that he is a defeated man and that his cynicism is merely an expression of the fact that he has lost courage and is beaten.” 
–George Edgar Vincent

George E. Vincent was born March 21, 1864 in Rockford, Illinois, the son of Bishop John Heyl Vincent. From childhood he was destined to be a social pioneer. His father was the founder of the Chautauqua movement, a popular system of education and home study for adults. Vincent spent the early years of his career working for the Chautauqua Schools, eventually succeeding his father. He received an A.B. degree from Yale University in 1885, after which he took a year off traveling in Europe and the Orient.

In 1886, Vincent became the literary editor of the Chautauqua Press. He then served as Vice-President of the school from 1888-1889. Vincent entered the University of Chicago in 1892, the same year the university was established, and became the first graduate student in the world’s first sociology department. Along with Albion Small, Chair of the new department, Vincent helped write Introduction to the Study of Sociology, the first sociology textbook ever published in the United States. Vincent received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1896. His dissertation was entitled “Social Mind and Education”. In 1898 he also took over duties as Principal of the Chautauqua School.

After spending some time as a teaching fellow in sociology at the University of Chicago, Vincent became a full professor of sociology in 1904. From 1900-1907 he was Dean of the Junior College, and from 1907-1911 he served as the Dean of Arts, Literature and Sciences at Chicago. In 1911, after some persuasion from Minnesota governor John Lind, Vincent became the President of the University of Minnesota. He was described as “a professor’s ideal of a president”, employing exceptional instructors, encouraging scholarship, and building the University’s reputation as one of the country’s leading research universities. Influenced heavily by his experiences with Chautauqua, Vincent established the General Extension Division to provide access for adults to University of Minnesota classes. He established a connection between the Graduate School and the Mayo Foundation and created the All-University Student Council. He even created faculty representation in the Senate. During this time from 1907-1915, Vincent also served as the President of the Chautauqua Institution. He left both positions in 1917 to become the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, which under his guidance expanded its activities in medical aid and research. On March 9, 1920, Vincent gave a speech to the Empire Club of Canada entitled, “The Work of the Rockefeller Foundation. Health as an International Bond”. Vincent spoke again to the Empire Club on February 7, 1929, on “The British Empire and World Health”. He was a trustee of the Peiping Union Medical College from 1917 to 1929 and the China Medical Board, Inc. from 1930 to 1938. He was also a member of a variety of other groups, including the General Education Board from 1914 to 1929 and the United States Delegation to the Pan American Conference in Santiago, Chile in 1923. Vincent retired in 1929 but kept active in many more outside activities and roles: member of the President’s Public Works Commission in 1931, lecturer at the Scandinavian University in 1933, Chairman of the Hospital Survey Committee of the United Hospital Fund in New York City in 1935, member of the American Scandinavian Foundation, and member of the Commission for Relief in Belgium and the Educational Foundation.

Vincent had always held an intimate tie to sociology. He was one of the founding members of the American Sociological Society in 1895. He dedicated much of his time serving as associate editor of the American Journal of Sociology from 1895 to 1915 and advisory editor from 1915 to 1933. Vincent was the sixth President of the American Sociological Society in 1916 and a pioneer of rural sociology. Vincent’s Presidential Address, delivered at the 1916 Annual Meeting, was entitled “Countryside and Nation” and was later published in the Proceedings of the 1916 meeting.

Upon his death in 1941, the following obituary was published in the American Sociological Review (pp 273-275): “George E. Vincent (1864-1941)” (starts at bottom of page).

For more information on George Edgar Vincent, you may find the following sources useful:

• The Empire Club of Canada Speeches 1920. 1921. “The Work of the Rockefeller Foundation. Health as an International Bond”. Toronto, Canada: The Empire Club Foundation, Retrieved April 10, 2003 (http://www.empireclubfoundation.com/details.asp?SpeechID=2554&FT=yes).
• The Empire Club of Canada Speeches 1929. 1930. “The British Empire and World Health”. Toronto, Canada: The Empire Club Foundation, Retrieved April 10, 2003 (http://www.empireclubfoundation.com/details.asp?SpeechID=945&FT=yes).
• Infoplease.com. 2003. “Chautauqua Movement.” Retrieved April 10, 2003 (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0811576.html).
• Infoplease.com. 2003. “Vincent, George Edgar.” Retrieved April 10, 2003 (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0850941.html).
• Lichtenberger, J.P. 1941. “Obituary Notices: George E. Vincent (1864-1941)” American Sociological Review: 597-612. [PDF, 825 KB]
• Ridener, Larry L. 2003. “George E. Vincent.” Radford University, Retrieved April 10, 2003 (http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/old/addint9.html).
• The Rockefeller University. 2003. “George E. Vincent Papers, 1929-1945.” New York, NY: The Rockefeller Foundation, Retrieved April 10, 2003 (http://www.rockefeller.edu/archive.ctr/gev.html).
• University of Minnesota. 2004. “George Edgar Vincent 1911-1917.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota, Retrieved November 1, 2004 (http://www1.umn.edu/pres/05_hist_vincent.html).
• University of Minnesota. 2004. “Scholarship and Public Service.” Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota, Retrieved November 1, 2004 (http://www.uservices.umn.edu/heritage/cce/scholarship.htm).

Obituary 

Written by J.P. Lichtenberger in The American Sociological Review, 6(2), 273-275.

With the death of George Edgar Vincent on February 2, there ended one of the most brilliant and influential careers in the sphere of education and philanthropy in the social history of America. It is given to but few men to have left such a record of achievement in so wide a range of social activities.

First of all was his contribution to the development of the then new science of sociology. He was a pioneer in this subject and throughout his life he never ceased  to regard himself as belonging to this fraternity. He was a charter member of the Society and a constant member till his death. There was an interval, however, in which  he devoted his energies to another service. Soon after graduating from Yale in 1885, he identified himself with the Chautauqua movement in which he  was reared and of which his father, the late  Bishop  (Methodist)  John  Heyl  Vincent, was the chief founder and promoter. Young Vincent became successively literary editor of the Chautauqua Press, vice principal, principal, and president of the Chautauqua Institution. Through programs, lectures, publications, and adminis­ trative leadership, he made Chautauqua one of the outstanding contributions to American culture.

Intellectually eager and able, he felt the need for more thorough academic train­ ing, so in the fall of l 892 he became a fellow in sociology at the University of Chicago, acquiring his doctorate in that subject in 1896. He remained on the staff and ad­ vanced through the ranks to a full professorship in 1904. It was under  the inspira­ tion and guidance of Albion W. Small, whom he always regarded as one of the great­ est teachers in America, that he acquired his reputation as a scholar in this field. He published jointly with Small, while he was still a graduate student,  An Introduction to the Study of Society, which, if it did not prove to be a classic in the light of later developments in the subject, nevertheless had the merit of  being  the first  textbook in sociology in an American university, and set the pace for future achievements. In 1896, he published independently his own study Social Mind and Education, a pioneer work in this field. Perhaps it should be said that his greatest contribution to sociology was not so much in his writings as in his popularization of the sociological point of view both in the classroom and in public address, a service much needed at the time. From 1900 to 1907, he served as dean of the Junior College and of the faculties of Arts, Literature, and Science, an experience which proved  valuable in  his future career.

Upon the retirement of President Northrup, of the University of  Minnesota  in 19II, Vincent was called to succeed him. Here his executive and administrative abilities had wide scope and a period of expansion of the University’s activities ensued, including the establishment of the Mayo Foundation of Medical Research. Probably the strong sociology department for which Minnesota is still noted is due, at least partially to the sociological interest of President Vincent.

In 1917, in the midst of the World War, Vincent resigned to become the executive head of the Rockefeller Foundation to which he devoted twelve years of the most vig­ orous and brilliant period of his career. This was the decade, during his tenure of office, of the greatest expansion of the Foundation in the work of medical research in this country and throughout the world. The  great Union  Medical  College and Hospital in Peking is a good example of the assistance rendered to other countries abroad. During Vincent’s administration, John D. Rockefeller enlarged the endowment of  the Foundation with an additional gift of $50,000,000 in order that  Vincent  still further might enlarge the scope of its worldwide medical activities in its battle against misery, pestilence, and disease. Large contributions were made by the Foundation to many universities for the expansion and improvement of  their medical equipment and training. No one outside the medical profession, if indeed within it, has made a greater contribution to the development of the public health services in the United States than George E. Vincent through the wise expenditures of the Foundation’s funds in this sphere. When the history of the Rockefeller Foundation is written, one of the most important  chapters of it  will read almost like a biography of this period of Vincent’s life.

Dr. Vincent, son of Bishop John H. and Elizabeth D. Vincent was born in Rock­ ford, Illinois, on March 21, 1864. Prior to his entering Yale, he attended the public schools in Plainfield and the Pingry Academy of Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he spent much of his youth. During his conspicuous career, he received many public honors, among which was the LL.D. degree from the universities of Chicago, Yale, Michigan, and Minnesota. He served on several public institutional boards and his advice and counsel was sought by many public service organizations. He was a past president of the American Sociological Society, the one learned society in which he maintained his active membership throughout his entire life.

Possessed of a brilliant intellect, a rapid and vivid flow of language, an affable and charming personality, a keen sense of humor, and a broad and sympathetic outlook on world affairs, he was sought after as a public speaker and lecturer through the entire country. By many, he was regarded as the most entertaining and fascinating  after-dinner  speaker  in America.  

J. P. LICHTENBERGER
University of Pennsylvania, Emeritus.