| Robert Finley | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1772 Princeton, New Jersey |
| Died | October 3, 1817 Talladega, Alabama |
| Occupation | Teacher, Educator, Professor, University President |
| Religious beliefs | Presbyterian |
Robert Finley (1772 – October 3, 1817) was briefly the president of the University of Georgia. Finley was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and graduated from Princeton University at the age of 15. He taught at several places, including Charleston, South Carolina, where many slaves existed. The Presbytery of New Brunswick, New Jersey licensed him as a minister in 1794. Finley returned to Princeton in 1793 to study Theology, and served as a tutor, eventually becoming a trustee of the university from 1806 until his resignation in 1817. In 1795, he was ordained as the Pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Basking Ridge, where he served for 20 years as a popular preacher and noted educator, and originated the concept of the modern Sunday School curriculum.[1].
Finley taught at the Princeton University Grammar School[1]; and at the Basking Ridge, New Jersey Classical School (Brick Academy), serving there from 1795 until his acceptance of the University of Georgia (UGA) presidency in July, 1817.
In 1795, Dr. Robert Finley, re-established the private academy, known as the Basking Ridge Classical School, conducting classes first at the Presbyterian parsonage and then in a new frame school building erected near the church. In 1809, with enrollment expanding, Finley organized financing and construction of a new two-story brick building prominently located in the center of the village of Basking Ridge (Brick Academy).
Here local boys as well as boys from New York City and other parts of the East coast were given a classical education and prepared for the College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University). Students boarded with local residents, and two buildings still standing near the Brick Academy were used as dormitories.
Dr. Finley and Samuel John Mills helped organize the National Colonization Society of America and the American Colonization Society at Washington, D.C. in 1816 and 1817. Contributions were solicited from many contemporaries, including former students such as Charles Muir Campbell.
Finley fell ill while traveling south to assume his new position at the University of Georgia. He died only three months after arriving and is buried in Jackson Street Cemetery on the school's north campus in Athens, Georgia.
| Preceded by John Brown |
President of the University of Georgia 1817 |
Succeeded by Moses Waddel |
References
Sources
This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
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