Alexander Crombie Humphreys

Alexander Crombie Humphreys
Alexander Crombie Humphreys
2nd President of Stevens Institute of Technology
In office 1902–1927
Preceded by	Henry Morton
Succeeded by	Harvey Davis
Personal details
Born	30 March 1851 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	14 August 1927 (1927-08-15) (aged 76) Morristown, New Jersey
Alma mater	Stevens Institute of Technology

Alexander Crombie Humphreys (30 March 1851 – 14 August 1927) was the 2nd President of Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Humphreys was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 30 March 1851 to Edward Rupert Humphreys, an English classical scholar and profound educator, and Margaret McNutt of Prince Edward Island. He attended his father's school in Boston after coming to the United States in 1859. At the age of fourteen he received an appointment and passed preliminary entrance exams for the United States Naval Academy before the academy discovered he was too young to complete entrance. He instead began working for insurance companies and was made Secretary-Treasurer of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company by 1872, he became superintendent shortly thereafter. He later became superintendent of the Bayonne and Greenville Gas Light Company and attended Stevens Institute of Technology earning his degree in Mechanical Engineering; he graduated in 1881. Humphreys had enough determination to finish the prescribed coursework in four years while attending class only two days a week, acting as superintendent of the Trinity Episcopal Church's Sunday school, Treasurer and Vestry of the congregation, trustee of the Bayonne Board of Education and foreman of the Bayonne Fire Department. In 1892 he founded Humphreys & Glasgow, Engineering, London and New York with Arthur G. Glasgow, also a Stevens alum. Humphreys continued his career with the Pintsch Lighting Company of New York, the United Gas Improvement Company, and the Weisbach Incandescent Gas Company.

In April 1872 he married Miss Eva Guillandeu of Bergen Point, NJ. They had three children in total: Harold, Crombie and Dorothy Caroline Humphreys-Turnbull. In memory of his son Harold, who was also the first son of a Stevens alumnus to graduate from the college, he endowed the Harold Humphreys Scholarship in 1902. In memory of Crombie, who drowned with Harold in the Nile in 1901, the Crombie Humphreys Scholarship in 1904.

In 1927, Alexander Crombie Humphreys lost a battle with cancer. His death came two years after serving as President of his Alma mater for a quarter of a century, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees for two years. The only immediate family member to outlive him was his daughter.