Henry Parks Wright

Henry Parks Wright (born 30 November 1839) was an American teacher and professor who became the first college dean of Yale University.

Henry Parks Wright was born in Winchester, New Hampshire. His father died when he was a few weeks old, and his mother when he was 3. He was then raised in Oakham, Massachusetts by his grandmother, Mrs Hannah Wooley, and became a schoolteacher at 17. Although he had earned enough to attend Phillips Academy in Andover, he decided to stop studying and to join the Union army in 1862. He was nearly 25 when he entered Yale in 1864, graduated as valedictorian of the Class of 1868. After teaching for one year in the Chickering Institute in Cincinnati, he was appointed Tutor in Yale College, starting a 40-year career in the Yale faculty. He became an assistant professor of Latin in Yale in 1871, pursued graduate study and received a doctorate in 1876.

On 7 July 1874, he married Martha Elizabeth Burt. Their four children were:

In 1884, he was appointed Dean of Yale College and seved in that capacity for the next 25 years. Until 1884, Yale had functioned without a dean, but with enrollment approaching 1,100, President Noah Porter asked Wright to help him by taking over the records of the junior and senior classes. For the first two years Wright kept all of the records without help, while teaching a full schedule as Dunham Professor of Latin Language and Literature.

Undergraduate life changed dramatically during Wright’s deanship. From 1884 to 1894, the college enrollment had doubled to 1,150, forcing the freshmen to room off campus. This had led to the opening of privately owned residence halls around the campus, some of which were very luxurious. Over time, the students became widely separated by income and social standing. Wright felt that if the spirit of true democracy at Yale were to be perpetuated, it was essential that freshmen should be better integrated to the College and the University. The alumni committee of “Wright’s boys” responded by raising funds for a dormitory that for the first time would be a cooperative gift, rather than one person or family. There were many rich and poor contributors. A part of the funds raised was earmarked to provide a life pension for Wright.

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