Philip Lindsley

Philip Lindsley
Born	1786 Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Died	1855 (aged 68–69)
Occupation	Preacher, educator, classicist
Spouse(s)	Margaret Lawrence Lindsley Mary Ann Myers Lindsley
Children	Adrian Van Sinderen Lindsley John Berrien Lindsley
Relatives	Nathaniel Lawrence (father-in-law)

Philip Lindsley (1786 – 1855) was an American Presbyterian minister, educator and classicist. He served as the acting president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) from 1822 to 1824, and as the first president of the now-defunct University of Nashville from 1824 to 1850.

Philip Lindsley was born in 1786 in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He was educated in private academies and graduated from the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University.

He started teaching Latin and Greek at Princeton University in 1808. By 1813, he became Professor of Languages, Librarian, Inspector (Dean), and secretary of the Board of Trustees. He then served as its Vice President from 1817 to 1822, and as its Acting President from 1822 to 1824. However, he declined its presidency, as well as the presidencies of Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, Ohio University in Athens, Ohio and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

In December 1824, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to take up the presidency of Cumberland College. Among his first acts as president was to request that its name be changed to the University of Nashville, a change that took effect about a year after his arrival. He hired respected scholars as faculty in fields including classics, foreign languages, mathematics, and geology. At the same time, he actively recruited students. He also suggested starting a medical school.

He resigned his position in 1850, when the university suspended operations as a result of the cholera epidemic which led to low enrollment and to financial difficulties. His son, John Berrien Lindsley, became the university's president when it reopened in 1855.

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