Thomas Van Scoy
| Thomas Van Scoy | |
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Van Scoy around 1884
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| 6th President of Willamette University |
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In office 1880–1891 |
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| Preceded by | Charles E. Lambert |
| Succeeded by | George Whitaker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 13, 1848 White County, Indiana |
| Died | February 11, 1901 (aged 52) Helena, Montana |
| Spouse(s) | Jennie E. Thomas Jessie Eastham |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University |
| Profession | Educator, minister |
| Willamette University info | |
Thomas Van Scoy (February 13, 1848 – February 11, 1901) was an American minister and educator in Indiana, Oregon, and Montana. A Methodist, he served as the sixth president of Willamette University and as president of the now defunct Portland University. He was also president of Montana Wesleyan University and served in the militia at the end of the American Civil War.
Thomas Van Scoy was born in White County, Indiana, to William Van Scoy and his wife Mary (née Channel) on February 13, 1848. Thomas was the youngest of fourteen children in the family. Their father was a farmer from what became West Virginia, while their mother was from Ohio. In 1855, the family moved to Iowa where they continued to farm. Van Scoy’s parents and the three youngest children in the family returned to the Indiana farm in 1860 after difficult times in Iowa. In Indiana, Van Scoy received his education in the local schools before joining the militia in 1865 during the American Civil War. He served one year in Company I of the Indiana Volunteers, posted as a guard in the Shenandoah Valley.
After leaving the infantry in 1866, he enrolled at a school in Brookston, Indiana, for a few months and then at the Battle Ground Collegiate Institute. Van Scoy spent two years at the institute and while in school was also a school teacher. He then enrolled at Brookston Academy where he spent one year before entering Northwestern University in neighboring Illinois where he was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. Following two-years of study, he left to take the position of principal at Brookston, but resigned there three years later to return to college. In 1875, he graduated from Northwestern (later inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society) and began working as a minister in Rensselaer, Indiana, for the Methodist Episcopal Church. On September 22, 1875, he married Jennie E. Thomas. After three years he left to continue his education at the Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois, where he graduated in 1879.
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