View source for Samuel Wesley Stratton

{{Short description|American academic administrator (1861–1931)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Samuel W. Stratton
| image               = File:Samuel W Stratton 1922 Harris & Ewing extract.png
| caption             = MIT presidential portrait, 1922
| order               = 8th
| title               = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| term_start          = {{start date|1923|01|01}}
| term_end            = {{end date|1930|01|30}}
| predecessor         = [[Elihu Thomson]] {{small|(acting)}}
| successor           = [[Karl Taylor Compton]]
| order1              = 1st
| title1              = Director of the [[National Bureau of Standards]]
| term_start1         = {{start date|1901|03|11}}
| term_end1           = {{end date|1922|12|31}}
| president1          = {{ublist|[[William McKinley]]|[[Theodore Roosevelt]]|[[William Howard Taft]]|[[Woodrow Wilson]]|[[Warren G. Harding]]}}
| predecessor1        = 
| successor1          = [[George K. Burgess]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1861|7|18}}
| birth_place         = [[Litchfield, Illinois]], US
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1931|10|18|1861|7|18}}
| death_place         = [[Boston]], Massachusetts, US
| resting_place       = Mountain View Cemetery, [[Altadena, California]]
| alma_mater          = [[University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign|Illinois Industrial University at Urbana]]
| module              = {{Infobox academic | child=yes
  | discipline        = Physics
  | workplaces        = {{ublist|[[University of Chicago]]}}
  | academic_advisors = 
  | doctoral_students = 
  | notable_students  = 
  | known_for         = 
  | influences        = 
  | influenced        = 
  | awards            = {{ublist|[[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1912)|[[Public Welfare Medal]] (1917)}}
  }}
}}

'''Samuel Wesley Stratton''' (July 18, 1861 – October 18, 1931) was an administrator in the American government, physicist, and educator. A physicist by training, Stratton proposed the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|U.S. Bureau of Standards]] and was appointed its first director by [[Theodore Roosevelt|President Theodore Roosevelt]]. In 1923, he moved to Boston to become the eighth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a position he held for seven years.

== Life and work ==
Stratton was born on farm in [[Litchfield, Illinois]] on July 18, 1861. In his youth he kept farm machinery in repair and worked as a mechanic and carpenter. He worked his way through [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|Illinois Industrial University at Urbana]] (later the University of Illinois), receiving his bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering in 1884. He became an instructor in mathematics and physics following his graduation, and in 1889, when Physics department head Theodore B. Comstock, Professor of Mining Engineering and Physics, inexplicably failed to return to campus after the summer vacation, Stratton was appointed head<ref name="CenturyofPhysics">{{cite journal |url=https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/48722 |title=A Century of Physics at the University of Illinois: A talk given before the History of Science Society in December 1967 |first=Gerald Marks |last=Almy |date=December 1967 |access-date=June 5, 2017 |journal=University of Illinois}}</ref> of the Department of Physics by regent [[Selim Peabody|Selim Hobart Peabody]]. As Physics head, Stratton organized a formal curriculum in electrical engineering, which was taught in the Physics Department until a separate department of electrical engineering was established in 1898.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/14488 |title=A History of the College of Engineering of the University of Illinois 1868-1945. Part I |last1=Baker |first1=Ira Osborn |last2=King |first2=Everett E. |location=Urbana, Illinois |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |year=1947 |access-date=June 5, 2017}}</ref> Stratton moved to the [[University of Chicago]] in 1892 as Assistant Professor of Physics, then Associate Professor in 1895 and Professor in 1898.

Stratton served in the [[Illinois Naval Militia]] from 1895, as a lieutenant in the Navy in the [[Spanish–American War]], and from 1904 to 1912 served as commander in charge of the [[Naval militia|Naval Militia]] in the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]].
[[File:Director Stratton in the Evening Star, 1901.jpg|thumb|left|Dr. Stratton in the Evening Star, 1901]]
In 1899 he was asked to head the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]]'s Office of Weights and Measures, where he developed the plan for the establishment of a bureau of standards. He won the support for his plans from Secretary of the Treasury [[Lyman J. Gage]] and in March 1901, President [[William McKinley]] appointed him the first director of the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|National Bureau of Standards]]. He served until 1923. Under his leadership it grew from 24 to 900 employees scattered over 14 buildings. His operation was designed to recruit recent college graduates, train them, and feed them into private industry and its higher salaries. His team was called "lowest-paid corps of first-rank scientists ever assembled by any government."<ref name="Time">{{cite news |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,715909,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222142934/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,715909,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 22, 2008 |title=Science: Stratton and Edison |date=July 25, 1923 |access-date=December 25, 2009 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The Bureau worked hand in glove with industry to undertake research that the private sector required but could not finance itself.

In 1904, he was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1904&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-06-28|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

He was awarded the [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] of [[The Franklin Institute]] in 1912. In 1917 Stratton was awarded the [[Public Welfare Medal]] from the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=PublicWelfare>{{cite web |title=Public Welfare Award |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_pwm |publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]] |accessdate=February 14, 2011}}</ref> In 1922, he was elected an Honorary Member of [[Optica (society)|The Optical Society]].

His boss, then Secretary of Commerce (later President) [[Herbert Hoover]] had used the occasion of Stratton's departure from government service as an opportunity to bemoan the low salaries paid to government scientists.<ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{cite news |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0DE3DA1E3EEE3ABC4A52DFB6678389639EDE |title=Elect Dr. Stratton President of M.I.T. |date=October 12, 1922 |accessdate=December 20, 2009 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[File:Samuel Wesley Stratton, 1905.jpg|thumb|Stratton in 1905]]
[[File:Delegates to the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory.jpg|thumb|Stratton at the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at [[Mount Wilson Observatory]], 1910]]
[[File:1920 Samuel Wesley Stratton.jpg|thumb|[[Autochrome]] by [[Auguste Léon]], 1920]]
Note that the [[Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology#Stratton Student Center (1968)|Stratton Student Center]] on the MIT campus is dedicated to a different former president of MIT, [[Julius Adams Stratton]].

In January 1923 he became the eighth president of [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|M.I.T.]] and served for seven years. In his inaugural address he said: "The terms pure and applied science have not the same distinction as formerly. The same men, methods and equipment are involved in getting at the facts, whether they are needed in solving problems in industry or in extending our knowledge of principles. There are few cases of the latter that do not find immediate application." Tying education to industry, he said that industry that had once been slow to seize upon scientific advances was now demanding them.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1923/06/12/archives/mit-inaugurates-stratton-as-head-new-executive-in-address-stresses.html |title=M.I.T. Inaugurates Stratton as Head |date=June 12, 1923 |accessdate=December 19, 2009 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> As recounted by ''Time'' magazine, "he demonstrated the economic wisdom of generous support for research in pure science. He said that the automotive industry must find a substitute for gasoline, on which the elder Edison commented that the electric storage battery has already filled the bill. Edison looks for all transportation and industry to be electrified."<ref name="Time" />

In 1927, he served as one of three members as an Advisory Committee to Massachusetts Governor [[Alvan T. Fuller]], along with President [[Abbott Lawrence Lowell]] of Harvard and Probate Judge [[Robert Grant (novelist)|Robert Grant]]. They were tasked with reviewing the trial of [[Sacco and Vanzetti]] to determine whether the trial had been fair.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1927/06/02/archives/appoints-advisers-for-sacco-inquiry-fuller-picks-exjudge-grant.html |title=Appoints Advisers for Sacco Inquiry |date=June 2, 1927 |accessdate=January 6, 2010 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Stratton, the one member who was not a [[Boston Brahmin]], maintained the lowest public profile of the three committee members and hardly spoke during its hearings.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bruce |last=Watson |title=Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind |location=New York |publisher=Viking |year=2007 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/saccovanzettimen00wats/page/311 311–3] |isbn=978-0670063536 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/saccovanzettimen00wats/page/311 }}</ref>
[[File:Samuel Wesley Stratton.jpg|thumb|Stratton in 1918]]
Upon his retirement in 1930 he became the first chairman of the MIT Corporation under a new plan of organization that he had devised. A lifelong bachelor, Stratton belonged to numerous private clubs. The carpentry he learned in his youth remained a lifelong hobby.

France made him a Chevalier of the [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honor]] in 1909, and he received honorary degrees from the [[University of Cambridge]] and [[Yale University]] among others.<ref name="query.nytimes.com"/>

On October 18, 1931, he died of heart disease at his home in [[Back Bay, Boston|Boston's Back Bay]] while dictating a tribute to his friend [[Thomas Edison]], who died earlier in the day.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/10/19/archives/dr-sw-stratton-educator-is-dead-former-president-of-mit-succumbs.html |title=Dr. S.W. Stratton, Educator, is Dead |date=October 19, 1931 |access-date=December 18, 2009 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in [[Altadena, California]].<ref name="lat-1931oct25">{{cite news |url=https://latimes.newspapers.com/image/380605662/ |title=Obituary: Stratton |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=October 25, 1931 |page=22 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |url-access=subscription |quote=Private funeral services for Dr. Samuel Wesley Stratton. who passed away October 18 in Boston, Mass., will be held at 1 p.m. Monday at the grave in Mountain View Cemetery, Pasadena. |id={{ProQuest|162497032}}}}</ref>

The [[United States Department of Commerce|Commerce Department's]] [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]], formerly the National Bureau of Standards, has presented the [[Samuel Wesley Stratton Award]] annually since 1962 for outstanding scientific or engineering achievements in support of the objectives of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
* ''New York Times'': [https://www.nytimes.com/1931/10/19/archives/dr-sw-stratton-educator-is-dead-former-president-of-mit-succumbs.html "Dr. S.W. stratton, Educaor, is Dead," October 19, 1931], accessed Dec 18, 2009
* MIT: [http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/biographies/s-stratton.html "SAMUEL WESLEY STRATTON, 1861-1931"], accessed Dec 21, 2009
* MIT: [http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/inaugurations/s-stratton.html "Stratton: Inaugural Address], accessed Dec. 22, 2009

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== External links ==
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{{S-start}}
{{s-gov}}
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|order=1st|title=Director of the [[National Bureau of Standards]]|years=1901 – 1922}}
{{s-aft|after=[[George K. Burgess]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ernest Fox Nichols]]}}
{{s-ttl|order=8th|title=President of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]|years=1923 – 1930}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Karl Taylor Compton]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{MIT presidents}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton, Samuel Wesley}}
[[Category:1861 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
[[Category:Illinois Industrial University alumni]]
[[Category:NIST Directors]]
[[Category:People from Litchfield, Illinois]]
[[Category:United States Coast and Geodetic Survey personnel]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]