Alexander Grant Ruthven


Alexander Grant Ruthven was the President of the University of Michigan from 1929 to 1951.

Biography

Alexander Grant Ruthven was born in 1882 in Hull, Iowa. He graduated from Morningside College in 1903. In 1906, he received a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Michigan. He worked as a professor, director of the University Museum, and Dean. He became the President in 1929. As such, he promoted a corporate administrative structure. He also approved of police raids against bootleggers at fraternities. He retired in 1951, and died in 1971. He is buried at Forest Hill Cemetery which is adjacent to the university.
The work of Ruthven on the familiar garter snakes, published in 1908, may be regarded as founding an essentially new school of herpetology in the United States. This was a revision of a genus, carried out by the examination of large numbers of specimens, and evaluated largely in geographic terms. Ruthven attracted many students of reptiles to the University of Michigan, his most brilliant pupils being Frank N. Blanchard and Helen T. Gaige. Ruthven described and named 16 new species of reptiles, including three with Gaige.
Ruthven and his family visited Frankfort, Michigan, from Ann Arbor in 1929 as guests of the Dean of the Dental School, who owned a cottage on Crystal Lake. While in Frankfort, Ruthven fell in love with the area. He purchased a piece of property from the railroad. At that time, the property was believed to be 24 acres. The property was vacant and proved to be an excellent place to build stables, a bunkhouse, and adequate riding facilities with pasture land. The Ruthvens and other Ann Arbor friends were equestrians and brought their horses up from Ann Arbor via train—or actually rode them the entire 250 or so miles—every summer. Soon it was determined that there was not sufficient pasture land, so Ruthven purchased the property to the north, on the other side of George Street. This property extended from M-22 to Lake Michigan. The Ruthvens built a small barn for their Morgan stallion, a barn which still stands today on the corner of George Street and Michigan Avenue. The property was named The Rolling R Ranch. The main house was completed in 1932. Stables were built, and what is now called “the white house” was the bunkhouse for the stable boys. The main house included five bedrooms, because Ruthven hosted the U of M regents in the summertime. As such, there were separate bathrooms, one for men and one for women.
The Ruthvens had three children: Kathryn, Peter, and Bryant. When Ruthven and his wife died, the property was passed on to Bryant and his wife, Beatrice Ruthven. The couple lived there from 1972 to 1989. During this time period, they converted “the bunkhouse” or “white house” into a guest cottage. In 1985, Mook, Hook, Good, and Howe—a group from the First Congregational Church in Benzonia—approached Bryant and Beatrice to ask if they would ever consider selling the property for an imagined project which was to become Michigan Shores, a nonprofit co-op for retirees.
Groundbreaking for Michigan Shores took place on September 9, 1990. It opened for residents less than a year later. Bryant and Beatrice themselves moved into Michigan Shores in the year 2000.
NOTE: Many Ann Arborites were charmed with the beauty of the Frankfort area and built their own summer homes there, including Dr. Ruthven’s sister-in-law. The pink art deco house next door to the Ruthvens was built by the Dean of the Medical School, Dr. Furstenberg. Mrs. Canfield, widow of a prominent medical doctor in Ann Arbor, built the house now known as the “King House” and the property where “The Bluffs” stands. In downtown Frankfort, there is no consistency in the naming of the cross streets. For example, it doesn’t go 1st, 2nd, 3rd streets. Instead, what should be 1st street is actually called Michigan Avenue. According to Beatrice Ruthven, when all of the University of Michigan people moved up to Frankfort and built homes on the street, it was referred to as “Michigan Avenue,” and the name stuck.

Legacy

Ruthven is commemorated in the scientific names of seven reptiles: Geophis ruthveni, Holbrookia maculata ruthveni, Lampropeltis ruthveni, Lepidoblepharis ruthveni, Macropholidus ruthveni,
Masticophis schotti ruthveni, and Pituophis ruthveni.

Writings