Benjamin Rush Rhees


Rev. Benjamin Rush Rhees was the third president of the University of Rochester, serving from 1900 to 1935.

Education

Rhees, great-grandson of radical Baptist minister Morgan John Rhys, earned his undergraduate degrees from Amherst College where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi. He graduated from the Hartford Theological Seminary and was ordained a Baptist minister.

President of the University of Rochester

He served in the position from 1900 to 1935. When he arrived at the University, it had been without a president for four years.
Under his tenure, George Eastman became a donor to the University, contributing in the largest capacity the University had seen. The Eastman School of Music was begun during Rhees' tenure, as was the University's medical center and the College for Women. Also during his tenure the Institute of Optics, the first such entity in the New World, was founded in 1929. Additionally, Rhees' administration was responsible for moving the campus from Prince Street to its current home on the River Campus, with a groundbreaking in 1927.
Rush Rhees Library, the main academic library of the University of Rochester, established in 1930 was named after him, as during his tenure, the school went from a small college to a research university.

Family

Rhees and his wife Harriet Chapin Seelye were the parents of Rush Rhees, a Wittgenstein scholar and one of the philosopher's literary executors.