the University of Chicago
A Centennial View
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The French Mission passing Foster Hall, May 5, 1917. In a display of loyalty to the French during World War I President Judson and Martin A. Ryerson escort René Viviani, former premier of France, and Marshal Joseph-Jacques-Cesaire Joffre from the President's House to a luncheon in Hutchinson Commons. |
Harry Pratt Judson
(1849-1927)
The year 1916 also saw $5.3
million raised by the Judson administration for a new medical school and
hospital, as well as the groundbreaking for a theological building. Unfortunately,
the world war intervened and delayed these and other plans, which were
not taken up again until the 1920s. Judson enthusiastically supported
efforts to aid the war work. Students and faculty who did not enlist in
the military, the ambulance corps, the Red Cross, or the YMCA were encouraged
to drill on the University's athletic field. Faculty members used their
special skills in military or homefront activities, including cryptography
for U.S. Military Intelligence, economic consulting for the U.S. Shipping
Board, and scientific work for the National Research Council. Judson himself
served on the draft board for northern Illinois, and in 1918 he visited
Persia with the American-Persian Relief Commission, which aided Syrian
and Armenian refugees who fled the Turkish and Russian armies.
Judson retired in 1923 at the age of 73, assured that the University was on sound financial footing and that its future was secured.