Ezra Stiles (105)

Elected to the revived American Philosophical Society.

Ezra Stiles (29 November 1727–8 May 1795) was a minister and educator, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Stiles was born in North Haven, Connecticut, the namesake of his father, an “old light” minister. Stiles grew up only knowing his father’s second wife, Esther, because his own mother, Kezia, died shortly after giving birth to him. His formal education began with his entrance into Yale College in 1742, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1746 followed by a master’s degree in 1749 as well as a license to preach that same year. He continued as a tutor at Yale until 1755 before accepting a pastorship from Newport’s Second Congregational Church. Like many before him, Rhode Island’s lax attitude towards religious heterodoxy allowed Stiles to cultivate a doctrinal moderation better suited for him. With his new-found stability, he married Elizabeth Hubbard in 1757 and then spent nearly two decades following his intellectual pursuits, including a rich correspondence with Benjamin Franklin. Peace was not to last; his wife’s death in 1775 proved only a  precursor to the outbreak of the American Revolution. The arrival of British warships on Newport waters sent Stiles and his eight children to Dighton, Massachusetts. Change came again in 1777 when he accepted the presidency at his alma mater in what proved his last move. Following the war, Yale gained regained its footing through the herculean efforts of Stiles to implement substantive changes including an updated curriculum, expanded subject areas, and higher standards for grading. His modernizing efforts, combined with his effective diplomacy, healed a festering riff between the college and the state of Connecticut which brought in much needed revenues that helped Yale regain its financial footing after the instability of the war years. In 1782 he remarried, a union that he enjoyed for over a decade before dying after a short illness at the age of sixty-seven. (PI, DNB)