Garrett Droppers Biography


	This biography appears on pages 917-918 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	GARRETT DROPPERS, B. A., president of the South Dakota State 
University, at Vermilion, is a native of the city of Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin, where he was born on the 12th of April, 1860, being a son of 
John Dirk and Gertrude (Boyink) Droppers. He was graduated in the high 
school of his native city and was thereafter assistant instructor in 
Latin and history in the same school for a period of five years, at the 
expiration of which he entered Harvard College, where he was graduated 
as a member of the class of 1886, receiving his Bachelor's degree the 
following year. While at Harvard he devoted his attention principally 
to the subject of economics, also taking courses in German and 
philosophy. Of his work at this time President Droppers spoke as 
follows to the representative of this publication: "I have always taken 
as much interest in the men who taught certain subjects as I have in 
the subjects themselves, and I remember with especial pleasure at 
Harvard Professor Dunbar, now deceased, who was for that time the most 
learned of American economists; Professor William James, who is 
unquestionably the most original of American psychologists; and 
Professor Royce, one of the most lucid philosophical writers in the 
country." After his graduation Professor Droppers was engaged in 
teaching for one year in the public schools of Orange, New Jersey, and 
Westchester, New York. Then was presented an opportunity for him to go 
to Germany, where he passed a year in the University of Berlin, under 
the well known economists, Wagner and Schooller. He was urged by 
Harvard professors to thus prosecute his study of economics in Germany, 
because it was thought expedient and the part of wisdom for him to 
secure a different economic point of view from the one existing in 
America. Of the admonition thus followed out he has spoken as follows: 
"I think this advice was sound. I am indebted to the German economists 
for what I consider to be many original economic conceptions, 
especially their doctrine that there are utilities belonging to society 
as a whole as well as to the individual. This point of view as taken by 
the German economists is reinforced in German universities with 
wonderful vigor and penetration."  

	Just at the close of his first year in Germany, Professor 
Droppers' received through Harvard University the offer of the chair of 
political economy and finance in the University of Tokyo, Japan. He 
accepted this offer and prepared at once to enter upon his new work, 
leaving Germany in September, 1889, and returning to the United States. 
At Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 11th of September, of that year, he 
was united in marriage to Miss Cora Augusta Rand, of Cambridge, and 
immediately afterward departed, in company with his bride, for Tokyo, 
reaching his destination the last of October, 1889, and that he 
profited by the experience in the Orient is manifest from the following 
statements made by him apropos of his sojourn and work in that section 
of the world: "I am very glad that I had an opportunity of living in 
Japan and thus gaining a comprehension of a life essentially different 
from our own. It taught me to sympathize with the sensibilities of a 
weaker nation. If Americans were not so bound up in their own interests 
they would, I think, prove a much greater power for good in the world 
than they are." During the last five years of his stay in Japan 
Professor Droppers was secretary of the Asiatic Society of Japan, a 
well-known organization dating its inception back more than a quarter 
of a century. While there he was also an irregular correspondent for 
the New York Nation; contributed several valuable articles to the 
Transactions of the Asiatic Society, and also wrote articles on the 
economic phases of Japan for various periodicals. In 1896 he wrote a 
report on the currency of Japan for the United States government, this 
contribution being published in the consular reports for that year. The 
subject is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science; of the American Academy of Science, in Philadelphia; and of 
the American Economic Association. Fraternally, he is affiliated with 
the Masonic order, of which noble and time-honored organization he is 
most appreciative, having attained the chivalric degree in Vermilion 
Commandery, No. 16, Knights Templar, in Vermilion, and being also a 
member of El Riad Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine, in Sioux Falls.  

	In December, 1898, Professor Droppers received an offer from the 
regents of South Dakota to accept the presidency of the State 
University and he forthwith left Japan and came to Vermillion to 
canvass the situation, accepting the position a few days after his 
arrival, and of his work as chief executive of the institution, its 
advancement and high standing offers the best testimony.  

	Mr. Droppers lost his first wife in Japan August 17, 1896. He 
married again, a sister of his former wife, Jean Tewkesbery Rand, in 
Cambridge, September 3, 1897, returning to Japan for an additional year 
immediately after his marriage. There were no children by the first 
marriage. Since his second marriage there have been three children 
born, Seton Rand, August 12, 1898; Cora Rand, August 3, 1900, and 
Elizabeth Rand, January 22, 1904. Prof. Droppers tries to be 
independent in politics, but holds most emphatically to the program 
that the cure for many of our present economic evils is the government 
ownership of public utilities. He affiliates with the Unitarian church.