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Charles Van Hise

Quarter-length portrait of Charles Van Hise. View the original source document: WHI 33714

b. Rock County, 1857, Wisconsin
d. Milwaukee, Wisconsin November 1918

Charles Richard Van Hise was a Professor, geologist and university president.

Geology

Van Hise graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1879. He worked closely with Professor Roland D. Irving. Van Hise studied the ancient crystalline rocks of Wisconsin for the state geological survey and later for the U.S. Geological Survey.

He joined the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1879. After professor Irving died in 1888, Van Hise succeeded him as the geologist in charge of the Lake Superior Division of the federal survey. Van Hise was the first to point out the economic potential of the Lake Superior region. He soon established his reputation as an authority on pre-Cambrian geologic formations. His achievements were widely recognized, and he was known as an authority on structural and metamorphic geology.

University President

Van Hise was a member of numerous professional and honorary organizations. In 1903, he was chosen as president of the University of Wisconsin. He remained president of the University until he died in 1918.

Van Hise was determined to build a state university that would serve the state and compete academically with other colleges in the U.S. and in Europe. The University expanded into many new fields, enrollment more than doubled and the faculty increased from fewer than 200 to more than 750 under Van Hise's leadership. The graduate school was organized as division with a dean of its own in 1904 and the faculty was encouraged to do research and writing.

Van Hise was an advocate of conservation. He wrote one of the greatest Conservation books of the time, "The Conservation of Natural Resources in the U.S." in 1910. During his tenure as University president, he headed a committee to arbitrate the railroad strike of 1915, participated in a study of the Panama Canal landslides of 1915 and at his death was active in movements leading toward an organization capable of maintaining world peace.

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Dict. Amer. Biog.; M. Curti and V. Carstensen, Univ. of Wis. (2 vols., Madison, 1949); Bull. Geological Soc. Amer., 31 (1920), pp. 100-110; C. R. Van Hise Correspondence.Dictionary of Wisconsin biography