Frank Strong has been chancellor of the University of Kansas since August, 1902. Mr. Strong was educated as a lawyer, but soon turned to school work, and is not only one of the recognized leaders in executive administration of school affairs but a scholar and authority in the field of history.
Chancellor Strong was born at Venice, New York, August 5, 1859, a son of John Butler and Mary (Foote) Strong. He spent part of his early life on a farm. His father was for many years internal revenue collector at Auburn, New York, Frank Strong attended the public schools, the Auburn, New York, High School, and in 1884 graduated with the degree of A. B. from Yale College. He spent one year in the Yale Law School, was admitted to the bar at Rochester, New York, in 1886, and in the same year moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he practiced as an attorney at law until 1888.
From 1888 until 1902 Mr. Strong was principal of the high school of St. Joseph, Missouri. He then became superintendent of schools of Lincoln, Nebraska, where he remained until 1905. In the meantime, in 1893, he received the degree of Master of Arts from Yale University. He was a post-graduate student at Yale from 1895 to 1897, and in the latter year was given the degree Doctor of Philosophy. From 1897 to 1899 he was lecturer in history in the Yale Graduate School. Doctor Strong became president of the University of Oregon in 1899 and remained there until 1902 when he accepted the call to the chancellorship of the University of Kansas.
In 1909 he was given the degree LL. D. by Baker University, the University of Oregon, and the Kansas State Agricultural College. He is a member of the National Council of Education, of the National Educational Association, of the National Association of State Universities, of which he was president in 1916, of the Association of American Universities and in 1910 was president of the Kansas State Teachers’ Association. He is also a member of the board of education of the Northern Baptist Convention and a member of the State Board of Education of Kansas.
Doctor Strong is well known as an author of various historical works. He wrote the “Life of Benjamin Franklin” used in the courses of the University Association of Chicago, a “Forgotten Danger to the New England Colonies,” contained in the annual report of the American Historical Association for 1898, “Cromwell’s West Indian Expedition of 1654-55,” published in the American Historical Review of 1899, “Government of the American People,” published in 1901. He had also contributed articles on various topics to magazines.
Doctor Strong is a Baptist, a Scottish Rite Mason, and had membership in several college fraternities. On June 24, 1890, he married Miss Mary Evelyn Ransom, of St. Joseph, Missouri. They have two living children: Mary Evelyn and Frank R.