Missouri’s Most Interesting Man

April 16, 1857: One of the nation’s “smartest and most interesting people” was born on a farm near Fayette.

Henry Smith Pritchett is one of the most interesting people ever to come from Missouri. A brilliant world traveler and true Renaissance man, Pritchett spent his lifetime on a quest for knowledge – and helping other people. He was an astronomer, philosopher, mathematician, university president, and philanthropist. Pritchett’s legacy lives on not only in mid-Missouri, but also in the halls of elite universities across the United States.

The Pritchett Family

Henry Smith Pritchett had the good fortune of being born to a brilliant professor and college president in Fayette in 1857. Carr Waller Pritchett was the first president of the Pritchett School Institute (later College) and the director of the Morrison Observatory. Both facilities were based in Glasgow, Missouri, which is where the family lived. Carr was also the former president of Central College, which is now Central Methodist University.

But the family intellect ran deep in the family. Carr’s nephew, Henry C. Pritchett, was the fourth president of Sam Houston State University. Another nephew, Joseph L. Pritchett, was a Professor of Mathematics at Sam Houston State. Pritchett Field at the university is named after him.

Henry’s upbringing was one of constant learning and deep conversations with his family and other teachers at the college. He was exposed to diverse topics and proved himself as a brilliant academician when he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Pritchett College at at the age of 18. From there, he was off to see the world, figuratively and literally.

Seeing the World

Henry Pritchett left mid-Missouri to study at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC for two years. During his time at the military facility, he became an assistant astronomer, which paved the way for him to return to Glasgow to teach. In 1880, he taught astronomy at the Morrison Observatory under the direction of his father. That allowed him other opportunities to expand his resume by working as an astronomer on a Venus tracking expedition in New Zealand in 1882.

Rising the Ranks

When Pritchett returned from his expedition tracking Venus, he accepted a teaching position at Washington University in St. Louis. He helped develop the astronomy department at the elite college, while also taking on the duties of teaching mathematics. This was no easy task as he was teaching the brightest scientific minds of the late 1800s at the university.

Even though he was already a working professor at a top-tier university, Pritchett decided to pursue even more education. He left St. Louis to attain a PhD in Germany at the University of Munich. But once again, that was just the beginning of the next phase of education, not the end goal. After attaining the doctoral degree, he then worked at the Superintendent of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey and as selected to be a member of the American Philosophic Society.

MIT President

At the age of 43, he was named the fifth president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He held that position from 1900 to 1906. It was during this era that MIT became a research powerhouse. Pritchett led the effort to add more labs to the university and expand study areas to move MIT to become one of the top technology universities in the world. He told faculty that he understood the value of research during his time in Germany, and this move was the next step in moving the university forward.

The Carnegie Years

Pritchett was always looking for new ways to expand his intellect and influence, so when Andrew Carnegie came calling in 1906, it was time to move to something bigger. Pritchett had befriended Carnegie years earlier at a luncheon hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt. Carnegie was so impressed with Pritchett that when he decided to begin the foundation, Carnegie persuaded Pritchett to leave MIT to run the facility. Thus, Henry Pritchett was named the first president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching where he stayed until his retirement in 1930.

Legacy

Henry Smith Pritchett died in 1939 at the age of 82. He is regarded as one of America’s foremost intellectuals and visionaries. The Pritchett Lounge at MIT is named in his honor and the Pritchett family name is also prevalent at locations across the state of Missouri, including on the campus of Central Methodist University. The Pritchett Trail in the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is also named in honor of his wife, Eva Pritchett. There is even a Pritchett Cemetery still located in Warren County near Wright City, close to where many of the extended family lived.