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 hen Hardaway Hunt Dinwiddie came to the
tiny Agricultural and mechanical College of Texas in 1879 as a
35-year-old professor of physics and chemistry, he found a school
in disarray, searching for a purpose. It was a Land Grant
school with a mandate to teach agriculture and the mechanical
arts. Instead, it provided a purely classical education and
had ever hired a professor of agriculture. The Board of
Directors (Texas Aggie, June 1995) had relieved
President Gathright and his entire faculty of their duties.
Dinwidddie came to Texas A&M at the request of the new
president: his old friend, classmate at Virginia Military
Institute, and co-founder of the Texas Military Academy, John
Garland James. His job—to help reorganize the college.
Dinwiddie was born October 25, 1844 at
Lynchburg, Virginia. He entered Virginia Military Academy in
1862 and participated in the battle of New market (May 11,
1864). He graduated from V.M.I. in 1867 as Valedictorian and
Adjutant. In 1868 he came to Bastrop, Texas to help his
friend James establish the Texas Military Institute and to serve
on the faculty as professor of physics and chemistry.
He was extremely popular with students as well
respected by members of the faculty. When the Board of directors
voted to abolish the office of the president (July 19, 1883) in
favor of a chairman of the faculty (Texas Aggie, December
2000), his colleagues elected him to the position. Dinwiddie
worked tirelessly to move Texas A&M toward the purpose for
which it had been established.
With the establishment of the University of
Texas at Austin in 1883, Texas A&M could now concentrate on
technical education. Indeed, Dinwiddie strongly supported the
establishment of the university because it would free Texas
A&M from having to provide a more classically oriented
curriculum.
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As a chemist, he was better equipped than his
predecessors to move Texas A&M towards the provisions and
goals of the Morrill Land Grant Act (July 2, 1862).
Dinwiddie immediately
began changing the focus of academics. He strengthened and
greatly improved the faculty. He brought in a new processor
of engineering and hired a professor of agriculture for the fall
of 1883. The curriculum was improved and modernized.
He realized that if the school were to survive, it must produce
real value for the citizens of Texas.
In addition to improving academics at the school,
Dinwiddie used his keen political awareness and public relations
abilities to improve the image of the school. This was no
easy task. There were many critics of the school, with more
than a few demanding that it be combined with the
university. The majority of Texans in the 1880s were farmers
and he went to them for support. He very nearly garnered a
share of the University Fund, an arrangement that, sadly, would
not take place until the 1930s. Dinwiddie had the school
moving forward.
Unfortunately for Texas A&M, the
43-year-old Dinwiddie died of pneumonia on December 11,
1887. He had served the school well at a particularly
critical time. We may never know just how crucial his role
was in keeping the school open. Those living at the time,
however, were well aware of his importance. As one of the
state's leading journals wrote on his death: "The
college is his monument. He needs no other."
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