FAIRCHILD, George Thompson [1838-1901] -- American educator

He was born at Brownhelm, Lorain county, Ohio, Oct, 6, 1838; son of Grandison and Nancy (Harris) Fairchild, who removed to Brownhelm from Stockbridge, Mass., in 1818; and grandson of Daniel and Mary (Buttles) Fairchild, and of William Henry and Mary (Plumb) Harris.

He graduated at Oberlin college in 1862, and in the department of theology in 1865. He was instructor in the Michigan agricultural college, 1865-66; professor of English literature, 1866-79, and president of the Kansas state agricultural college, 1879-97. He was ordained a Congregational minister in 1871. At the session of the National educational association at Saratoga, N.Y., in 1885, he was made a member of the National council of education, and appointed a member of the committee on technological education, to which membership he was re-elected in 1891, and again in 1898. At the meeting in Chicago in 1887 he was made president of the industrial section, and in 1888, at San Francisco, was re-elected to the same position.

In 1886 the faculty of the Kansas state agricultural college presented him with a life directorship in the National educational association.

One of his brothers, James Harris Fairchild, was for twenty-one years president of Oberlin college, and another brother, Edward Henry Fairchild, was for twenty years president of Berea college, Kentucky.

President Fairchild was from 1879 to 1897 ex officio member of the Kansas state board of education. He was twice Vice-president and once president of the American association of agricultural colleges and experiment stations. In 1893 he was a member of the advisory committee of the agricultural congress at the World's Columbian exposition. In 1898 he accepted the chair of English literature in Berea college, Kentucky, with the title of vice-president. He received from Oberlin the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1893.

He published addresses in the Proceedings of the National educational association and of the Association of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and in agricultural reports of four states, and is the author of "Rural Wealth and Welfare" (1899).

He died in Columbus, Ohio, March 16, 1901.